This is a tiny spider I encountered while bug hunting in a thicket of Multiflora Rose beside my garage. They bloom in late May and June, attracting a variety of very photogenic bees, beetles, spiders, and other bugs… all of which are fairly easy to photograph, providing I can steer clear of thorns. I was getting a few pics of a longhorn beetle, shooting a flash through a lens-mounted diffuser made from the plastic bowl that comes in a "Healthy Choice" frozen dinner. Wanting to get a bit more light with slightly more pronounced shadows, I removed the diffuser and was ready to shoot when I noticed the spider crawling along near the rim. Here it’s inside the diffuser, on the side that faces the subject. Its size can be gauged by the fact that the bowl used for the diffuser is 7.5 inches in diameter. The portion used for its construction is about 1/3 of its circumference. To get this pic I dialed back the flash intensity, held the diffuser in front of the camera and popped off the shot. I went down to my computer room to arrange for getting a few more pics and by the time I got there the spider was beginning to construct a web, as if it was planning to take up residence on the diffuser. After getting a few more pics I released it in the rose bush, snapping a somewhat soft image as it was scooting away behind some buds.
Olympus E–M1MarkII, 60mm f/2.8 macro lens focused at infinity, with a "mystery" lens of unknown focal lens mounted on the 60mm. The Mystery Lens is a three element internal optic removed from a badly damaged zoom lens (can’t remember which one). I had originally trashed it because I was only interested in recovering the zoom lens’ objective. Later, while bagging the trash for rubbish day pickup, I realized that I had failed to to a quick check to see how many elements it had. I retrieved it, and did a quick "flashlight" test to determine how many reflections I found. Each separate lens element produces two reflections… one from the front surface and another from the back. With this lens I counted six reflections… a three element design crammed into a lens only 3/8 inches thick with a clear diameter of 1.5 inches… a VERY compact and lightweight item. Tests revealed this thing to be an outstanding supplemental lens when mounted with the convex lens surface toward the camera, the concave toward the subject.
AC27519
Posted by Small Creatures on 2023-06-17 16:24:51
Tagged: , spider , diffuser , macro , orb weaver , Olympus , E-M1MarkII , 60mm , close-up lens , supplemental lens , home-made , repurposed , lens modification , lens adapting , kludge , makeshift