I am retired optical physicist (statistical and adaptive optics analysis with a PhD from Caltech in 1978) and started my macro videography hobby in October 2018. A month later when I took my first video of a jumping spider, I thought, God, I’m good. I’m a natural at this! A couple months later, I realized how badly flawed those first videos were and how much better I had gotten in a couple of months. Now was the time to join a website and upload some videos. Once again I’m glad I delayed. Most of those videos will never see the light of day!

Finally I decided in late March 2019 to join Flickr as a Pro member and upload some videos taken three and four months after my start (and a few earlier flawed examples). I realize that I still have a lot to learn and will no doubt look back at the first public videos with a critical eye. Perhaps those early videos will be removed from Flickr a few months down the road.

As of mid-May 2019, I have uploaded nearly 250 videos, most of which are macro videos of jumping spiders and praying mantises. DO YOU WANT TO SAVE TIME AND START WITH THE BEST ONES? PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THE HALF DOZEN OR SO THAT I HAVE LISTED BELOW UNDER "SHOWCASE." I hope you enjoy those.

I use a Fujifilm X-T3 camera with the Fujifilm XF 80 mm macro lens (augmented with a 2.5x macro Raynox snap on lens for smaller objects) and initially took all of my videos outdoors in the natural environment. I soon decided to move that natural environment indoors where I had full control of the lighting and natural background. Finally, I decided (at least for now) that I was interested in “bug art.” The total focus of the video would be the bug, with no distractions at all from their natural environment. The bugs are usually videoed on tinted glass plates that ideally, appear jet-black at oblique angles (This can be difficult to achieve when the subject is also dark, as is the case with mature bold jumping spiders (without under-exposing the spider)). I have lived in Colorado since 1992.