This weekend I learned how difficult it is to get good shots of a tiny spider when it is in the middle of a cluster of plants and is surrounded by an untidy mess of web material, rather than a nice web. Auto-focus was utterly useless and the camera refused to focus on the spider—it wanted to focus either on the plants in the background or on the web material. Manual focusing was required and it was tough to tell which parts of the spider were in focus at any given moment.
I used my tripod, which helped a little, and even used the pop-up flash to give me little extra light (you can see the shadows it caused in the second photo). I especially like the way that the colors in the images turned out, giving the photos kind of an out-of-this-world, sci-fi look.
The second shot is an action shot in which the spider has captured some kind of flying insect, which I can’t really identify. I didn’t have a great angle, but find the shot to be interesting.
As I shoot more insects and spiders, I am experimenting and finding out what works for me (and admiring even more the photographers who are able to get the amazing shots that I see on other blogs and elsewhere on the internet).
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
It’s hard to identify the spider from just its ventral aspect; it looks like an orb weaver, but the web doesn’t appear to be very orb-like at all. The unfortunate insect, I think, is probably a green lacewing.
The web was definitely a mess. If it’s an orb-weaver, it’s one that needs a class on web=building. Last summer I got some nice shots of big orb-weavers with beautiful webs and even got to see them wrap up some of their prey.
You did a great job – you have a lot of patience. Great pictures.
Thanks. Generally I have a lot of patience (and shot a lot of photos trying to get ones in focus).
I have that auto-focus problem with the warblers too, but can’t use manual focus because they move too fast. These photos are great; your eye is very accurate.
My camera is old enough that it doesn’t offer Live View. I have hear that manual focusing is easier if you can use Live View at 5x or 10x (assuming that your subject will stay in one place long enough).
Auto focus sounded like such a great innovation, but if anything puts me in a rubber room, it will be that.
For certain types of shots, auto focus is more trouble than it is worth. Much of the time, though, it works ok for me.