freezing spider for macro stacking.

[enliten]

Hey guys,

Got a bit of an obscure question here... If I freeze a spider so that he wont move around whilst I macro stack, will his legs still curl up?

Cheers,

Ben.

[kds315*]

A spider is a living animal - would you like to be frozen?

[enliten]

I felt bad the entire time I was catching him / storing him in my freezer... he suffers for my hobby...

on the upside he may be very happy considering it was 39°C here today.

-Ben

[poilu]

I never use flash on any human or animals, I don't like flash in my own eyes
and of course, I don't like to be frozen

[kds315*]

For me doing such (freezing, flashing etc.) is ethically unacceptable. I use dead insects that I find at times instead. Those can be prepared with some Glycerol (or glycerin, glycerine)/water mix (moistened cloth, insect on top in a closed tube for some hours) to unbend and then take photos. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycerol

[dragom]

[ForenSeil]

It's possible without harming them.
I've narcotized a spider by putting it into a plastic box (~750ml) with 2 ehtyl acetate (precisly it was only acetone free nail remover, which contained also a little alcohol) soaked cotton swabs (Q-Tips).
Then I put the whole box in the fridge @~5° for ~10min to accelerate the process.

But be careful, I guess overdosing is very easy.

After that the spider was unconscious for at least 2-3 hours. And now it's hanging in the same edge of my living room again

This method is also used by butterfly collectors, but they don't use a fridge and they are exposing the butterflys very long to high doeses of ethyl acetat vapours with the intent to kill the smoothly without causing any convulsions etc.


Professionals in labs are using carbon dioxide (maybe you can get some from soda stream system etc.) for insects. Some were also using tricaine mesylate (also called MS 222, I guess very hard to get for you) for small insects, fishes and many other water living organsisms (it's very fast).

[Attila]

[ducdao]

[elliott]

This guy never freezes the spiders he photographs and a majority of these are stacked images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opoterser/

[Attila]

[Kram]

Wow, are you guys vegan?
I am.

[martinsmith99]

[Kram]

@martin, but do you freeze spiders?

[Orio]

What's wrong now in using fast shutter time to avoid movement problem?

[visualopsins]

Hold down shutter while moving focus ring to make images for stacking? Seems like a skill that could be developed.

Mostly vegan I do eat sometimes dairy like greek style yogurt & parmigiano reggiano but no eggs, and sometimes smoked salmon. I prefer to eat low on the food chain, before any eyes appear.

Any creature with eyes has self-consciousness I think -- creatures with eyes appear to be curious -- they will look into my eyes with what seems like the recognition that I too have eyes that see, that I am also looking at them(!) -- at least they recognize my eyes as eyes, or my eyes as a significant part of my own creature anatomy. They seem to have 'personality' and "character" as diverse in their terms as those qualities are diverse in humans.

I do murder mosquitos, moths, and flies that bother me and I throw live ticks into the fire. The rest I watch and leave alone -- they keep the place clean & healthy. Spiders get the flies. Ants clear the stuff that would spoil & breed bad bacterias -- they are in & out in practically no time.

[poilu]