Category Archives: Portrait

Jumping Spider Habronattus cuspidatus revisited.

By Adrian | Published 13 February, 2013

Reviewing earlier images, I came across this Habronattus cuspidatus photo, taken in Dinosaur Provincial Park last year. Perky, ain’t he, with the green legs and golden knees?

© Adrian Thysse

Habronattus cuspidatus, Jumping spider from Dinosaur Provincial Park

 

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Video: Framing a Print for Gallery Display

By Adrian | Published 10 January, 2012

My wife says she has never seen me work so fast…

(Best viewed in HD full screen. If video loads slowly please turn down the quality setting)

Some galleries require a plain, narrow black metal frame, with the photograph surrounded by at least a 3″ wide white mat. All the materials are acid-free, conservation grade:

♦ 16″ x 20″ Single Mat Conservation Paper – White Wash, opening: 9″ x 13″

♦ 16″ x 20 Matshop Mouldings – Regular Black Metal

♦ 16″ x 20″ Backing Foamcore AF Black 3/16

♦ 16″ x 20″ Glazing Plexi – 1 mm

All supplies from the MatShop, Canada

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Also posted in Arachnid, Art, Competition, Composition, Conservation, macro, photography, Salticidae, Technique, Video, White Studio | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Exposed!

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 22 March, 2011

My daughter is soon to be launched on a musical tour of Spain, travelling with the Singing Strings Orchestra. I was clearing out the memory cards from her camera in preparation for the trip, when I came across a series of photos she had taken while I was photographing mason bees along the banks of the Saskatchewan river…

There are only a few images of me ‘at work’, so I thought I would share this one. I am using my standard configuration, consisting of the Nikon D80 with Tamron 90mm macro lens mounted on Kenko Pro 1.4x tele-extender, with the wireless Nikon R1 unit and 2 diffused flashes. This is the same exposed part of the riverbank that I discovered earlier that year (See ‘Dummkopf!).    It was an unsuccessful attempt at photographing the bees as they came in to land - very fast, and hard to predict. It was this location that made me reconsider the usefulness of high-speed photo triggers.

That bamboo pole? That’s for poking at hornet’s nests steadying myself while shooting – very light and infinitely adjustable. It also has many other uses – holding back vegetation, fending off dogs and nosy children…and toasting marshmallows.

(Photo by Arwen Thysse, 22 July, 2010. Canon A620)

Also posted in Alberta, Apidae, Edmonton, Equipment, Flash, Hymenoptera, Lenses, Summer, Technique | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Here’s Looking at You

By Adrian D. Thysse | Published 16 August, 2009

(Adapted from a previously published on Voyages  Around My Camera)

Cool

Cool

An older photograph from 2004, shot on film with Olympus OM4 and Tamron 90mm Macro lens. A portait of the Poplar Borer, Saperda calcarata. This insect is native to North America and this particular specimen was photographed in my backyard in Edmonton, Alberta. They have a relatively long life cycle, living up to 4 years.

“The adults feed on the foliage and the tender bark of twigs. The females lay their eggs in slits they have cut in the bark. After hatching, the larvae begin feeding in the cambium and then penetrate into the heartwood by creating deep galleries. In the spring of the last year of larval development, the larvae change into pupae and then into adults.

Swollen bark areas, sap run and piles of frass around the entrance to galleries near the base of the trunk and the roots are signs of the poplar borer’s presence. Bark swelling caused by larval activity is more visible in young poplars. The insect prefers trees with a diameter just over 10 cm, in low density stands.”*

*Reference: Natural Resources Canada.

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