Fortnightly Challenge - March 19 thru April 1 - Topic: Organic

[dpastern]

That is a whole lot of awesome! Very nice. Some might say that it's a bit centered but I'm secretly fond of centering shots. Would you mind reporting your equipment and settings for this one. I think getting into true macro is going to be in my near future.

Your next pic of the spider is equally impressive.

Thanks! Since this is the entire frame, I could crop into the image somewhat to fix composition if I had to. Technically, yes, the image is too centered and it's one of the weak points of my images imho. Actually, now that I think about it, I think this was taken around 1.4:1, not 2:1 as I stated in my original post. I think it's just a Canon EOS 50mm f1.8 Mark II with 68mm of extension (Kenko tubes). Taken early one morning at around 5.30am (just after dawn). I was able to track down this one particular BBB for around 4 weeks or so. Sadly, she's no longer with us, I suspect she succumbed to a 10 day period of rain (not being able to feed, and cooler temperatures).

I've waited 5 years to get a good 1:1 (or greater) shot of one of these, so I'm stoked with probably a good 50 odd images from a 4 week period

edit: I must be going blind in my old age, I missed the comment on the spider/BBB shot. Yes, I was pretty stoked with this, although I only managed the one shot with this framing as she was very very nervous. I didn't quite get the focal zone quite right

Dave

 

[dpastern]

Here's another shot of the spider/BBB, manually stacked in Photoshop CS2 from 2 shots:

it was quite breezy on this day, so it was very hard to get the shots. Stacking them manually took me around 30 minutes of work.

Dave

 

[Designer Dale]

Ferns growing from a tree limb. Nisqually Delta. On a tripod, but a bit breezy.

EXIF Summary: 1/30s f/8.0 ISO100 Tamron 28-300@249mm

Dale

 

[pdxflint]

Western red cedar



Camera: Nikon D300
Exposure: 1/200
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 80mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: -4/3 EV

 

[macrumormonger]

Continuing teh leaves theme train. Choo choo..

Camera: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure: 0.6
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

 

[JDDavis]

Just saying hi.

 

[JDDavis]

Continuing teh leaves theme train. Choo choo..

Camera: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure: 0.6
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

A little blasted out. Pretty long exposure. I think it would be a nice shot if you angled it to get the railing out and more of the waterfall and maybe not so long an exposure. Where you using a filter? I like what you where going for and the blackness and reflection of the water.

 

[deep diver]

I like the position you caught her in, it's interesting. It looks like she is on the hunt. My feedback would be that the framing of the shot doesn't emphasize that she is on the hunt. Maybe if it was shot from a lower and more to the right angle (and closer) so there would be less background (or less distracting) and a little more focused on her eyes and that same curved position. I don't know...that was just my immediate thought.

Thanks. I completely agree. She was constantly on the move. (She has never cooperated with getting her picture taken). I will admit that I did not think of composing it the way you suggest. If I had taken the 10 seconds to reposition myself, she would not still have been on the log.

I do like the feedback. That's the kind of critique I really need at this point in my growth.

 

[iSax1234]

 

[deep diver]

It's only taken with my iPhone but I couldn't resist. It's not a plant, it's a fungus!

I like this a lot. You capture the relationship between the dead wood and the live fungus very well. There is almost an order within the randomness/chaos of the scene. The leaf provides a nice splash of color in an otherwise "beige" image. It's not a bad image for an iPhone. Perhaps its time to get rid of my Nikon.

 

[deep diver]

Just saying hi.

The greens in this one are so rich. Just beautiful. As opposed to the butterfly image, I like that I have to do a little searching to find the bug. It adds to the sense of adventure we find in nature.

 

[deep diver]

Skitty on the prowl.

 

[Designer Dale]

One of the first shots I took with a 70-200 mm f/4L

^^^ Nice use of shallow DOF here. I love the colors and floating feel. Nice.

Tried a different crop. Perhaps a little better?

^^^ I like this one the best. You did a real nice job with the simple color palette. Great effect. Would make a good poster print.

Old limestone building in Provence:

^^^ Love this one! The stones seem to be weak, yet still strong enough to hold together. The color separation between the structure and the bushes and trees is very nice.

Here's another shot of the spider/BBB, manually stacked in Photoshop CS2 from 2 shots:

it was quite breezy on this day, so it was very hard to get the shots. Stacking them manually took me around 30 minutes of work.

Dave

^^^ I think they call these crab spiders. At least in the US. They fascinate me because the employ strong camouflage by simply having little color themselves. They pick up the tones of whatever flower they are on. Makes them effective hunters.

Skitty on the prowl.

^^^ Speaking of camouflage, I converted this shot to grey scale and your kitty almost disappeared!

Nice work, everyone.

Dale

 

[pdxflint]

Forest floor

Very low, filtered light...


Camera: Nikon D300 w/Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 200mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: -5/3 EV

 

[dpastern]

^^^ I think they call these crab spiders. At least in the US. They fascinate me because the employ strong camouflage by simply having little color themselves. They pick up the tones of whatever flower they are on. Makes them effective hunters.

Nice work, everyone.

Dale

They're known by a few names - commonly referred to as crab spiders, but some call them flower spiders cos they like to hide on flowers. thomisiidae is their latin name from memory (I might have spelt it wrong lol). And yes, they have superb camouflage. They've even been known to actually change colour to match the flower that they're hiding on!!! Some scientists are saying that they are very strong in the UV spectrum, and that this attracts bees to them.

Dave

 

[dpastern]

They're known by a few names - commonly referred to as crab spiders, but some call them flower spiders cos they like to hide on flowers. thomisiidae is their latin name from memory (I might have spelt it wrong lol). And yes, they have superb camouflage. They've even been known to actually change colour to match the flower that they're hiding on!!! Some scientists are saying that they are very strong in the UV spectrum, and that this attracts bees to them.

Dave

edit: can a mod delete this post, stupid firefox locked up on me earlier...

 

[Ish]

EXIF Summary: 1/30s f/8.0 ISO100 Tamron 28-300@249mm

Dale

Camera: Nikon D300
Exposure: 1/200
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 80mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: -4/3 EV

Very low, filtered light...


Camera: Nikon D300 w/Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 200mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: -5/3 EV

Love these. Nice contrast between the strength of the trees and the delicacy of the ferns and moss. Are the two of you in 'primitive' mode or something? There's nothing in these shots your friendly neighbourhood dinosaur wouldn't have recognised!

I like this a lot. You capture the relationship between the dead wood and the live fungus very well. There is almost an order within the randomness/chaos of the scene. The leaf provides a nice splash of color in an otherwise "beige" image. It's not a bad image for an iPhone. Perhaps its time to get rid of my Nikon.

Thanks! Better hang on to the Nikon though!

^^^ Love this one! The stones seem to be weak, yet still strong enough to hold together. The color separation between the structure and the bushes and trees is very nice.
Dale

Thank you. I had to either crop right in or get a piece of road in the bottom left hand corner. I could have changed my viewpoint but probably wouldn't have been here to tell the tale! There are a number of these old buildings in Provence, all full of character.



'Discovery' sculpture, Northampton, UK
Commemorating Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the double-helical structure of DNA who was born in Weston Favell, Northampton. The whole sculpture is in the shape of a double-helix but there were too many shoppers around to get a 'postable' shot of the whole thing. I notice there are lights set into the ground around it. Must try to go back one evening.

 

[Designer Dale]

'Discovery' sculpture, Northampton, UK
Commemorating Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the double-helical structure of DNA who was born in Weston Favell, Northampton. The whole sculpture is in the shape of a double-helix but there were too many shoppers around to get a 'postable' shot of the whole thing. I notice there are lights set into the ground around it. Must try to go back one evening.

Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was a British biophysicist, physicist, chemist, biologist and X-ray crystallographer who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite.

Franklin is still best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA. Her data, according to Francis Crick, was "the data we actually used"to formulate Crick and Watson's 1953 hypothesis regarding the structure of DNA Furthermore, unpublished drafts of her papers (written as she was arranging to leave the unsupportive research situation at King's College London) show that she had indeed determined the overall B-form of the DNA helix. However, her work was published third, in the series of three DNA Nature articles, led by the paper of Watson and Crick which only vaguely acknowledged her evidence in support of their hypothesis. The possibility that Franklin played a major role was not revealed until Watson wrote his personal account, The Double Helix in 1968 which subsequently inspired several people to investigate DNA history and Franklin's contribution. The first, Robert Olby's "The Path to the Double Helix", supplied information about original source materials for those that followed. After finishing her portion of the DNA work, Franklin led pioneering work on the tobacco mosaic and polio viruses.

She died at the age of 37 from complications arising from ovarian cancer.

Our dear friends Watson and Crick stood on the shoulders of a pioneering and largely unrecognized woman.

I am not an archeologist...Nor a woman...

Dale

 

[Designer Dale]

Ish: Both pdxflint and I live in the Pacific NorthWest. He's in central Oregon on the coast and I'm a bit inland between Puget Sound and the Mt. Rainier foothills up in Washington State. The entire area from Oregon up through British Columbia, Canada is greener and more primitive than anything I have seen except for the Florida Everglades.

Mine. More of that swamp/bog/reflection/grass thing.

EXIF Summary: 1/13s f/8.0 ISO100 Tamron 28-300@60mm Tripod

Dale

 

[Ish]

Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was a British biophysicist, physicist, chemist, biologist and X-ray crystallographer who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite.

Franklin is still best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA. Her data, according to Francis Crick, was "the data we actually used"to formulate Crick and Watson's 1953 hypothesis regarding the structure of DNA Furthermore, unpublished drafts of her papers (written as she was arranging to leave the unsupportive research situation at King's College London) show that she had indeed determined the overall B-form of the DNA helix. However, her work was published third, in the series of three DNA Nature articles, led by the paper of Watson and Crick which only vaguely acknowledged her evidence in support of their hypothesis. The possibility that Franklin played a major role was not revealed until Watson wrote his personal account, The Double Helix in 1968 which subsequently inspired several people to investigate DNA history and Franklin's contribution. The first, Robert Olby's "The Path to the Double Helix", supplied information about original source materials for those that followed. After finishing her portion of the DNA work, Franklin led pioneering work on the tobacco mosaic and polio viruses.

She died at the age of 37 from complications arising from ovarian cancer.

Our dear friends Watson and Crick stood on the shoulders of a pioneering and largely unrecognized woman.

I am not an archeologist...Nor a woman...

Dale

There was a documentary on the BBC a number of years ago that told the story of the race to discover the shape of the DNA molecule. It told the story of how they discovered it, and I felt that Rosalind Franklin had been treated very unfairly. It came over in that programme (to me, anyway) that not only had they stood on her shoulders, but they had rather trampled her underfoot. It's always the first to publish who get the glory, and unfortunately the work done by everyone else is usually more or less ignored. The big mistake was in not acknowledging her contribution. A joint paper between the three of them would have been a lot more fair. And now we've put the world to rights . . .

 

[JDDavis]

I very much like the whole tone of this image. Nicely done.

 

[deep diver]

^^^ Speaking of camouflage, I converted this shot to grey scale and your kitty almost disappeared!

Dale

Very cool. I didn't think to do that. I like it.

Very low, filtered light...

I like this. It does have a very eerie Jurassic feel to it. I can't find the focal point in this image but that adds to the feel.

Mine. More of that swamp/bog/reflection/grass thing.

I like the arch of the grass and the way the grass and its reflection flow into one another. There is great movement here.

 

[JDDavis]

I know...another flower. A ranunculus that bloomed at the front door. Hopefully this little cold snap on the east coast won't kill them.

 

[deep diver]

I couldn't decide if I liked the color or b&w better. She was playing a little bit of hide & seek with me. I think this image really shows the hunter in her.

 

[Maxxamillian]

I couldn't decide if I liked the color or b&w better. She was playing a little bit of hide & seek with me. I think this image really shows the hunter in her.

What if you cropped the picture down so that the cat's eyes are in a sweet spot (upper left rule of thirds area?). If you could get away with doing this then I think the color version would work better.