First of all welcome to the new Macro-forum and i feel privilleged to be able to work with all these big names in nature photography!
I just returned from a trip to Australia where i had a wonderful time and where i found some of these pretty poisonous Red-backed Spiders (in the garden, the garage, and even...in the bathroom...).
I wish you all a wonderfull 2008 filled with good light!
Jeroen,
Very cool image, nice and sharp. I like the lines as well.
On my monitor the light looks a bit harsh.
What time of day did you photograph this?
Here in Florida we have a little nasty called a Black Widow Spider, looks a lot like the Red-Backed.
I feel that the image would have been stronger if the spider was either facing the camera or if you had been at a 90 degree angle to the him--here the spider is angled away.
Like the composition, dont like the light quality.
flash would have cut down the contrast and helped to manage the harsh light. In many cases you can shade the sunject with your body or better yet clamp a diffuser or card to your tripod to block the light. You can even hold up your shirt to shade it, if you can shoot with one hand, with flash of course. This way you can balance the sunject and the BG with the flash to give you sharpness and open up the shadows.
contrary to others I do like the harsh lighting and the resulting shadows in your image. It provides good definition to your subject and creates a strong contrast to the very fine and extremely soft background.
My only "critique" goes to image composition. I would have placed the spider just a tad lower in the frame without moving it left or right. Try it if you have enough pixels to work with, it should make a difference.
Hey, that could be the one, which escaped from my house? ;)
Not bad a shot, I would prefer to see more of the red pattern on the back and more subdued light.
On the other hand, I am not so sure if they live indoors as long as one keeps one's house clean. :D The only time one was in my house is when my wife brought one in accidentally on a horse rug. They generally prefer to weave their webs low down around any structure, plants, pots, corners of buildings or rubbish piles.I also read somewhere, that they are associated with human habitats, therefore, you will be unlikely to see them while camping in the bush. :)
You ought to see the other cool spiders in our backyards. Huntsman, wolf, trapdoor and net-casting to name a few.
Red-backed Spider
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