Freak my colours!

[bloodhound31]

1. This little guy made me chuckle out loud today. There he was, just darting around on the fence. I squatted down, put the camera up. He stopped, turned and gave me this challenging, yet cheeky look. I love these guys. Such character!

2. Tiny orb weaver about 10mm across

3. Moth. He's so FLUFFY!!!

4. Hmmm...I wonder what's in here?

5. Cricket anyone?

[koputai]

Yep, Jumping Spiders are tops! They seem to have real character.

[Ric]

Great shots Baz

It's always great to have so much happening in the yard, great photo ops only a few metres from the back door.

[dpastern]

Yes, they do (from my vast experience). They have the strongest personalities of all spiders imho.

Good shots Barry!

Dave

[bloodhound31]

Thanks gang! I'm not real happy with the photo quality of these, but the colours and content are just so interesting so I went with it. I think I am becoming a lot more critical of my own work.

Baz.

[dpastern]

#1 is the strongest shot by far. If you can, lasso it in Photoshop and move it more to the right, so it's a far more pleasing composition. #2 is poor composition too from a technical point of view and I don't think much can be done to save the image as is. #3 is too busy, and perhaps a bit too harsh on lighting (something I suck at myself). #4 not interesting enough - Insects/Arachnids like people have their eyes as the focal point of interest. Bum shots generally do not hold people's interest. #5 - nice composition, sharp, but a bit too contrasty and harsh to my eyes.

Your macro shots have improved a fair bit since the last time I was on IIS and that's always a welcome thing to see.

Dave

edit: I re-worked #1 to be more pleasing compositional imho but didn't post it up here as I didn't want to infringe on your copyright without your permission. Let me know if it's OK to post my edited version of your shot.

[bloodhound31]

Thanks Dave! I'd be interested to see what you have come up with. Fire away mate. Critique is always welcome. Without it, we never grow.

Baz.

[dpastern]

Here ya go!

Dave

[bloodhound31]

OK, I see where you are going with this, but I think this composition comes down to personal taste and interpretation. I normally leave blank space in FRONT of a creature for it to move into as you have shown, however because of his posture and direction of his head, I think the other way works better in this case.

Thanks for taking the time and effort mate. You have indeed helped.

Cheers.

Baz.

[dpastern]

:-)

Dave

[bloodhound31]

I'm not the happiest with the composition of a couple of them so here's another one of the green guy that I think is better.

[dpastern]

Nothing wrong with that composition at all - I like it!

Dave

[naskies]

Great colours - good work! Ever since getting into macros, I've never been able to put my nose up close to a flower and sniff (i.e. what many people like to do with roses, etc)... I'm too afraid of what might jump up a nostril! :rofl:

Re composition of first pic (yellow background): when I saw the photo, my first reaction was "hmmm interesting use of negative space since the spider is looking up / arching back" - I like it.

[bloodhound31]

Thanks Dave and Dave. :thumbsup:

[bloodhound31]

I forgot to mention.... I absolutely agree with you on #2,3,4 and 5. Good observations mate.

Baz.