Jumping Spider - Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

Covid lockdowns have resulted in the macro lens being brought out more often than usual. This shot of a jumping spider was taken at home when I found it perched on a branch at eye level. Lighting was form high camera right using a speed light defused with a small soft box. 

House Fly - Colombo, Sri Lanka

I came across this house fly in the garden over the weekend. It was relatively easy to photograph as it stayed still on the leaf while I lit it from different angles and fired off a number of frames. The hardest part of this shoot was waiting for the breeze to die down and the leaf to be still. Got there in the end.

Snail - Colombo, Sri Lanka

I came across this little snail in the courtyard at home. Fortunately they are a lot easier to photograph than jumping spiders! I fired off a few frames and then took him out to the garden. I'm not sure what species of snail this is but it might belong to the macrochlamys family. If you know what species this is, please let me know via the comments?

Green Long-legged Fly - Colombo, Sri Lanka

I've been shooting a few macro photographs over the last few months as we are in lockdown and haven't been able to get out beyond our own garden. This photograph of a Green Long-legged Fly was taken last afternoon when I saw it perched on a fern. It was not too hard to photograph as it didn't seem to be spooked by my presence and it wasn't constantly on the move.

Jumping Spider - Colombo, Sri Lanka

This is the third jumping spider I came across at home. I hadn't realised there were so many until I pulled out the macro lens during the covid lock down and started  photographing them. Identification is not easy as there are over 75 species of jumping spider in Sri Lanka. Facebook spider interest group to the rescue!

Lynx Spider - Colombo, Sri Lanka

As the Covid-19 lockdown continues, I've found myself using the macro lens on a regular basis. The kids were playing in the garden last afternoon and called me when they came across this tiny Lynx Spider. I managed to get my gear ready and photograph it for about 30 minutes. I was able to get a number of shots that I'm quite happy with. It was a decent way of keeping myself occupied for a while.

Jumping Spider - Colombo, Sri Lanka

I came across another Jumping Spider at home yesterday. Ended up photographing him for about 20 minutes and got some decent shots. There are more of them on my instagram profile. The setup was similar to last time with a flash in a small softbox positioned to the left of the camera. The lens was a 100mm macro.

Jumping Spider - Colombo, Sri Lanka

I found this Jumping Spider in the garden this morning. I'd been keeping an eye out for one of them to photograph and ran for the macro lens as soon as I saw it. I was able to fire off a few frames before it decided to hop away and disappear into the foliage. Overall I'm happy with this image but would have liked to have had a bit more time to photograph the spider.

Green Tree Ant - Colombo Sri Lanka

 

I found this Green Tree Ant on an indoor plant at home. This resulted in  the macro lens, a flash and a small diffuser being pulled out and the poor ant being photographed for about half an hour. I'd never refuse a bit of entertainment during the lockdown!

Common Mormon - Colombo, Sri Lanka

The Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) is a swallow tailed butterfly found in Southern and South-Eastern Asia. This photograph was taken in our garden in Colombo. A number of butterflies frequent the garden as we have planted a number of natives. I observed and photographed this butterfly mating a day or two after this shot was taken. Hopefully this indicates that the garden is a healthy eco-system!

Weaver Ant - Colombo, Sri Lanka

I came across this weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) in the garden and photographed it with a macro lens. The hardest part of the whole process was to lock focus on the ant as it moved around a fair bit. Fortunately my macro lens supports auto-focus. If not, pre-focusing and waiting would have made this shot so much harder. For lighting I used a hand held Canon 430EX speed light.