by David Clarke | Dec 17, 2014 | All, Insects & Spiders, Phuket, Uncategorized, Wildlife

These fellows seem to follow me around. They are always in the garden or on the terrace at Gupole and yesterday, this guy was on the balcony sliding doors of our apartment in Phuket. He clearly knew that he made a good silhouette as he checked out the apartment, and he obligingly waved his front legs for me.
Canon 40D with a Canon 60mm EFS 2.8 macro lens at ISO 400, 1/1600 at f8
Cropped very slightly in Lightroom.
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by David Clarke | Oct 25, 2014 | All, Insects & Spiders, Italy, Wildlife

A few minutes before I took this shot, this male praying mantis had been floating face down, legs sprawled, in the swimming pool. Whatever stroke he was trying, it wasn’t proving successful, so it was fortunate for him that I wandered past and fished him out. He stood in the sun for some considerable time drying out – you can see a droplet of water on his head behind the antennae – and he was only too happy to repay my service by posing for a few pictures. Just in case he thought it was all too much fun, I then moved him into greenery far from the pool.
Location: Tuscany, Italy
Canon 40D with Canon EF-S 60mm macro lens. ISO 160 f6.3 1/320. Tweaked in LR.
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by David Clarke | Oct 24, 2014 | All, Italy, Places

A busy afternoon on the Grand Canal in Venice is rendered eerily quiet thanks to a neutral density filter and a long exposure. Taken from the square by the Guggenheim museum, this location just down from the famous Accademia bridge (think Canaletto) is always buzzing with boats. The faint blur of one that passed during the exposure can be seen on the much-flattened water.
Canon 40D with Canon 10-22mm EFS lens at 15mm and a ND 3.0 1000x filter, ISO 100, f10 20 seconds
by David Clarke | Nov 2, 2013 | All, Insects & Spiders, Italy, Wildlife
This dew-soaked little red spider is waiting motionless in its web for something tasty to arrive.
Canon 40D with Canon EFS f2.8 60mm macro lens, ISO500, 1/200 at f4
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by David Clarke | Oct 27, 2013 | All, Insects & Spiders, Italy

The misty Autumn mornings highlight the webs of the literally millions of spiders living in the woods around our house, each one busily constructing its own little world where it patiently waits for lunch to arrive. The trees and bushes are full of them, with the more enterprising, or maybe foolhardy, spiders slinging their webs across pathways or from one tree to the next. As the sun slowly burns off the mist, the webs light up a glistening display of water droplets on the threads. If there are millions of webs, imagine how many water droplets there must be…
Canon 40D with Canon EFS 60mm f2.8 macro on manual ISO500 1/1250 at f2.8
Full frame shot.
Location: Val Cerfone, Tuscany, Italy
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