Japan, typical early fall colors

[Norm in Fujino]

Just some typical colors found here in Japan in early fall:

First off, Veronica rotunda. The Japanese name is toranoo or "tiger's tail," a beautiful wild grass that grows luxuriantly throughout many fields here in the Kanto region; I found this in the community graveyard on the foothills above our house;

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/_9170868w1.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/_9170874w1.jpg

Next, a couple of Golden Orb weavers, one from the front side, one from the back (Japanese name is Joroh-gumo, "painted whore spider").

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/_9170854w1.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/_9170849w1.jpg

Finally, some Chinese Lantern plants (Jp. Houzuki, Physalis alkekengi), also taken in the graveyard--someone had planted them inside their family plot.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/_9170878w1.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/_9170883w1.jpg

Olympus E-300 + ED 50mm f2.0 macro, ISO 200/400, Silkypix

[FLiPMaRC]

:cool: Awesome. ;)

[Prospero]

Great job, Norm. The colours really come out great (as is usually the case with your pictures). My favourite is the first picture of the spider. The main reasons I prefer this one over the other one are its darker background and that the depth of field of the first picture is perfect.

[Norm in Fujino]

Thanks for looking. I actually started to make a disclaimer about the spider shots, since they were taken freehand and--like the "when good shots go bad" series I did earlier, both slightly oof due to camera movement. But I figured these were close enough for enlargements of this size. I've found it hard to get good shots of orb weavers due to the tendency to find them in high-DR situations. I found these just before dusk, so the background light was fairly dim. They also have substantial depth when you include their legs, so it's a challenge to get enough DOF on their closeups.