Salticids and Fly Sex – A good day

All photos taken at the Botetourt Gardens in Norfolk, VA with a Canon 5d Mark II, Canon mp-e65mm lens, and the Canon mt-24 ex lights, with the Gary Fong diffusers plus a few custom modifications. New diffusion is absolutely wonderful.

Click any image to see larger size.

This female salticid was found jumping around the bark of a birch tree. This first photo is one of the best I’ve taken in a long time. I love the Gary Fong diffusers! Such great, soft light. I especially like the reflection in her eyes.

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Note how well she blends in, camouflage is a powerful tool for a hunter.
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Here is a Hentz Jumper — I see these everywhere.

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And a couple of flies doing what flies to best (other than being eaten by spiders)

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Short set from the Chesapeake Arboretum

Had a short, successful trip around the gardens at the Chesapeake Arboretum this past weekend. Saw quite a few jumping spiders. I used my new Garry Fong Diffusers on my mt-e4 ex, but I wasn’t as pleased as I had hoped with the amount of diffusion. I’ll need to modify them to work with my previous solution to get what I need.

All photos taken with a Canon 5d Mark II, Canon mp-e 65 lens, and the Canon mt-24 ex flash.

 

The jumpers liked my flash a lot more than I did. I was constantly fending them off.

 

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First Spiders of 2013!

A few spiders & others from Northwest River Park and the Botetourt Gardens in Ghent. Taken with a Canon 5d Mark II, Mp-e 65 lens.

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20130330_IMG_8830Not sure what these are, they were covering a plant. Aphids, maybe?

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Cumberland Island, Georgia January 2013

Last weekend was spent in Cumberland Island, an awesome backpacking destination on the East coast of southern Georgia. The trees are covered in Spanish moss, the night skies are dark and brilliant, wild horses, armadillos, and snakes roam the land, and seashells litter the beach. Definitely one of the coolest places I’ve ever been.

Please click the photos to enlarge — the wordpress resizing program is not very good.

Here’s a self portrait. The bright object at the very top is Jupiter, the constellation Orion is above and to the right of my head, and Sirius is the bright star just to my right.

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This is a spiny orb weaver.

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Here is a short time lapse video of this spider building part of a web.

[youtube width=”853″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdtHQ0yRbw[/youtube]

As mentioned above, the trees were covered in in Spanish moss. While we were there, there was no breeze, everything was still and surreal.

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The horses were not terribly friendly but they didn’t mind us.

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Here’s an HDR from 3 exposures of the above scene.

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M42, the Orion Nebula

I spent a Saturday night down in Medoc, NC with the local amateur astronomy group. Had a wonderful time, despite the cold.

Here is a merged HDR of the Orion Nebula, M42. Three photos, taken a 15, 20, and 25 second exposures, and stacked with  Photomatix Pro. It was taken with my Canon 5d Mark 2, Celestron 8″ Newronian telescope, and the Celestron Cg-5 mount.

Orion Nebula, M42

 

Here is a timelapse of Jupiter, Orion, and Sirius rising from the same location. I’m having trouble getting it to embedd, so here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8CVqU5-UUo

 

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