outdoor photography

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail This morning I was at Central Winds Park, my favorite birding local birding location in the fall, and a Tiger Swallowtail landed right in front of me.  In fact, I had to back up in order to get these shots.  In the background were cypress trees and bare sky, and these three shots were taken with me standing in slightly different places.  I think you can see the difference it makes where you stand.  The first image below was the shot I took right when the butterfly landed.  I wanted to get the shot before I re-positioned myself, but I don't really care for this shot at all.  The sky in the background is making me alter my exposure, and I still have bright spots that compete with the subject for attention.  So I started moving around to see if I could find an angle on the butterfly that would be only distant trees.  The second image below was the result I was able to achieve if I moved to the left--a little better, but ...

Golden Silk Orbweaver A few days ago I was reminded of how important it is to be mindful of your angle of view.  I apologize in advance to any of you that don't like photos of spiders, but I found a couple Golden Silk Orbweavers and had some fun photographing them.  When I found the first one, I shot the spider head on, since that's the angle I had available to me with a clean background.  But the lighting made the webbing all but disappear, so I had to leave some of the spider's "leftovers" in the frame to give the photo some context. Golden Silk Orbweaver Later that day I found another one, and initially, I began photographing it from a similar angle, happy to have the web somewhat more visible.  But then I noticed that the spider was in the process of eating breakfast, and a different angle might allow the spider's prey to be more visible.  And from a different angle, the spider's web also became wonderful.   Golden Silk Orbweaver G...