my new lieosoma

[pandinus]

ive got a few good pics ... about 1 in every 10 turns out good. I need to get a better understanding of lighting obviously. since a percentage of my pics turn out pretty good and 1% turn out stunning, i think its the user, not the camera. maybe kidnapping pandinus until he teaches us how to take good pics would work better than classes.

uh..........

 

[carpe scorpio]

uh..........

True John, your photo quality is quite amazingly improved from the very first shots you posted way back when.

 

[Black Hawk]

anyone know Pandinus' mailing address? surely someone here must have sent him something. we'll come and get u John, don't worry we won't tighten the shackles too much

 

[Fluid Filter]

im no pro, but i do know a few things about photography. lighting is critical but there's really no secret to it if all you want are crisp pics. you just need lots of it! i bet the problem is you aren't using enough light for your camera to auto-focus. im not too familar with your camera, but if it has manual focus and you have a tripod, you can get around this. otherwise you can try using whatever brightest artificial light you have to illuminate your subject but sunlight is king. also do whatever you can to steady the camera when you take the pic. ill sometimes stack some books to the right height and rest the camera on top. if your illiterate dvd cases work pretty good too.

 

[OneSickPuppy]

well give him chinese scorpion torture until he tells his secrets.

 

[Black Hawk]

well give him chinese scorpion torture until he tells his secrets.

oh...oh, that's goood

 

[pandinus]

torture? oh naive mortals, you have much to learn.

lol. kidding of course. i love you guys. I'm really not doing anything more than fluid filter said though. Still i thank you all for your kind words and jokes<at least i hope they are.)

you'e all far too kind

John

 

[carpe scorpio]

I know where his secret lair is located, but I'll never tell, even under threat of torture and death. :evil:

 

[Fluid Filter]

torture? oh naive mortals, you have much to learn.

lol. kidding of course. i love you guys. I'm really not doing anything more than fluid filter said though. Still i thank you all for your kind words and jokes<at least i hope they are.)

you'e all far too kind

John

Sure does sound like he's holding out on us doesn't it? perhaps a "pre-emptive strike" would be in order.

 

[OneSickPuppy]

we have ways of making you talk carpe ... like sending my ex to live with ya. no scorpions, insects, small animals or reptiles allowed with her around. also, no dogs on the furniture. 15 minutes of that and youll sing like a parakeet.

 

[pandinus]

Sure does sound like he's holding out on us doesn't it? perhaps a "pre-emptive strike" would be in order.

AACK! I thought you were on myy side! lol
STAN! ATTACK!!! lol

whew, what fun we have here in the scorp forum

 

[skinheaddave]

They key is that you want a very fast shutter speed so that the (inevitable) motion of you (if you aren't using a tripod) and the beast in question doesn't create a blur. Now, there is a bit more to it then that. The other thing that affects your lighting is your aperature -- the wider it is, the more light gets in. There is a catch, though, in that a wide aperature narrows the depth of field -- this is the amount of the picture that will be in focus (by depth). A small depth of field will result in a scorpion looking towards you having an in-focus prosoma and an out-of-focus metasoma. So you need enough light to keep the aperature small and the shutter speed fast. Since this is hardly ever the case, if you have a relatively stationary target, you can use a tripod or some other bracing to help steady the camera. Then you prioritize for aperature (if your camera will do this) and keep a slower shutter speed. The bug really does have to be still for that, though, so sometimes this involves playing around a lot with it. The alternative is adding more light if you can. Not all light is equal, though, and nothing really beats sunlight if you can get around the sometimes harsh shadows. Anyhow, at other times you will have to improvise. The picture below was taken in the field in Costa Rica under the illumination of a flashlight. I use one of the 30 LED maglights because it creates a relatively even field of light and doesn't create "hot spots" like a traditional flashlight. Also, the quality of the light doesn't seem to be too bad -- but you can still see that the relative absence of light creates a bit of blur.

And you need a macro mode -- mine goes down to 2cm focal distance, which is why I can get pictures of Tityus melanostictus and T.ocelote -- each about 3cm total length.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Black Hawk]

skinheaddave: that's cool i had no idea about most of that stuff, thanx for the info. maybe my pics won't be so blurry now.

pandinus: wanna go on a "cruise" to cuba? :? :evil:

 

[OneSickPuppy]

whoa. im gonna have to have a few drinks and reread that. greatly appreciated. now we dont have to take pandinus hostage. maybe we should get a serious photography thread started on techniques that others use.

 

[Black Hawk]

ya, dave know's what he's talking about :clap: ......i still think we should hold Pandinus against his will tho, just for kicks

 

[OneSickPuppy]

i call the duct tupe!

 

[Black Hawk]

i call the sporks!!!

 

[pandinus]

as fun as this thread is, i must darken it's doorstep. the new scorp is now dead. i dont know how or why, but it is barely alive and will no doubt be dead by morniing. i kept it on sand with a corkbark hide and misted twice (i only got it last week). it has been showig little or no activity since it got home, and i am severly crushed over thiis loss.

 

[Androctonus_bic]

sorry for the lose

 

[Deschain]

This was one of the funniest, and light hearted threads I've read in a while (also learned some about photography), and I'm a bit bummed to see it take such an abrupt turn.

That really sucks, and I'm sorry to hear it pandinus. I'd like to think you're going to get another...and if so I hope everything works out.