A fine specimen

All good things goes to he who waits...

I wasn't going to settle for the images of a wounded jumping spider.
The set I took of a specimen with three legs was a start.
Somehow or rather, I knew that I would chance upon the healthy male jumper which I had last seen with a prey on its mandible.

This is a common jumper and can be found easily in gardens and wooded areas...

Second time lucky...

I combed Michelle's Jasmine tree and found the spider I was looking for. 
It was prowling on the branches and worked its way to a stalk and steadily positioned itself on a leaf.
That was the break I was looking for.
I picked it up and worked with it over a few shots.
To get things going, I started with 1x magnification on my Canon MPE-65 macro lens.
Slowly, when I got the hang of things, I increased the magnification to 2.5x and also stepped up the flash power output to get a stronger exposure.
After getting off a few good shots, I placed the jumper back to the Jasmine tree.

Tree-quarter side profile

Face-to-face

Post-processing..

I used the Adobe Lightroom 4 to post-process the shot.
For the most of it, I darken the shot to get the colour and contrast.
It worked for me as I can see the rich contrast and sharpness.
With an MPE-65, you focusing skills are vital. If its out of focus, you end up with a blur shot.
And there's no two-ways about it.. 
On the whole, I am very happy with the find and this adds to my collection of jumping spider images.

The wounded warrior

Not quite the jumper I've expected...

I spotted a jumping spider prowling on Michelle's Jasmine tree.
She planted this outside our gate and it's been thriving ever since.
The spider I saw was a healthy male.
While looking for it, I managed to stalk one that is rather slow and moving in a precarious manner.
And upon closer inspection, all its limbs on one side of its body was missing.

Gallery

Portrait of pain: the wounded warrior

Adapt, or die: An Apex predator, the spider is now vulnerable

Part of it is missing: the jumper

It's gonna take a lot for this spider to regenerate its missing limbs.
Maybe when it molts its exoskeleton, the legs and pincer may come back...

The Jolly Telamonia

That yellow spider...

Telamonia festiva or the Jolly Telamonia can be found in most wooded areas around the Peninsular.
Its a specie of jumping spiders and is also one of the colourful around.
In short, I never get tired of capturing the Telamonia on my camera.

Side profile full body shot

 Getting the most out of your equipment..
I have plenty of praise for Canon's MPE-65 macro lens.
With this, you are able to go as high as 5x in magnification.
The extreme magnification allows you to capture the spider in its full glory.
For an arachnid measuring no more than 8mm in length, you would need a lot of magnification to bring it to life on an image.
The typical set up is 1x - 1.5x in full body shot.

The higher the magnification, the harder..
Not many people can work with 4x magnification and above while shooting their subjects handheld.
One of them is master photographer Kurtis Guek.
He is one of the very few skilled macro masters who spend a great deal of time capturing spiders as well as other insects up close.
You can view Kurt's blog and his excellent advise on macro photography.
With the Telamonia constantly on the move, you would need a pair of steady hands, knowledge on full flash settings and a good diffusion technique to capture the spider.
I learned a great deal from Guek on how to control the MT24EX flash.
On 4x magnification, the challenge was to get the Telamonia in focus and at the same time, fire the correct amount of light to illuminate its eyes.
Once the focussing is in place, the finger on the trigger just reacted.
Most of the time, its a 70/30 gamble to get a sharp image.
As the MPE-65 is a full manual lens with a very narrow band, you have little room for error to produce your image.
I set the Camera's FEC (Flash Exposure Compensation) to +1.5 stops. 
On the Adobe Lightroom 4.2 post-processing software, I am able to correct the exposure to get my desired effect.
As it is, I am very happy with the results.

Gallery

 

 

An uneventful day..

Murphy's Law..
I set out early today to capture some bugs on-camera.
Went to Semenyih town to get something to eat. 
And what a fucked-up little place.
No food in sight. 
I went to a stall near a Chinese school. Sat down and was told that there was no more food.
So, taking that into consideration, I went to another shop, had fried Koay Teow. 
Its just so-so. Even earlier in the day, I had a bad start.


Sunday bloody Sunday..
The Tekala nature park is about 14km from Semenyih.
I've had some success here - especially with a Portia spider.
Thinking that it would be a moderate day, I was shocked to find the park packed to the brim with families having their picnic.
Every person who passed by had a picnic basket with food.
This is an apparent problem as people eat in the river and dump their plastic plates and cups at the park.
Malaysians rear their ugly faces when they just couldn't be bothered with cleanliness.
I hiked up the Tekala falls in search of spiders.
Hardly seen any and as I was moving along, I spotted a winged-ant.
So, I found a place to set up my gear and as I was doing so, I saw two 'ladies' - one Chinese and the other, an Indian making their way up the steps.
They were pretty rough and were talking in Malay using foul language.
From the tone of their voice, I knew that they were transvestites.
One of them asked: "Hey mister, you cameraman ah?"
I ignored him and went on doing my stuff.
Then the persistent trannie asked again, I made eye contact and gestured that I don't understand a word he said.
They moved on, muttering more insults.
I found the winged-and and worked on it.
Only managed to grab two shots before it flew away.

The winged-ant

I spent less than an hour at the park and left with disgust.
There were hardly any bugs in this place.
Later, I drove towards Putrajaya.
I was half-hearted. 
When I saw 'Putrajaya Botanic Park' on the GPS, I made a turn to check out the place.
Today is also the One Million Youth gathering in the same place, fearing the crowd, I made a pass around Precinct 1 and found that the coast was clear.
The botanic park is a familiar landmark as Michelle and I had cycled through this place countless of times during the Putrajaya Interparks Ride.


Another major disappointment
The Putrajaya Botanic Park is a large place.
It has a visitor's centre and a bike rental facility.
But, hardly any bugs.
There was a Fern and Pandanus garden. In my mind I was thinking out aloud: "What the fuck?"
The previous day, I cycled about 120km, so, my legs were still pretty sore.
I walked about 2km around the park and came out empty.


The bee and the little green spider
Being utterly disappointed, I made my way back to the visitor's centre.
While I was at it, a bee landed on my arm and started licking up my sweat.
I grabbed the opportunity to cap off a few rounds on my Canon EOS5DmkIII with the MPE-65 and MT24EX twin lens.
The results: a decent shot. Only three frames and it came out allright.

The little bee on my arm

At this point in time, I knew I had a decent set.
Later, I went around a bunch of plants and found a little green jumping spider on top of a palm leaf.
It actually jumped on my body and followed me.
Wow! Things had certainly picked up as I was about to leave this place empty.
I scooped up the spider and took as many shots as possible.
It has a translucent green exoskeleton and focussing on it was pretty hard.
I paid close attention on its eyes and as soon as the spider came into focus, I fired a couple of shots.
The MT24EX flash had malfunctioned earlier as sweat from my face had dripped down onto the 5DmkIII's hotshoe.
To remedy this, I wiped off the sweat and cleaned the contact on my flash.
Things were in working order again as I capped off a few shots..

Shot of the day: the little green jumper

From zero to three good sets, I left Putrajaya with a sense of relief.
I was very happy that the green jumper had turned out fine and after a little editing on the Adobe Lightroom 4, it was stunning!
Well, that said, I plan to spend the remaining offdays capturing more bugs...

The Fighting Spider

Ahhh, the memories...
When I was a kid growing up in Kuala Lumpur, I remember spending my afternoons trying to catch the fighting spider (Thiania bhamoensis) or Phau Foo in Cantonese from overgrown shrubs and creepers in abandoned buildings.
I followed my childhood friends Wah Chai and his brothers Ah Nor and Ah Nong around the Jalan Raja Bot area and spent our time in spider derbies at a Chinese Temple in Jalan Haji Hussein.
It takes some skills to spot the jumper that made its lair in between leaves.
The spider skilfully constructs its habitat with its silk and can be spooked easily when startled.
One way of looking for it is by placing the leaf under the sunlight.
Once a shadow is casted, the leaf is carefully removed and kept in a matchbox or a cough lozenges tin.
With a life expetancy of anywhere between three weeks to a month, the spider is fed water and 'live' food like ants and houseflies.
Spider derbies would take place during the short term holidays.
Two spiders, mostly males, would be pitted against each other.
A display of prowess and strength is shown as both arachnicds locks in battle.
In the short display of aggression, the victor will vanquish the loser that runs away for cover..
Well, what I am telling you, is a tale that is three decades old.
Nowadays, the fighting spider remains as a memory from a distant past...

A full body shot of the Thiania bhamonensis

Capture on camera
I must say that the Thiania is one of the hardest specimen to photograph.
Unlike most jumpers, this one has a flat head and a very low-profile abdomen.
Its hard to spot in the wild and if you can score a shot of the jungle-dwelling Thiania, its a bonus because its marking is just amazing!
So far, I've only been able to capture a few set and my recent visit to the Sungai Tua nature park in Selangor, I managed to get a close-up shot of the Thiania.

Face to face with a warrior

I think there's still plenty room for improvement when it comes to capturing the Thiania in its full glory...
Hopefully, I would be able to catalog more fighting spiders as I intensify my hunt for them...


Gallery

Found this little fellah around my office (taken in February 2010)

Shot with my MR14EX ringflash in Bukit Tinggi, Pahang

My most recent capture in December 2011, Sg Tua nature park, Selangor

Macromania Returns..

Inspired by Santi..
My Thai bro Santi Senarat has been working hard with his camera.
I saw some of his pix today and seeing the weather is hot, after bathing the dogs, doing laundry, I got inspired...


Back to the usual hunting ground..
I knew that I can't go wrong at Gasing Hill in Section 5, Petaling Jaya.
Since its smack in the mid-afternoon, the place isn't crowded. Its also pretty cooling underneath the jungle canopy.
I don't know if I still have what it takes to use the Canon MPE-65 macro lens.
This baby can really get you some awesome close-ups! 
I mean, at a 5:1 magnification ratio, anything that is smaller than 10mm in length is dead centre in the viewfinder...

On location.. 

A different landscape.. 
Gasing Hill is even more beautiful now.
Some folks had landscaped the entrance.
You get flowers growing as well as introduced ornamental plants and edible herbs.
My first subject was a Lynx spider.
This was a good sign.
I must admit that I don't have a high expectation of today's outcome in the trail.
And as usual, I packed my EF-50mm F2.5 macro lens together with the 100mm F2.8L and MPE-65 lenses for this exercise.
For the full flash photography, I used my trusty MT-24EX and MT-14 Ring flash.
These are my most reliable source of controlled flash devices.


Lost and found
It didn't take long for me to locate some fine specimens.
And I am happy to report that the spider population in Gasing Hill is healthy.
I was not disappointed with my find along the trail. 
There were some really good shots especially a close-up of the Salticidae or Jumping Spiders.
I also managed to snap a juvenile Tiger Beetle along the way.
With the shots working, I am rigging up for a night macro session at Gasing.. Yep, no more buying bicycles, its Macromania and its back! 


Samo's Macromania Gallery

A juvenile jumper

Another fine specimen: a Salticidae

Close-up shot

The juvenile, taken at 3:1 magnification..

A Female Jumping Spider

Jumping spiders are my favourite macro photography subjects.
Unlike the harvestman and orb weavers, these little fellas have character.
Their large eyes made focussing easier in high magnification.
I found this adult female jumper when I was scouring the undergrowth in Kg Pertak yesterday.
She was resting on a small leaf when it was spotted.
I wasted no time by working on a frame on my Canon MPE-65 macro lens.
With a heavily diffused MT-24EX twin flash, I had only seconds to work with my model before it gets spooked.
And since the MPE-65 has a very narrow focal band, the tough part is to get the spider in frame with the right composition.
I first went for a full body shot before working on its close-up.
For jumpers, a 3/4 profile on 3x magnification or more is the ideal set-up.
But getting it sharp and in focus is the toughest thing you can ever deal with especially when your subject is no larger than 10mm in length.
Lucky for me, I still haven't lost it and the results are simply stunning!

Return of the portia

Face-to-face: The Portia

3/4 profile shot

My trip to the Tekala falls in Hulu Langat began with a good start.
While making my way to the rest area, I spotted a spider and upon closer inspection, it was a Portia.
These are rare as they are beautiful.
So far, I've only captured two from Sungai Tua forest park in Selangor.
This was my third capture and I wasted no time in documenting the jumping spider.
The Portia is the most intelligent spider capable of making complex decisions.
What I found was about 8mm in length and was injured. 
Some of the Portia's limbs were missing.
I shot it with my Canon MPE-65 macro lens and lit the frame with my MT-24EX twin flash.
Been a while since I last shot anything with this rig and being able to capture the Portia was a good start.
Tekala's bug population seems encouraging and this would prompt more outings in the future.. 

A little brown jumper

At 1:1 magnification, the little jumper is seen here on a flower's stalk

To get the best out of the subject, here's a 3x or 3:1 magnification shot of the little brown jumper. At such high mag, the details are simply stunning

I've laid off macro photography for nearly half a year.
That was a good break as I am more focussed on cycling and planning long-haul trips.
As far as macro shots are concerned, jumping spiders are my favourite subjects.
I've have had a great time capturing them on camera.
They are not easy to spot and shooting these little critters - 5mm - 12mm on the average, are not easy.
With a 1:1 lens, you could only score a full body shot.
Anything closer, you would need to add an extension tube that would decrease your depth-of-field.
The solution to this: Canon's MPE-65 1x-5x lens.
For the beginner, this is not an easy lens to handle.
I learned from the gurus in the trade who shoots their subject handheld.
There are some recipes to maximise the full potential of the MPE and if you pair it with the Canon MT-24EX twin flash, the results can be stunning.
So, when I discovered the little jumper, I was really excited.
It moved a lot which made it difficult to score a decent shot.
After waiting for the exact moment, the subject entered focus and my immediate reaction was to press the shutter release button.
I knew that I had nailed it and out of four shots, only one came out sharp.
Well, with time in hand, I guess I'll have plenty of opportunities to capture more jumping spider images...

A reddish-brown jumper

While hiking along the Awana trail, my friend Stanley alerted me about a small
jumping spider he found.This one was about 8mm in length and had to be photographed with my Canon MPE-65 close-up lens.The results are as stunning as the beautiful spider itself.

The little black faced jumping spider

I found a little black-faced jumper in my trip to Awana recently.Now, the resort is charging RM30 for anyone who wants to use their water
treatment plant trail.Why? Because some guy had hurt himself trying to use a an alternative route
in the area.He busted a few bones and as a result, Awana have closed the place to the
public.Lucky for us, Eddie our macro buddy was there to help. All it took, was a phone call and we gained access to the area. Sadly, our haul was really small. I managed to get only a few shots and the
black faced spider is one of my top finds.

Spider eats spider

In my quest for shots of spiders and its prey, I came across a beautiful jumper in Hutan
Lipur Lintang in Pahang.It was eating a smaller spider and my immediate reaction was to snip off a piece of leaf
where it was devouring its prey and took countless of shots of it on my camera.The results were satisfying and I am still not happy with the high magnification shot as the
subject was taken handheld.There's some minor adjustments to be made on my tent diffuser and the twin flash that I
am using so that I don't lose too much light.

Bumblebeetle

The bumblebeetle

And the bumblespider

I came across at least two bugs that shared the same exoskeleton colours.One was a beetle and the other - a jumping spider.Pretty cool critters considering the fact that they are really small and the blend of black and yellow really made them stand out.

Predator and prey

2.5x close-up shot of the jumper with prey

Another angle focusing on its eyes

1x shot of the jumper with prey

Predator and prey shots are the holy grail quest for any nature photographer.In my case, that'll be spiders and frankly, I haven't gotten much since I've started taking
photos of spiders in various shapes and sizes.The quest for higher magnification had led me to procure the Canon EF MPE-65 macro
lens which is capable of giving 5x magnification.This the one lens that can do it all if you are shooting small objects.Jumping spiders falls into that category of bugs measuring 10mm and below.There are larger species that can fill up the whole frame, but majority of the jumpers are
small.I managed to cap off a few shots at Sg Tua and the results are satisfying!

Black faced jumper

I shot a black faced jumper again and this time, with more vivid colours and a better expression.

Its larger than the one I found in Bukit Tinggi and the capture was also very evenly lit compared to my earlier shots.

The MR-14EX ring flash is also doing its job well as my shots have improved since the snoot diffuser project was shelved.

My first Portia

The Portia is one of the most amazing spiders from the jumping spider genus that I've ever come across.

I found one in the Sungai Tua state park yesterday and spent some time capturing it on my EOS7D camera with the 100mmL IS macro lens.

With all the angles covered, I am very pleased with the results and I must say that the discovery of the Portia had motivated me to find more of such spiders in the wild.

A beautiful female jumping spider

I shot a beautiful female jumping spider last week at the kiara forest park.The lighting has improved and I plan to improve it further with the construction of a new
diffuser snoot.

Another colourful jumping spider

This is one of the cutest and most beautiful jumpers I've come across..

Its an active bug and getting a shot of it was never an easy task...

A week ago, I posted up some notes about a colourful ant mimic jumper.I saw this spider around my house and since then, it kinda disappeared from the face of the
earth.Thanks to my observant friend Stanley Tan, I managed to get a shot of this spider again and
with various angles given, it was one of my best effort in the day.The colour on this spider's back was simply amazing!It has a metallic-coloured body and constantly raises its pincers and that was a really good
pose.