The Itsy Bitsy Spider

My father-in-law is in town visiting for a week, and he always comes with gifts... though we're never sure what decade they are from, there is always an interesting tale to accompany the items. Be they vintage Chinese dresses, Ansel Adams prints from a yard sale in California, or old Nikon lenses, adapters, and bellows extenders I've never even heard of before, I'm always surprised by what comes out of his suitcase. Today, the camera lenses arrived. Now, he didn't know this, or maybe he did know this from studying my work and my love for close up flower images, but I have always wanted to dabble more in macro photography. And dabble we most certainly did this afternoon, with all three children napping we spread every piece of equipment we had between the two of us out on the dining table. There was a thunderstorm rolling through making perfect overcast skies on my favorite porch. After testing all of the lenses on some seashells, installing the Nikon lens on my Canon with a Nikon adapter ring, installing them frontwards AND backwards for different effects, yes a lens can be put on backwards, who knew?! I went outside in search of a ladybug or beetle. After not finding a single insect I grabbed two flowers and a mushroom and headed back inside. I popped the red flowers into a vase full of sand, grabbed the camera and started focusing the bellows fully extended. When my image came into focus here is what I saw:


And then I nearly peed my pants with excitement when this little guy, and I mean little, the size of a dime fully outstretched, peaked out from behind! Jackpot! So the next 40 minutes was spent manipulating the scene to get the best light and the best angle- and if you think posing toddlers is a challenge...

Interestingly, he wanted nothing to do with this mushroom, he would not stay on it for even a second. We pontificated over the mushrooms possible poisonous nature... everything else in the desert is poisonous.


This was his grumpy stance. After about 40 minutes and two attempts at shrooming, he was visibly angry with me... and, I had the lens to actually be able to capture that!

I believe I saw a rude extended digit as he turned on his heel and stomped away, the flower petals were shaking, so I assume he was stomping.

Simply an amazing afternoon, and the lenses and accessories now live with me so there will be many more afternoons like this one I hope! Hmmm, I wonder what food would do under a lens like this...