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Spiders Really Do Live
Under Toilet Seats
By Phill PetrovicIf you’ve ever heard anything about Australia it may be that you’ve been told to look under the toilet seat for Red Back spiders before stealing some uninterrupted time in the quietest and darkest room of the house – the Aussie outback toilet. Australia is home to some of the most-deadly insects and arachnids in the world – all of which, despite their fearsome reputation, are extremely photographic.
Macro photography is generally recognized as the art of capturing images of small objects at a scale larger than life. Insects and spiders fit perfectly into the serious macro photographer’s psyche as they pose in unpredictable positions and are always on the move. Depending on the insect - this can make it extremely difficult to capture them clearly-enough for the photograph to be of high-enough quality for presentation value.
The Australian Red Back spider is a very timid creature. It lives in warm dark places such as wood piles, under the eaves of homes, along timber fences and yes – even under the famed outback Aussie toilet seat! They’ve even started to make their presence known in the steel cities of Japan – courtesy of shipments of Australian iron ore.
Finding a Red Back can sometimes be the easy part of the shoot – they’re everywhere in summer. Getting the little creature to keep still and pose in the right position and light can be the difficult part.
Shooting macro photography images usually means getting as close as only a couple of inches away from the subject. This can sometimes be a disturbing experience when photographing the Red Back. They’re mostly shy and sometimes move fast.
I’ve never read anywhere that Red Back spiders can jump; however I’ve had a couple of experiences where I’ve witnessed this. It’s usually the smaller ones that will leap from the leaf of a shrub and swing on a fine thread to the ground in an attempt to escape. So when you’ve spent the last five minutes setting up the shot only to see the highly magnified spider disappear from the eyepiece of the camera in an instant - you’ll find yourself spending the next fifteen minutes looking for the damn thing up the leg of your trousers!
The silky smooth blackness of the Red Back in sunlight lends itself to a set of gleaming macro photographs you’ll be proud to show to your friends.
If you go searching for a Red Back to photograph, be warned; around 200 Australians are bitten each year! Phill Petrovic is the owner of Photo Shop Australia at: http://www.PhotoShopAustralia.com
Photo Shop Australia provides unique and amazing Australian nature photography including macro, infrared and landscape images of Australia. Photo Shop Australia also has a page of totally royalty free images available for free download for businesses and personal users.Article Source: http://www.EzineArticles.com
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