I’ve planted some milkweed plants in my yard to attract Monarch butterflies. I also get caterpillars and this year these milkweed bugs. They are very colorful and, unfortunately, eat everything?? There are masses of them but this guy was by himself so he presented himself as an interesting subject. I bumped up the ISO to 6400 to get as much light for DoF as possible and shot at f/40…I’m not sure what that actually is in effective aperture. I processed it through DXO PureRaw to denoise the image but I don’t get much noise on my Nikon Z8 at these ‘lower’ ISOs. I didn’t do much post processing at all on the image…just some tonal adjustments.
Collection Specs:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 105mm f/2.8 micro lens
ISO 6400
1/100 at F/40
On tripod and live subject
7 comments posted
Margaret West
I never heard of milkweed spiders. I will check my milkweeds more closely. This is a great photo! Love the milkweed strands surrounding the spider and focus on him is great. Posted: 10/04/2026 17:44:24
Stuart Ord
Great picture, Jeff. I love the sharpness and slight softness in some areas that give depth. f40 on your Nikon lens is probably about f16-f22 mechanically. Jolly sharp for that! Posted: 10/07/2026 06:35:26
Gloria Grandolini
Wow very nice image. I like the composition very much. Also the different textures and colors are very pleasing. Super sharp. Posted: 10/15/2026 21:13:40
Carol Sheppard
This image really works!! Creepy with him coming out of the strands...perfect! It tells a story. The only thing I would look at (and I mean, the ONLY thing) is to crop a bit off the left edge, placing more emphasis on your spider and eliminating the dark triangle in the lower left corner. I found that left corner distracting as a viewer but also superfluous. Also, by eliminating that left side and its strand, you will be framing the spider better. Great image! Posted: 10/18/2026 17:03:52
Jeff Fleisher
Here is a revised version with the lower left corner cropped in to remove the dark triangle you mentioned. Posted: 10/19/2026 01:25:02
Carol Sheppard
I see the difference but I think just cropping a full slice on the left, just to the inside edge of that white strand, would also place more emphasis on your bug. The alternative could be cloning as suggested by Mike. The caution is that I think (not positive) cloning is not acceptable in some competitions while cropping is. Posted: 10/26/2026 13:17:56
Mike Cowdrey
This is a stunning image, beautifully rendered and I like the fact that the insect is not central to the shot. For that reason I would prefer to clone the dark triangle rather than crop it out!
Posted: 10/25/2026 08:01:17
