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Author Topic: White-Banded Crab Spider  (Read 5137 times)

John Koerner

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White-Banded Crab Spider
« on: September 05, 2013, 11:35:50 am »

♀ (Misumenoides formosipes)
1/10, f/5.6, ISO 640, tripod & remote switch.
10-Shot Stack, Natural Light.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2013, 07:52:11 pm by John Koerner »
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Chris Calohan

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2013, 11:37:46 am »

So...did you glue the little bugger down or drug him to get a 10 shot stack?
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sdwilsonsct

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2013, 11:59:23 am »

Great technique and composition.

John Koerner

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2013, 12:02:08 pm »

So...did you glue the little bugger down or drug him to get a 10 shot stack?

Neither wise-guy. If you knew anything about crab spiders, you would realize they remain motionless for hours, which makes them great subjects for stacks ;)

With that reality check out of the way, what do you think about the photo? :)

Thanks,

Jack
« Last Edit: September 05, 2013, 12:52:24 pm by John Koerner »
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John Koerner

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2013, 12:02:31 pm »

Great technique and composition.


Thank you :)
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Chris Calohan

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2013, 12:18:29 pm »

I love the shot, and had no clue as to the stationary nature of that spider, and nor did I make the comment as a derision, more as a funny. I guess the humor escaped you. What program are you using to do your stacks. That's probably the cleanest 10 stack I've seen in awhile.
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John Koerner

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2013, 12:28:43 pm »

I love the shot, and had no clue as to the stationary nature of that spider, and nor did I make the comment as a derision, more as a funny. I guess the humor escaped you. What program are you using to do your stacks. That's probably the cleanest 10 stack I've seen in awhile.

Okay, fair enough. Actually, there really are some cruel people, who really do "glue" subjects down ... which I thought you were accusing me of ... which I guess is why I didn't see the humor (I love nature, so do not hurt anything to photograph it).

That said, thank you very much & glad you like the photo. I too was surprised at how clean it came out, as I did not have to "touch up" any blurred traces afterward at all. That is what is so cool about crab spiders :)

I use Adobe CS5 for my stacks. It tends to work best on < 20 images, but bogs down at higher stacking frequencies. Most people use Zerene for huge numbers of images involving 2x-5x + magnification and, yes, very oftentimes dead subjects.

Cheers,

Jack
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spreeg

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2013, 02:56:34 pm »

I don't understand what I am seeing where his right (image left) feet touch the flower.  They are in focus but not touching anything in focus.  Were his right feet in the air?
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John Koerner

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2013, 03:38:06 pm »

I don't understand what I am seeing where his right (image left) feet touch the flower.  They are in focus but not touching anything in focus.  Were his right feet in the air?

Hi there;

Yes, you understand correct, except it's a her :)

Her right 2 front feet (image left) are in fact in mid-air :)

In total, 6 out of her 8 legs are actually touching the flower, while her 2 right front are not. That is actually why they are called "crab spiders" ... as they oftentimes have both front leg pairs "reaching out" as if in embrace ... but in her case she's only doing that on one side.

Jack
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2013, 04:34:33 pm »

Very impressive shot, Jack. And beautifully executed.

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mvsoske

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2013, 06:26:30 pm »

Very nice and thanks for all the explanations - I learned something too!

Mark

davidh202

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #11 on: September 05, 2013, 07:32:48 pm »

very nice work John
I do a lot of Orchid stacks in CS5&6 and it performs very well most of the time.
A little trick I learned is to take all the shots into ACR first and do global adjustments on the first image, sync them and save, then select them in Bridge again  load as layers to bring them into PS and let PS do it's magic.

David
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John Koerner

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #12 on: September 05, 2013, 07:48:22 pm »

Very impressive shot, Jack. And beautifully executed.

Thank you Eric, appreciate that.



Very nice and thanks for all the explanations - I learned something too!
Mark

Thanks Mark, glad you enjoyed :)



very nice work John
I do a lot of Orchid stacks in CS5&6 and it performs very well most of the time.
A little trick I learned is to take all the shots into ACR first and do global adjustments on the first image, sync them and save, then select them in Bridge again  load as layers to bring them into PS and let PS do it's magic.
David

Thank you David; what you described is exactly my workflow, except that I do all my global adjustments in Adobe Lightroom 5 first, sync them, and export the .tiff files to Photoshop. Also, I can't begin to express how much the upgrade from Lightroom 3 to Lightroom 5 has saved some photos of mine.

Cheers,

Jack
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John Koerner

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #13 on: September 05, 2013, 07:50:39 pm »

Just for fun, here is another crab spider ♀ (Misumenops bellulus) ... showing the "reaching-out" stance these spiders like to take.

Don't like this (9-shot) stack as well as the other, but it's okay and serves to illustrate Spreeg's earlier comment.
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wolfnowl

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2013, 02:20:30 am »

I love the shot, and had no clue as to the stationary nature of that spider, and nor did I make the comment as a derision, more as a funny. I guess the humor escaped you. What program are you using to do your stacks. That's probably the cleanest 10 stack I've seen in awhile.

Chris:  Not to take away from Jack's excellent work, but spiders hunt using various strategies.  The most well known are those that spin webs, although the size, style, etc. of the webs vary widely.  There are spiders that actively hunt and overpower their prey - tarantulas and wolf spiders are good examples of those, but there are also jumping spiders and there are fishing spiders that will skitter across the surface of the water using the water tension then dive under for prey.  Then there are 'ambush spiders'.  There are a few different kinds of those.  Trapdoor spiders will dig a little hole in the ground and pull a piece of bark or equivalent over top, then wait for prey to come by, which they recognize by the patterns of the vibrations.  If you've ever seen one of those coin banks where the mechanical hand reaches out, snatches the coin and pulls it in, they work like that.  Crab spiders tend to hang out around flowers, either on the underside of the flower or somewhere within it, standing motionless and waiting for pollinating insects to come by.

Mike.
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #15 on: September 06, 2013, 04:27:01 am »

Very good work.

Bob_B

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #16 on: September 06, 2013, 10:03:12 am »

Great images and wonderful explanation of technique! Thank you and congrats on your captures.

Bob
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John Koerner

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #17 on: September 06, 2013, 12:22:09 pm »

Thank you Mike, Paulo, and Bob :)
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Arlen

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #18 on: September 06, 2013, 10:57:41 pm »

First rate. We don't see a lot of macro work here, but this one is inspiring.
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leeonmaui

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Re: White-Banded Crab Spider
« Reply #19 on: September 07, 2013, 11:39:43 pm »

Aloha,

The initial exchange between john and Chris cracked me up!
Sort of like the prank; go ask Tom why his sister didn't win the dance contest...

I've done some stacking of shots, mostly flowers, and with my 645D 120mm macro takes forever!
so congrats on spinning that web, its a lot of work. :-)
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