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Bug Ugly - IT only comes out at night :-O

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Steve Cavigliano

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Hi all-

A couple of days ago, I spotted a large spiderweb in the backyard. Unfortunately, I spotted it after I had snapped one of it's supporting cables...lol OK, supporting threads, then. So without one of it's connections, it started waving in the wind :-( I checked it out the next morning and it had been re-attached :-) I have been checking it daily to see what might have constructed this huge web. It's about 30 inches in diameter and the support threads stretch across two tree limbs that are 12 feet apart :-O

Unlike Skippy's area, we don't get many BIG spiders. Well, other than the occassional tarantula. I checked this web every hour, during the next few days. No spider. Last evening I figured I'd check it after the Sun went down. Lo and behold, a spider, about the size of a US Quarter coin, was wrapping up the day's catch in the center of the web :-)

I ran in the house and grabbed my 717, my F-1000 and a +2 close up. This guy/gal was just too rounded to shoot a macro of it. I wouldn't get much of it in focus. Also, the F-1000 is not exactly a great macro flash (that's an understatement...lol). So I decided to try to get a few shots from a foot, or so away, using the F-1000, with an Ultrabounce, and the +2 close up, so I could zoom in.

Knowing how the F-1000 can really over expose, even when diffused, when shooting in tight. I figured it was a lost cause. But, there's no harm in trying, right?

Here's a few of the resulting images.





Not great, but much better than I expected :-)

I guess my point is, that even if you feel there's a good chance you won't get the shot you're after. It's still worth making the attempt. You may not get the results you wanted, but you may learn somethings, that will help you in the future.

If anyone knows what kind of spider this is, and whether it's poisonous...lol. I'd appreciate that feedback.

Thanks for reading this,
Steve

--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
 
Great Photos....!

Ive been tryin to get some spider close ups lately with the 717 switched into macro mode...and for some reason I cant get the focus clear enough to warrant a good photo...Im not sure if its because of the poor lighting conditions but I just cant seem to get it right.....

Bruce@LiquidFusion
 
Yech, freaky its so big spiders creap me out, nice shot though
Steve Cavigliano said:
Hi all-

A couple of days ago, I spotted a large spiderweb in the backyard.
Unfortunately, I spotted it after I had snapped one of it's
supporting cables...lol OK, supporting threads, then. So without
one of it's connections, it started waving in the wind :-( I
checked it out the next morning and it had been re-attached :-) I
have been checking it daily to see what might have constructed this
huge web. It's about 30 inches in diameter and the support threads
stretch across two tree limbs that are 12 feet apart :-O

Unlike Skippy's area, we don't get many BIG spiders. Well, other
than the occassional tarantula. I checked this web every hour,
during the next few days. No spider. Last evening I figured I'd
check it after the Sun went down. Lo and behold, a spider, about
the size of a US Quarter coin, was wrapping up the day's catch in
the center of the web :-)

I ran in the house and grabbed my 717, my F-1000 and a +2 close up.
This guy/gal was just too rounded to shoot a macro of it. I
wouldn't get much of it in focus. Also, the F-1000 is not exactly
a great macro flash (that's an understatement...lol). So I decided
to try to get a few shots from a foot, or so away, using the
F-1000, with an Ultrabounce, and the +2 close up, so I could zoom
in.

Knowing how the F-1000 can really over expose, even when diffused,
when shooting in tight. I figured it was a lost cause. But,
there's no harm in trying, right?

Here's a few of the resulting images.





Not great, but much better than I expected :-)

I guess my point is, that even if you feel there's a good chance
you won't get the shot you're after. It's still worth making the
attempt. You may not get the results you wanted, but you may learn
somethings, that will help you in the future.

If anyone knows what kind of spider this is, and whether it's
poisonous...lol. I'd appreciate that feedback.

Thanks for reading this,
Steve

--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
Click to expand...
--
Sparky_ca
I have a photographic memory, but I always seem to have the lens cap on.
 
Steve,

On my last trip to Florida I found a similar spider outside my hotel. It only came out at night too. I got a few shots of it using "nightframing". Ugly sob's but they make for a great subject. Thanks for sharing your shots.

Harry

http://www.pbase.com/hpb

--

'We don't make a photograph just with a camera; we bring to the act of photography all the books we have read, the movies we have seen, the music we have heard, the people we have loved.' Ansel Adams
 
Bruce@LiquidFusion said:
Great Photos....!

Ive been tryin to get some spider close ups lately with the 717
switched into macro mode...and for some reason I cant get the focus
clear enough to warrant a good photo...Im not sure if its because
of the poor lighting conditions but I just cant seem to get it
right.....

Bruce@LiquidFusion
Click to expand...
It may be due to the shallow depth of field you get when using macro. If your subject isn't, pretty much, paralell to the lensface (and flat). It is difficult to get much of it in focus. That's one of the reasons I didn't try using macro on this spider (the other being lack of light). It just had too much depth to be captured well, IMO. IOW, I might have gotten it's back in focus, but every other part would have been out of focus. DOF when using macro can get down to the tenths of an inch level.

Thanks for the kind words and good luck to you and your macros :-)

Steve
--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
 
Harry Behret said:
Steve,

On my last trip to Florida I found a similar spider outside my
hotel. It only came out at night too. I got a few shots of it using
"nightframing". Ugly sob's but they make for a great subject.
Thanks for sharing your shots.

Harry
Click to expand...
Thanks Harry :-) I'll be looking to get some better shots of this one if it keeps coming out at nightfall.

Wow!! Vegas and now Florida. And I'm stuck in my own backyard....lol

Steve
Harry Behret said:
--
'We don't make a photograph just with a camera; we bring to the act
of photography all the books we have read, the movies we have seen,
the music we have heard, the people we have loved.' Ansel Adams
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
 
I think perhaps Ann means that it isn't deadly. All spiders have venom. Their survival depends on it. Very few spiders have venom strong enough to do serious damage to a person. This spider falls in that category.

They are not aggressive either, but I'll bet you found that out when you were four inches away from the homely lady. :-)

I've got a spider that looks like your spider's twin on my back porch. It comes out every night about 10PM and builds a new web. By sunrise, the web is gone. I've often wondered if the spider removes the web or if it just deteriorates that rapidly. I just don't want to know bad enough to stay up all night.

--
Charles Booher

http://www.boohers.com
 
Hey Steve:

I like the shots very much. These kinds of shots are murder to pull off, and I think you did well. You are SO right...too many folks worry about the circumstances being "just right," instead of just taking the shot anyway. Sure, we should try to set up the shot as much as we can, but sometimes you just gotta pull the trigger.

Your story reminds me of my experiences in Misawa, Japan, when I lived there. We had a HUGE black spider, the biggest I've ever seen, living in a gigantic Web outside our back door. We named him Boris (after The Who's Boris the Spider) so that our (then) young daughter wouldn't be so scared of the big black hairy monster living on our back porch. She heard the song a bunch of times (I like the music), and it calmed her fears.

It never calmed mine. That thing was a beast.

Florindo
Steve Cavigliano said:
Hi all-

A couple of days ago, I spotted a large spiderweb in the backyard.
Unfortunately, I spotted it after I had snapped one of it's
supporting cables...lol OK, supporting threads, then. So without
one of it's connections, it started waving in the wind :-( I
checked it out the next morning and it had been re-attached :-) I
have been checking it daily to see what might have constructed this
huge web. It's about 30 inches in diameter and the support threads
stretch across two tree limbs that are 12 feet apart :-O

Unlike Skippy's area, we don't get many BIG spiders. Well, other
than the occassional tarantula. I checked this web every hour,
during the next few days. No spider. Last evening I figured I'd
check it after the Sun went down. Lo and behold, a spider, about
the size of a US Quarter coin, was wrapping up the day's catch in
the center of the web :-)

I ran in the house and grabbed my 717, my F-1000 and a +2 close up.
This guy/gal was just too rounded to shoot a macro of it. I
wouldn't get much of it in focus. Also, the F-1000 is not exactly
a great macro flash (that's an understatement...lol). So I decided
to try to get a few shots from a foot, or so away, using the
F-1000, with an Ultrabounce, and the +2 close up, so I could zoom
in.

Knowing how the F-1000 can really over expose, even when diffused,
when shooting in tight. I figured it was a lost cause. But,
there's no harm in trying, right?

Here's a few of the resulting images.

Not great, but much better than I expected :-)

I guess my point is, that even if you feel there's a good chance
you won't get the shot you're after. It's still worth making the
attempt. You may not get the results you wanted, but you may learn
somethings, that will help you in the future.

If anyone knows what kind of spider this is, and whether it's
poisonous...lol. I'd appreciate that feedback.

Thanks for reading this,
Steve

--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
Click to expand...
 
Charles Booher said:
I think perhaps Ann means that it isn't deadly. All spiders have
venom. Their survival depends on it. Very few spiders have venom
strong enough to do serious damage to a person. This spider falls
in that category.
Click to expand...
Whew!! That's good news. I though maybe it was some exotic species that can jump or spit venom....LOL It's nice to know it's docile and relatively harmless (unless you happen to be a flying insect ;-)
Charles Booher said:
They are not aggressive either, but I'll bet you found that out
when you were four inches away from the homely lady. :-)
Click to expand...
Actually, I never got closer than 12, or 14 inches. I needed the distance so I could light it up (and not fry it) with my F-1000 flash. I thought that it's shape would have given me real focus and DOF issues, if I were within macro distance. I also, wanted to capture as much of that huge web as I could.
Charles Booher said:
I've got a spider that looks like your spider's twin on my back
porch. It comes out every night about 10PM and builds a new web.
By sunrise, the web is gone. I've often wondered if the spider
removes the web or if it just deteriorates that rapidly. I just
don't want to know bad enough to stay up all night.
Click to expand...
I noticed new holes and tears in the web every morning. But it is still pretty much intact. The first day I spotted it, it was a perfectly shaped circle. I was tempted to get a spray bottle and mist it and shoot it. But, it just isn't the same without the spider at home to give it some sense of scale.

Thanks for the input :-)

Steve
--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
 
Florindo Gallicchio said:
Hey Steve:
Your story reminds me of my experiences in Misawa, Japan, when I
lived there. We had a HUGE black spider, the biggest I've ever
seen, living in a gigantic Web outside our back door. We named him
Boris (after The Who's Boris the Spider) so that our (then) young
daughter wouldn't be so scared of the big black hairy monster
living on our back porch. She heard the song a bunch of times (I
like the music), and it calmed her fears.

It never calmed mine. That thing was a beast.
Click to expand...
Florindo,

You are a better man than I ;-) My wife has passed on her "bug phobia" to our children. She even freaks out if there's a small moth in the house :-O The family would have gotten zero sleep knowing that a "monster" was lurking right outside the door. I mean if I can't convince them that moths are harmless. I wouldn't stand a chance with a huge ugly spider :-(

While it wouldn't have bothered me, I find it hard to sleep with people crying and screaming....LOL So good ole dad would have had to go out and vanquish the monster (Dad's are good for this sort of thing ;-)

I haven't even told my wife about the spider in our backyard, or shown her these pics yet. I'm afraid she'd make me send it off to spider heaven....lol

Thanks for the kewl story and comments :-)

Steve

--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
 
Hi Steve,

Send it to my place hehehe:) one thing we do lack here where I live is colorful spiders, most of the ones I find are either black, brown, grey or a variation of these three colors.

The webs are simply intriguing, each has a unique design..... I noticed some in Queensland that actually wove CROSSES into their webs, they go to a lot of trouble to make their webs, and each is truely a wonderful piece of art work......another thing I noticed to was the strength of some of the connecting support threads, you'd swear they were nylon.

Confession time......something that absolutely sends chills down my spine is accidently walking into a web.....I am usually too scared to move for fear that not only have a brought the webdown on myself, but is "whatever" made that web now on my body somewhere!!!!!!.......yup, yup, this I don't handle very well at all.....but that's okay I'm allow to be afraid I'm a girl hehehe:)

It's not easy to photograph bugs and spiders and insects in Macro/Close-up, you have to contend with breezes, or the creature actually moving, and the fact that any sudden movement will result in the creature quickly exiting the scene.

Many times you cannot move into a better position to photograph the subject, because these creatures tend to pick inaccessable places to make an appearance, and never have I seen a light switch near by :)

It is well worth any attempt to capture an image, and often you will be pleasantly surprised at the results, and sometimes disappoint, but hey that's the way things go sometimes :)

I found my new Velbon Macro Slider head for my tripod to be extemely useful when photographing my last spider.......I was not able to move the tripod any closer than where I had it, but the sliding head allowed me to move it almost 2 inches into the tree branch, without moving the tripod itself........when I couldn't focus the spider I was able to move the Slider by a fraction of an inch and lock it while I took the photos.

Thank you so much for sharing your hairy friend with us, I do enjoy seeing such interesting creatures, their shapes, sizes, and color are just amazing.

So Steve, tell me, did it scare you when you saw the size of the spider that owned the web???? did you have any idea it would be as big as it was???? ............... Skippy (Australia)
Steve Cavigliano said:
Hi all-

A couple of days ago, I spotted a large spiderweb in the backyard.
Unfortunately, I spotted it after I had snapped one of it's
supporting cables...lol OK, supporting threads, then. So without
one of it's connections, it started waving in the wind :-( I
checked it out the next morning and it had been re-attached :-) I
have been checking it daily to see what might have constructed this
huge web. It's about 30 inches in diameter and the support threads
stretch across two tree limbs that are 12 feet apart :-O

Unlike Skippy's area, we don't get many BIG spiders. Well, other
than the occassional tarantula. I checked this web every hour,
during the next few days. No spider. Last evening I figured I'd
check it after the Sun went down. Lo and behold, a spider, about
the size of a US Quarter coin, was wrapping up the day's catch in
the center of the web :-)

I ran in the house and grabbed my 717, my F-1000 and a +2 close up.
This guy/gal was just too rounded to shoot a macro of it. I
wouldn't get much of it in focus. Also, the F-1000 is not exactly
a great macro flash (that's an understatement...lol). So I decided
to try to get a few shots from a foot, or so away, using the
F-1000, with an Ultrabounce, and the +2 close up, so I could zoom
in.

Knowing how the F-1000 can really over expose, even when diffused,
when shooting in tight. I figured it was a lost cause. But,
there's no harm in trying, right?

Here's a few of the resulting images.
Click to expand...
Steve Cavigliano said:
Not great, but much better than I expected :-)

I guess my point is, that even if you feel there's a good chance
you won't get the shot you're after. It's still worth making the
attempt. You may not get the results you wanted, but you may learn
somethings, that will help you in the future.

If anyone knows what kind of spider this is, and whether it's
poisonous...lol. I'd appreciate that feedback.
Thanks for reading this,
Steve
--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
Click to expand...
--

 
Skippy said:
Hi Steve,
Send it to my place hehehe:) one thing we do lack here where I
live is colorful spiders, most of the ones I find are either black,
brown, grey or a variation of these three colors.
Click to expand...
What your spiders lack in color, they make up for in size...lol
Member said:
The webs are simply intriguing, each has a unique design..... I
noticed some in Queensland that actually wove CROSSES into their
webs, they go to a lot of trouble to make their webs, and each is
truely a wonderful piece of art work......another thing I noticed
to was the strength of some of the connecting support threads,
you'd swear they were nylon.
Click to expand...
Yep. That's what got me interested to begin with. The huge, beautiful web it had spun :-)
Member said:
Confession time......something that absolutely sends chills down my
spine is accidently walking into a web.....I am usually too scared
to move for fear that not only have a brought the webdown on
myself, but is "whatever" made that web now on my body
somewhere!!!!!!.......yup, yup, this I don't handle very well at
all.....but that's okay I'm allow to be afraid I'm a girl hehehe:)
Click to expand...
LOL...I knew it ;-) Now I don't feel so bad. While I'm not afraid of them.

I definitely would not enjoy one crawling on me, either. You don't have to be a girl to have common sense....lol
Member said:
It's not easy to photograph bugs and spiders and insects in
Macro/Close-up, you have to contend with breezes, or the creature
actually moving, and the fact that any sudden movement will result
in the creature quickly exiting the scene.
Click to expand...
You are correct. This guy/gal was pretty quiet. But it was windy. I had thought that maybe a long exposure, without the flash, might work better than using the flash. But, it was just too windy for that :-(
Member said:
Many times you cannot move into a better position to photograph the
subject, because these creatures tend to pick inaccessable places
to make an appearance, and never have I seen a light switch near by
:)
Click to expand...
Right, again. I would have snapped one of the web supports (cables...lol) if I would have tried to get a shot from behind.
Member said:
It is well worth any attempt to capture an image, and often you
will be pleasantly surprised at the results, and sometimes
disappoint, but hey that's the way things go sometimes :)
Click to expand...
Just like life....lol
Member said:
I found my new Velbon Macro Slider head for my tripod to be
extemely useful when photographing my last spider.......I was not
able to move the tripod any closer than where I had it, but the
sliding head allowed me to move it almost 2 inches into the tree
branch, without moving the tripod itself........when I couldn't
focus the spider I was able to move the Slider by a fraction of an
inch and lock it while I took the photos.
Click to expand...
Sounds like that head is worth looking into :-) These were handheld, at about 2/3 optical zoom, using speeds of 1/60-1/100. I was amazed that I didn't see any camera shake problems :-)
Member said:
Thank you so much for sharing your hairy friend with us, I do enjoy
seeing such interesting creatures, their shapes, sizes, and color
are just amazing.
Click to expand...
You are quite welcome. Afterall you share many of your fine shots. Turn about is fair play ;-)
Member said:
So Steve, tell me, did it scare you when you saw the size of the
spider that owned the web???? did you have any idea it would be as
big as it was???? ............... Skippy (Australia)
Click to expand...
Like I said. I'm not afraid of bugs. But it's size did intimidate me a little....lol

I see a lot of webs, but I've never seen one this large :-O I thought maybe it's spinner was some sort of mutated spider that had been exposed to nuclear waste....LOL Though, not scared. I was happy to see that it wasn't any larger than it actually was....lol

Thanks for the great comments, Skippy. Coming from the "ugly bug" macro queen, it's high praise, indeed :-)

Steve
--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k
'The question is not what you look at, but what you see' - Thoreau
 
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