Getting Ready for Halloween

[Julie Kenward]

I ran into a Harvestman again...this time at another park hanging off the bushes. I almost ran right into him while trying to photograph some berries. Eeewwww!

Luckily, I saw him before he saw me. :2eyes2:

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8mm
f6.3 @ 1/40th, ISO 400
Manual mode, pattern metering, handheld
Early evening side lighting

[Bob Miller]

Hi Jules....Nicely handled shot. I love the sharpness fading out!The bg is just right!

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hey Jules,

Another cool spider shot............agree with Bob on the focus fade and the BG. Nice diagonals and warm overall color. He (or she) is just a tad off center, for more interest. I really like seeing creative departures from the ROT. I might tone down the center of the branch, which a bit bright..........Oh and BTW, good technique at 1/40th.!

[Julie Brown]

Hi Jules. I like the green tones, and the detail of the leaves and the placement of the spider. Are you dressing the pugs up for Halloween?;) Brady is going to be a bumblebee!

[Julie Kenward]

Julie, I suspect my pugs would leave me if I tried to put a costume on them. I have enough trouble getting them into their harnesses to go to visit the vets! I've always wanted to dress them up but I just can't quite see myself spending the countless hours wrestling them into (and out of) the costumes. I'd LOVE to see the bumblebee in F&F forum when you do it, though!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jules. Nice job HH at 1/40!! Also good sharpness and DOF on your harvestman. In an ideal world it would be nice to see all of those loooong legs, but that's not always easy to pull off with these guys and I think the image works well as is. I like the soft light around your main subject, but you might want to consider toning down the bright areas along the top of the stem and the midvein of the leaf just above the harvestman. I could see cropping a little from the left to reduce more of the bright areas that want to lure my eye and thereby place more emphasis on this cute critter. :)

[Ken Childs]

Hey Jules, it's nice to see you tackling more of these 8 legged critters! Steve has my critique pretty well covered although I would consider cloning out the leg below the leaf in the lower left. Just pretend it ends at the edge of the leaf. :)

[Julie Kenward]

Ken, I was thinking the same thing since I put the image on my desktop. I wanted to keep it all in but it really does get lost at the leaf. Steve, great eye on the vein. I believe I was going to tone down the branch as well as per Jay's suggestion. Thanks everyone!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jules,
Agree with the great advice above......but then I realized that it was you posted another Harvestman/spider/daddy long legs! Is the world going mad???:p Must be the full moon! Tweaks mentioned will take this up a few notches and make this shine.

[Anita Bower]

For me, the spider is an excuse for photographing those beautiful leaves. Love the way they curl and touch. I personally like that one long leg as it seems to be characteristic of these spiders. Is it just my eyes, or is the body of the spider not quite sharp? Nice work with shallow dof.

[Julie Kenward]

Anita, you're right. I still can't figure out how that happened as the leaf and legs behind and in front of the spider is sharp. I might "transplant" another body on this image or try a few sharpening tricks on it.