Orb Weaver and Prey (Fly).

[Daniel Cadieux]

From my backyard. The scene was as is when I first saw it, no kids throwing insects in the web for fun:S3:...I only wish I could have witnessed the fly actually get snared in the web and the subsequent attack. This'll do I guess!

I had to push the depth of field / shutter speed combination (for handholding) a bit more here to get the fly and most of the spider in focus. At 1/80s. and some wind kicking around it was tough to get sharp pictures, but a few came out very nice.

Canon 7D + 100mm f/2.8 macro, aperture priority, evaluative metering, 1/80s., f/8, ISO 800, -0.7 EC, natural light, full-frame at 1:1 magnification ratio.

[Tom Rambaut]

This is pretty cool Daniel - never tried macro, there is a whole new world of photography out there.

[Carel v/d Sanden]

I love it.
Perhaps you had more direction f10-12 may go.
more focus to it.

[jack williamson]

Very good results for hh Daniel. You are doing quite well with your new lens. There is plenty of 'stuff' in focus and sharp, the bg is perfect. I like how the focus fades away through the web in the bg. I read once that the weight of the insects that spiders around the world eat in a 24 hour period equals the weight of the human population, and that in many places there can be as many as 5000 spiders per acre.

Jack

[Bob Miller]

Dan....very nice work for the conditions you describe. I like the way the bg is a nice wash and the fly is in sharp focus. The diagonal composition works for me!

[John Storjohann]

Dan, nicely done...I have to admit though, when I first saw it all I could hear is the voice from the original version of "The Fly" calling out "Help me, help me!" :t3. Nice composition, wonderful color...on this one I do find myself wishing for a little more DOF, but not much..just a touch, to bring more of the spider into focus...the OOF web actually lends a good feeling of depth to the image. You're making good use of the 100mm macro!

[christopher galeski]

nice image,like the BG,and I like the detail in the spider and fly.thanks.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Daniel. An excellent find! I like the clean background, the natural light, the comp, and you have very good sharpness on the fly. I can't help wishing for enough DOF to also get the spider sharp as I think that would put this one well over the top. Under the conditions (hh, wind) you didn't have too many options given your camera settings. One thing you could try in these situations is to back off a little from 1:1 magnification which will automatically gain you more DOF - then you can do some cropping in pp. With a 7D, you can do a fair amount of cropping and still have an outstanding image for web presentation (but I'm sure you already know that :S3:).

[Dave Leroy]

Well done Daniel. I really like the mummified fly and lovely bg. A good suggestion about backing off and then cropping back in.

It is a whole new world out there in macro and in the backyard yet.

Dave

[Daniel Cadieux]

Thanks all! Yep, a whole other world out there. With this new lens I've been having fun trying to get real close to the tiny subjects...so much so that I agree that I should back up a bit in some cases to help with DOF if SS is an issue. Even just a couple of inches would help lots. Thanks for the feedback!:S3:

Jack, interesting tidbit there!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Daniel, yes sometimes with macro there is such a thing as too close! :w3

Considering the conditions and that this was shot HH, I think this is fantastic. More DOF would have been nice but that wasn't in the cards. I particularly like the multiple strands leaving the frame in the LR. Well done! :5

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Daniel,
I think this is excellent......but I do wish for a bit more DOF......you know me.:e3 I need to convince you to whip out the flash to get more DOF! Nice to see you exploring macro!!!:cheers: