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.

Airborne parasites

Paying a price for not applying insect repellant..
I normally spray my 100-deet insect repellent on my bug-hunts.
A couple of days ago, I paid the ultimate price when a swarm of hungry mosquitoes had bitten my arms and legs.
Their presence was overwhelming as I swatted a few in a single swipe.

An Aedes mosquito at work

Predator and prey
The Aedes mosquito is responsible for the Dengue fever which is a cause of many deaths in urban areas.
All you need, is transmission via an infected individual to cause an outbreak.
This time round, I was the prey.
I spotted a small mosquito on my arm and started photographing it.
Slowly, it began to fill up its belly with my blood.
Mosquitoes are expert in withdrawing its victim's bodily fluid without causing any pain.
I can see clearly on my viewfinder, the proboscis being injected into my skin.
With a contracting movement, blood started to fill its belly.

A large male mosquito

 Beyond normal magnification..
The mosquito is a small bug.
It measures no more than 5mm in length.
To get the best of it, you have to shoot the bug at 3x magnification.
Flash Exposure Control is set at +1 EV to increase the bombardment of the twin lights on my Canon MT24EX flash.
The hardest thing to do, is to get a steady shot handheld.
With my eyes peeled on the bug, I squeezed the shutter button when it came in focus. The rest was post-processing on my Adobe Lightroom 4 software.

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

 

 

The Single-striped Grass Spider

Meet Perenethis Unifasciata
The Single-striped Grass Spider is a common arachnid.
You would usually find it living on grass and leaves and this time of the year, its out in full force at Gasing Hill.
I am a big fan of predatory spiders that are non-web weavers, so, the Perenethis Unifasciata  would fit in my books nicely.
In my past visits to Gasing Hill, I've recorded a few of this spiders.
I often mistook it for a Wolf-spider which is much smaller and usually crawls on the ground.

The Single-striped grass spider as you would see it on a normal scale

Its not hard to locate the grass-spider which is roughly about 12mm in length.
All I did, was pick it up and set it on 1x magnification to get a good shot.
By right, I should have used a short macro lens like the 50mm F2.5 macro to capture a full-body shot and slowly work my way to the extreme close-ups.

A fine specimen

Working on capturing the details..

With a cooperative spider that stood still while I was snapping away, I was happy to land a set.
And the details were amazing.
It don't take much effort to work on a 2.5 - 3x magnification to bring out the character of the grass-spider.
The Gasing Hill is also home to larger predatory spiders like the yellow-gold and the magnificent Golden Huntsman. 
I hope to do some follow-up trip to this recreational forest to capture the spiders for my record.

Gallery

 

The Sac Spider

First encounter
The Ramadan month is a period where its usually quiet at the state forest parks.
I took advantage of this to utilise my time to capture some macro shots with my new rig on a Canon EOS 5DmkIII.
For starters, shooting full-frame is simply amazing.
Now, having walked up and down on a 2km trail, I found a couple of subjects to capture. 
Nothing really interesting until I came face to face with an ant.
Underneath it, the bug was being gripped by the jaws of a Sac spider.
This was my first encounter with the species and after making reference with a field guide, its confirmed.

Looks can be deceiving: the ant paralyzed by the spider's venom

A slow death 
The Sac spider is an ambush predator and it kills by injecting a lethal venom on its prey.
Slowly, the spider's digestive enzyme will slowly turn its victim's internal organs and flesh into a goo soup where its consumed by the spider.
I didn't notice the Sac Spider until I turned the fern leaf that it was under up-side down.
The creature was so still, I managed to change the flash power output to capture some shots under 3:1 and 4:1 magnification.
For this, the Canon MPE-65 is the only lens capable of landing such shots.
Thanks to the guidance of Macro Master Kurtis Guek, who is also an amateur entomologist, I was able use the settings correctly with great results.
Its not easy to maintain focus on a spider that measures about 10mm.
And under high magnification, the flash exposure compensation has to be set to two stops over.

Face to face with a deadly micro predator: the Sac Spider

The details
Using controlled lighting with the right amount of diffusion, I was able to capture the Sac Spider.
And since it has a rather dull and dark coloured exoskeleton, I was glad that the image had turned out allright.
With some minor tweaks on my Adobe Lightroom 4 photo finishing software, I was able to bring out the details and I am pretty happy with the end-results.

The Fighting Spider II

A surprise find..
I was searching for bugs and found a male fighting spider prowling on a leaf.
In the insect world, the fighting spider is on top of the food chain. 
You can equate this little fella that measures no longer than 10mm in length as the 'panther' of the micro world.
The fighting spider feeds on smaller insects and is active during daytime.

Three-quarter side profile on 2.5x magnification

 Skittish creature
Its not easy capturing a fighting spider on camera.
Either you have luck or patience.
The spiders are easily spooked and will jump away to save its own skin.
So, you have to set up your camera correctly and wait for the moment.
Since the fighter's feature is very different than most salticidae, its compressed head and flat body made it hard to focus.
Even a face-to-face shot can be hard to frame and with a size below 10mm, the only way to get a decent shot is by zooming-in to the spider's face.

Face-to-face: 2.5x magnification

 The perils of high-magnification
To set up a high-mag shot, you will need a proper lens that is able to close-in on the subject.
At a 2.5x set-up, flash exposure needs to be compensated to -+1.5 stops.
This means, increasing your flash power output to get a proper and balanced exposure.
The spider's black exoskeleton and its blue iridescent markings made it a real interesting subject to capture.
So far, I have yet to capture a fighting spider in combat which I think: would be the holy grail for a macro photographer. 

Tales of the Blue Tiger Beetle

It came out of nowhere..
I first captured a Blue Tiger Beetle on camera three years ago.
At the time, I was using a 50mm F2.5 compact macro lens.
The closest I could go, was a cropped shot of the magnificent beetle which is easily spoofed.
You can't even get close to this bug as its pretty skittish.
Following the first encounter, I made two more captures. Most of the shots were not even clear.
Today, while trampling the Sg Tua Forest Park, I came across a few Blue Tiger Beetles.
Most were too skittish to capture.
One in particular, actually stood still.
I pressed my camera's shutter button and as the flash fired - three shots were recorded.
Later, after a review, only two shots were acceptable.

Tiger beetles are predatory insects. 
But from time-to-time, they too get eaten up.
My last capture was a dead beetle which was eaten up by a crab spider.

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

2011 Parting shots..

Last photography outing for 2011
We had some overseas guests at our home.
My wife hosted them and her best friend's hubby had wanted to give macro photography a try.
Since we had the weekend off (No cycling), I decided to bring him to the Sungai Tua nature park near Hulu Selangor.
This is my old hunting ground and I've made at least two record finds in this place.
I led Mr Eric Yee from Melbourne, Australia on a hunt for some bugs in this nature trail.
The bug population at this time of the year was really small, but despite that, Mr Yee said he had enjoyed himself with the colourful bugs he found along the trail.
I gave him my Canon EF50mm F2.5 compact macro and the EF100mm F2.8L IS macro lenses to try out.
He also had the chance to utilise my Canon MR14EX ring flash.

Samo (right) and Mr Yee on the bug hunt at the Sg Tua nature park in Hulu Selangor

 Some cool finds..
Sungai Tua has never been disappointing.
We found plenty of beetles, jumping spiders and the surprise find here was a gliding lizard.
I've had a blast photographing the lizard and some extreme close-up of the jumping spiders along the trail.
My hope of finding a portia faded in the distance as time ran out. After spending a few hours on the trial, we, packed up and headed off to Batang Kali for a sumptous lunch...


Gallery

Gliding lizard

Fighting spider

Face-to-face with a jumping spider

Crab spider with prey

A female jumper

 

Mr Yellow..

Lynx spiders are fascinating creatures.
They make fantastic insect macro photography subjects and I don't have to travel far to find them.
Just outside my house, there is a Jasmine tree planted by my wife.
And on the leaves, I can find some small Lynx spiders (measuring about 4mm) prowling for its prey.
The spiders keep its domain free from pests and also guards the Jasmine tree from being gobbled up by destructive bugs.
Here's set I took recently at Gasing Hill...

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 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...

Polishing up some rusty photographic skills

A friendly lynx spider photographed at our Jasmine tree

I was quite bummed with the postponement of our Tg Karang - Sabak Bernam ride today.
Michelle was suffering from exhaustion and could not make it for the long haul cycling trip.
So, with a real hot weather and a little diversion, I dug up my photographic equipment and rigged up my Canon EOS 7D D-SLR, MPE-65 F2.8 macro lens and MT-24EX twin flash and lugged it to my favourite bug shooting spot.
The place has been overgrown with shrubs and it took a while till I spot a jumping spider. This was a male Orange-Yellow jumper.
I snuck up to the sensitive arachnid and fired away a few shots. 
Managed to get a full body shot and a 2.5x close-up of the spider's head.

The Orange-Yellow jumper

I worked around the area and found another female spider. But since it was moving around a bunch of pandan leaves, getting a clear shot was out of the question. The hot and dry weather is ideal for bug photography and this is something that I had really missed over half a year.
I've been concentrating on cycling so much, I hardly have any time to go around and shoot my favourite subject: the jumping spider.
That said, there's plenty of catching up to do...