So I am working on my macro game. Improving my wildlife photography is something I try really hard to do, and having any excuse to go outdoors, between travels, when I am home to photograph wildlife, is definitely a bonus. Well, a few months back, my Sophia asked me for a macro lens. I of course, thinking it was a good idea for her, and of course, secretly for me, decided to pick one up. I picked up a Canon 35mm macro 1:2.8. Which is a really nice lens, but of course, I want to pick up another one, like a 90mm macro for my next lens.

Anyway, I took my camera out back and decided to find some bugs to shoot. One of the first ones I found was this tiny little spider. I carefully captured him, and took it over to a set up I had on a table with some plants, along with a small table top tripod.

When I snapped those first few images I was at first blown away with the detail the 35mm lens could capture of such a small creature. The spider was the size of a tiny mosquito. But what blew me away even more was the colors of this spider, it was stunningly beautiful. The species is called an orchard spider.

It is mind blowing how amazing the color patterns are on such a tiny animal. It didn’t make sense to me why nature would create such an amazing looking animal.

Anyway, I enjoyed this photo session a lot. It takes a lot of work trying to capture nice images of these tiny life forms. I still have a lot to learn about macro photography and I am excited to learn more about it. Of course, I am also doing this to learn more about it for underwater photography.

For me, it is all about improving my craft and getting better at photographing wildlife… all types of wildlife, both big and small. The next step for me is to learn how to do macro photography with stacking images in photoshop. That is when you can truly capture the amazing magic of this tiny world. And the way I see it - the more I learn, the more I will be able to help those that travel with us to improve their images on our trips. Until then, here are a few images I captured of these backyard badasses.