# Kingdom of Silk (And more!)



## Austin Greene (Jun 3, 2013)

Taken yesterday! 

1. 



Kingdom of Silk by TogaLive, on Flickr


And a few other recent shots, in case you missed them in other parts of the forums!

2.



King of Flowers by TogaLive, on Flickr

3. 



Stiletto by TogaLive, on Flickr

4.



Peekaboo! by TogaLive, on Flickr

5.



Thorny Rose by TogaLive, on Flickr

6.



Beyond by TogaLive, on Flickr

7. 



Prickly by TogaLive, on Flickr

Hope you enjoyed them!


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## weepete (Jun 3, 2013)

Nice! I particulary like the last shot, though they are all stunning. Mind if I ask what gear you shot these with?


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## greybeard (Jun 3, 2013)

They are all great, #7 is my favorite.


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## EDL (Jun 3, 2013)

Nice work!  I like #4 (Peekaboo) the best.

Man, can't wait till my MPE-65 gets here and the MT24-EX flash I bought off Canonfodder should be here by end of week too...


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## Austin Greene (Jun 3, 2013)

EDL said:


> Nice work!  I like #4 (Peekaboo) the best.
> 
> Man, can't wait till my MPE-65 gets here and the MT24-EX flash I bought off Canonfodder should be here by end of week too...



Thank you! Peekaboo is my favorite as well!

Oh man, I wish I could afford a beautiful lens like that. Damn you college-student budgets! Still, can't wait to see the images! 



greybeard said:


> They are all great, #7 is my favorite.



Really glad you liked them, and thank you for the kind words. #7 isn't one of my best technically, but damn there are some memories there trying to shoot that frisky little guy!



weepete said:


> Nice! I particulary like the last shot, though they are all stunning. Mind if I ask what gear you shot these with?


Thank you! They were all taken handheld with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 (Nifty Fifty) on 49mm of manual extension tubes. I pre-set the lens to f/8 or f/10. Not the best macro setup, but it's all I can afford as a college student. I typically shoot one handed in my right hand, and hold a flash with my left. Typically at ISO100, 1/200 unless I'm wanting to bring in more background light


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## laynea24 (Jun 3, 2013)

Outstanding!


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## MLCIII (Jun 3, 2013)

These are awesome! #4 is my fav. Where did you find these guys? Looks like three different species?


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## greybeard (Jun 3, 2013)

togalive said:


> EDL said:
> 
> 
> > Nice work!  I like #4 (Peekaboo) the best.
> ...


When you've got talent, you don't need the greatest equipment, just adequate will do, talent takes care of the rest.


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## gregtallica (Jun 4, 2013)

Awesome, I love #4 and here's why. I HATE spiders IRL. I can do snakes, scorpions, whatever weird creepy crawlies there are, but spiders just don't fly. So that view just kind of reaffirms to me that they're just these tiny, scared little creatures. The whole "they're more scared of you" kind of mentality. I like all of these, but I love that one.

One of my favorite macro shots of all time because of that. Not to mention, technically speaking, it's very well done.


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## Kenlv (Jun 7, 2013)

Great pictures.  What kind of hand held flash do you use?  Also, can you use a faster shutter speed than 200 with the hand held or is it limited to 200?  Very good looking bugs!


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## weepete (Jun 7, 2013)

Thanks for the answer togalvie, it's good to know you can get great macro shots with that set up. Tbh that was the answer I was hopeing you'd give as I'm going to be buying a cheap set of extension tubes soon too, and after seeing these I will have no excuse for bad pics! Btw, your not the only one that's skint right now, theres a lot of us in the same boat !


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## TJNY (Jun 7, 2013)

Really nice!  While all awesome, #4 is my favorite as well.


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## manaheim (Jun 7, 2013)

AUGH.

not what I expected.


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## Austin Greene (Jun 9, 2013)

Sorry its taken me so long to reply! It's finals week here at UC Davis, and man is free time scarce. 



laynea24 said:


> Outstanding!



Thank you laynea! 



MLCIII said:


> These are awesome! #4 is my fav. Where did you find these guys? Looks like three different species?



Thanks MLC! Really glad you enjoyed them  I found most of them in our local Arboretum here at UC Davis. Enough time spent crawling through the brush and you would be amazed at what you find! In fact there are two different species of jumping spider shown, and one species of Lynx Spider. 



greybeard said:


> togalive said:
> 
> 
> > EDL said:
> ...





gregtallica said:


> Awesome, I love #4 and here's why. I HATE spiders IRL. I can do snakes, scorpions, whatever weird creepy crawlies there are, but spiders just don't fly. So that view just kind of reaffirms to me that they're just these tiny, scared little creatures. The whole "they're more scared of you" kind of mentality. I like all of these, but I love that one.
> 
> One of my favorite macro shots of all time because of that. Not to mention, technically speaking, it's very well done.



Wow, Its a great feeling to know one of my images is held in such high regard, that totally made my day! Thank you for the kind words and feedback! 



Kenlv said:


> Great pictures.  What kind of hand held flash do you use?  Also, can you use a faster shutter speed than 200 with the hand held or is it limited to 200?  Very good looking bugs!



Thanks Kenlv! I'm shooting with a YN565EXII, so a pretty standard speedlight. No ring-flash, just a cheapy Fotodiox 8" softbox strapped to it. My 6D actually only syncs to 180, but I typically can get away with 1/200 without it impacting the image. The faster the shutter speed the better in the case of these images, others can certainly shoot faster than what I am, but I've got a system going  



weepete said:


> Thanks for the answer togalvie, it's good to know you can get great macro shots with that set up. Tbh that was the answer I was hopeing you'd give as I'm going to be buying a cheap set of extension tubes soon too, and after seeing these I will have no excuse for bad pics! Btw, your not the only one that's skint right now, theres a lot of us in the same boat !



No problem! Just be prepared for the learning curve. Do yourself a favor and don't use a tripod. Learn to hand-hold or use a monopod and enjoy the flexibility it brings. Most of all, just be patient with your bugs. Ideally I spend at least as much time just watching them as I do shooting, if not much more. 



TJNY said:


> Really nice!  While all awesome, #4 is my favorite as well.



Glad you liked them! Jumpers can be so cute! 



manaheim said:


> AUGH.
> 
> not what I expected.



Sorry :/ I think the silk your looking for is in a different gallery


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## leighthal (Jun 11, 2013)

Nominated #4 Peekaboo! for June photo of the month.


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## Austin Greene (Jun 11, 2013)

leighthal said:


> Nominated #4 Peekaboo! for June photo of the month.


WOW! Thank you so much! I've never been nominated for it before. Seeing this after returning from a horrible final exam has made my day!


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## Devinhullphoto (Jun 13, 2013)

I love "Beyond". All of them are great though!


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