Jumping Spider eating its prey, plus other 2020 "Jumper" images.

Testudo Man

Testudo Man

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Paul
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I captured these "Jumper" Spider images recently(this March) for my 2020 season.
All shot in my Kent garden.
Panasonic FZ330 plus Panasonic FZ50 cameras used, along with Raynox 250 lens, an home made Pringles diffuser.

1st up, this adult female Jumping (Zebra) Spider, eating her prey. Her prey appears to be a male Midge?
FZ330/Raynox 250/Pringles Diffuser used. Image is not cropped.
P1070679-copy-to-800.jpg

Next up, a much smaller/younger "Jumper". Same camera set up. Both the next images are not cropped.
P1070775-copy-to-800.jpg

P1070778-copy-to-800.jpg


Last image, is of an adult female "Jumper". It is cropped some, but i will also upload the uncropped version too.
FZ50/Raynox 250/Pringles Difffuser used.
I use basic editing for my images, but with this cropped image, I did clone out some "light spots", which were a little distracting.
Either way, i try not to spend more than a few minutes, editing my images.

P1360825-copy-crop-to-800.jpg

An here is the uncropped image below.
P1360825-copy-to-800.jpg

Any questions encouraged, cheers Paul.
 
GardenersHelper said:
Interesting to see you using the FZ330 and, even more interesting, the FZ50. It's working well in both cases I think. The first one looks especially good to me.

What f-number are you using?

My FZ330 is not working right so I'm using an FZ200 now.
Click to expand...

I bought a 2ndhand FZ330 last summer, it was as new, with under 500 shutter clicks. I had to drive 100 mile round trip for it, but it was priced under £200! so a bit of a bargain.
My FZ150 had seen better days, so the FZ330 was a natural replacement. I didn't ever get involved with the FZ200, I was happy with my FZ150, an its capable output.
The FZ330 was for my Butterfly photography, I really liked the idea of touchscreen, it would speed everything up, in regards to capturing good butterfly images, without the time lag of the old non-touchscreen FZ150. When your chasing live butterflies around the countryside, the addition of a fast focus touchscreen, really made a difference for me.
So I didn't really plan on using the FZ330 for macro, but late last year, I gave it a go, with some success. For macro, I use f/8, ISO 100, 1/500ish...But for butterflies, I use f/5 or drop below f/5, depending on light/time of day, no flash used for butterflies either, but always flash for macro.

The 1st FZ330 image was shot at f/8, ISO 100, 1/500, the other 2 images were the same settings, but I dropped shutter speed to 1/400. I was shooting directly into bright sunlight, an I didn't have a decent sized Pringles diffuser to cast a shadow over my subject, so conditions for me were not ideal, but I still had some success.

As you know Nick, ive been using my FZ50 for some years now, an that is my "go to camera" for macro. I always shoot at that lovely f/11 that the FZ50 is capable of, an my shutter speeds are set quite low at 1/200, an again, its set to ISO 100.
So the last image with the FZ50(and a decent sized diffuser attached) an im sure the sun was behind me too, was shot at my usual f/11, ISO 100, 1/200. Not forgetting that the FZ50 has a fixed lens, which works well for me.
Its early days yet, with me using the FZ330 for flash based macro, but with a better diffuser, and trying more variations in camera settings, im sure i can get the hang of it, in time.

As a side note, last year i tried a Panasonic G7 (for butterflies) with some success...so late last year, i bought a 2ndhand Panny G80, which means i will use the FZ330, alongside the G80, for my butterfly images......I bought G80 for good reason, but thats another story!

I will go find a couple of example butterfly images I shot last year, using the FZ330, to show what its capable of...I always have a 500D close up filter attached to the FZ330, when out "butterflying" too. Cheers Paul.
 
Heres an FZ330 shot of a slightly cropped image of a male Adonis Blue Butterfly, from September 14th 2019.
Camera settings were - f/5, 1/640, ISO 100. No flash used, Jpeg, Handheld, Auto Focus. 500D close up filter used.
My objective here, is to try to capture as much of the whole butterfly in focus(something not always easy to do!!).
I want to get all 4 wings(including the 4 wing tips) head, body, Antennae all in focus...which I came very close to doing here.

The sun was out, the light was great, so f/5 worked well here...If the light was not so good, an the conditions were far from ideal, I would drop shutter speed, an drop down past f/4...but then it would be much harder to get everything in focus. The FZ330 performed very well for me last year, its focus speed, touchscreen, allows me to capture some good butterfly images.
Cheers Paul.

Adonis Blue Butterfly (m). 14th September 2019. by Testudo Man, on Flickr
 
Lovely work Paul
I have seen a jumper out at work but it is warmer there not seen any at home yet
 
alfbranch said:
Lovely work Paul
I have seen a jumper out at work but it is warmer there not seen any at home yet
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Alf, Im sure you will see some at your home soon enough.
Im lucky, I get them quite early in the year, here in my Kent garden.
Last year, I shot this Jumper (in my garden) nice an early, for 2019!
It was taken on the 24th of February 2019.

Image is cropped some. Panny FZ50/Raynox 250/Pringles Diffuser used. f/11, ISO 100, 1/200.
On board camera flash, Handheld, Jpeg, Auto focus (my usual settings). Cheers Paul.

Jumping "Zebra" Spider. 24th February 2019. by Testudo Man, on Flickr
 
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