Aw, c’mon! Some titles you can’t resist!
This jumping spider (genus Phidippus, perhaps a Phidippus audax) produced a great pose while I was working with it, appearing to salute with its pedipalp, or maybe shield its eyes form the sun. In reality, it was cleaning its eyes, perhaps trying to wipe away the spots in its vision from my strobes going off right in its face.
Probably not. I really shouldn’t ask questions like that.
In winding down this evening (well, yesterday evening now,) I noticed that a lot of my favorite bloggers have nothing new to post, with good reason. They’re all at the Reason
I know this is a poor showing for National Wildlife Week, but hey, I think every week is National Wildlife Week, so chill. I been busy.
Anyway, in poking around today after staging a few shots for a presentation, I came across this little lovely, in a very typical place for such: on a rock, in a cranny sheltered by a clump of leaves. This is a southern black widow (Lactrodectus
I threatened earlier to return to this if you weren’t good, so you only have yourself to blame, but herewith, a quick tutorial on a method of macro photography called dark field photography.
Most times, this is used with microscopic subjects, which technically isn’t macro photography but photomicrography instead. The essence is, the visible background of the image is dark, yet the subject
When I was in Florida, I maintained a saltwater aquarium in the most casual way possible, by simply replenishing it with water from the nearby Indian River Lagoon routinely. The occupants were primarily porcelain crabs, tiny hermit crabs, and
In yesterday’s ‘Too cool’ installment, I lamented not being able to illustrate the topic with my own images, and suspected I’d have no opportunity to do so. This was an abject ploy to make you feel sorry for me.
However, I soon became wracked with guilt over such blatant manipulations. Not to mention that, while searching through my images last night to illustrate a couple
Now that the details are finalized, I can announce that I’m instructing another photography offering, sponsored by Youth Community Project in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area of North Carolina. This is a basic photography seminar, open to youths aged 12-18, and will run for six weeks on Thursday
When going back through my files of images, I can get a rough idea of what time of year photos were taken by the apparent seasons displayed within. Sometimes.
Friday, after meeting with a student I went down to the North Carolina Botanical Garden to drop off some paperwork, and took the opportunity to check the potential of staging a few photos that
xkcd speaks to me this morning (click for original):
And this time, don’t think about pocketable, or not having to carry extra lenses, or that big LCD on the back.
I cover this with my students, first thing, so I might as well hit it here too: The first and foremost cause of bad photos, the thing that wrecks more of them than anything else, is motion blur – camera shake.
Moods and metaphors are present in a lot more images than many suspect, and in many cases they’re recognized only subconsciously. Being able to induce them in the viewer is one thing, but simply noticing when the opportunity presents itself to your camera is a directly related skill.
Sometimes it’s simple. When I say, “Dawn on the beach,” you automatically get a visual impression
