Balancing Act - 2

[Steve Maxson]

Last year I was fortunate enough to find a white Crab Spider on a white flower balancing a fly (you can see it here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/69649-Balancing-act ). This year it was a yellow Crab Spider on a yellow flower (Black-eyed Susan). This spider was very intent on feeding and completely ignored my attempts to photograph it. The challenge was to get the eyes of both spider and fly in sharp focus while hand holding. 5D II, MP-E 65 mm at 1X, 1/80, f/16, ISO 400, MT24-EX macro twin flash (diffused), HH. The background is a print of OOF vegetation. I ran nr on the background. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[John Storjohann]

Steve, that's a pretty incredible capture...I don't know what else to say other than nicely done! Composition...your use of DOF...sharpness, color...you nailed it. :cheers:

[Daniel Cadieux]

Cool!! I've just found a crab spider in my front yard flowers...still waiting for it to catch something (I saw it with prey earlier, but not quite as fresh as I'd like!!:bugeyed:) Well done as usual. I love the pollen sprinkled all around.

[Dave Leroy]

Excellent action/behavior shot. Nice composition and I like the flowers petals acting as a nice floor for photo.
Dave

[Jason Stander]

Hi Steve... AWESOME shot... macro, detail, dof, exposure, comp, and yellows are perfect... MIGHTY FINE SHOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:w3

[Brendan Dozier]

Great job on this, Steve! Interesting behavior capture and nice detail, sharpness, IQ & comp. I can see what a challenge it must have been getting both sets of eyes in focus. Just curious on about how many frames it took to get this one?

[Steve Maxson]

QUOTE=Brendan Dozier;706703] Just curious on about how many frames it took to get this one?[/QUOTE]

Hi Brendan. I probably took about a dozen or so frames of this particular pose. There were 3 where both sets of eyes were sharp and this was the best of those. (talk about getting eye strain trying to do this :eek3:)

[Julie Kenward]

Really nice capture, Steve. I'd look at evicting some of the white spots on the front lower area of the flower...other than that...love it!

[Carel v/d Sanden]

Verry good shot.
Beatiful moment.

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks for your comments folks. :S3:

Jules - good catch on the white spots - I should have caught those myself.