Wildlife Photography across the Water: Spiders and Walmart

Thursday, 10 September 2009

Spiders and Walmart

Each evening this week i have been up shooting the Belted Kingfishers at a local lake, During the days when i have some spare time i have been out in my garden shooting some spiders and bugs, There seems to be an abundance of yellow and black (wasp) garden spiders at the moment so i have been trying to shoot these at all sorts of angles, After shooting some yesterday i thought how nive they would look with some dew on the web like you get in the early mornings in Europe, We dont get much dew here so i thought i would make my own, I popped down to my local Walmart and purchased an atomiser or spray mister for the princely sum of 89 cents and this morning i took some straight on shots then gently sprayed a fine mist on to the spider and web, The spider took no notice and i thought that the water droplets gave the image an extra dimension, Either way the agency will have a choice of with and without

I noticed a spider next to one of the small bushes and noted that there was some of its left overs and a nice leaf caught in the web above it so i carefully set up and took a couple of shots, I checked them on the screen and thought the image would look better if i moved a foot to the left, This small move gives the image a much different cleaner look, I think with a little more work in processing-cleaning up the damaged leaf on the left and toning down the leaf above it will be a nice image and a good lesson in composition

Dave

1 comment:

Peter Edge10 September 2009 at 21:37
Hi Dave,
Your wasp spiders are a bit different to the ones over here. Slightly different body markings and the orange legs are different to.
My experience if France was that the web of these spiders was a quite wide mesh and didnt hold much dew.
Pete
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.