Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘barn spider’

Spider in motion

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 8, 2015| 15 Comments »

I spotted this barn spider (Neoscona crucifera) hanging in the air about the same time she sensed my presence. She scampered up her web as I moved in a little closer. Eventually she climbed back down and I managed to get these shots of her in motion.

Initially I couldn’t figure out why she was hurrying down the strands of her web. When she stopped, however, I could see that she was anxious to finish off the snack that she had wrapped up earlier.

Although these shots may look like they were taken with a macro lens, they were actually taken at 600mm on my Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens. I ended up focusing manually on the spider, because my camera kept wanting to focus on the background, which was a good distance away. Additionally, I used my pop-up flash on at least some of these images to bring out some of the details of the spider.

barn spider

barn spider

barn spider

barn spider

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Seeing spots

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2013| 3 Comments »

As the outside temperatures continue to drop, I am seeing fewer and fewer spiders. This is one of my favorite recent shots of what I think is a barn spider. I really like the way that the spots in the background mirror the spots on the spider’s abdomen.

I think that this may be a Neoscona crucifera spider, though it may be an Araneus cavaticus spider. Strangely enough, both of them are sometimes known as barn spiders.

orange_spider2_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

To flash or not to flash?

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 25, 2013| 5 Comments »

The last time I posed a question about using flash to photograph a spider, the majority of readers said that the spider looked much better in natural light, but the case is not so clear for this Barn Spider (Araneus cavaticus) that I spotted in the garden yesterday.

The spider was in a web that stretched across the path in the garden, about chest-high, and was in subdued light. I really wanted to shoot at an angle to give the spider some dimensionality, but it was tough to do so, because of the web, and depth of field was an issue. To make matters worse, a breeze would kick up periodically, making slow shutter speeds a bit problematic.

There was no question about whether to use a tripod or not—it was obvious that I needed it. Initially, I shot at f/10 in aperture priority, with a shutter speed of 1/13 of a second, resulting in the second image. Although parts of the spider are blurry, the head and eyes are pretty sharp. I then raised the shutter speed to 1/200 and used my pop-up flash and got the first image. The background turned almost totally black, but I was happy that it did not blow out the details in lighter areas of the spider and the eyes remain pretty sharp.

I like the image with the black background better this time and like the look of the background. Which one do you prefer? (Clink on this link to see the posting from March when I initially posed a similar question.)

spider_black_blogspider_brown_Blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Pre-Halloween spider

Posted in Bugs, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on October 30, 2012| 4 Comments »

It seems appropriate to post a photo of a spider on the evening before Halloween. I was not able to get a look at the spider’s front side when I photographed it this past weekend at Huntley Meadows Park, so I can’t identify it. I know for sure, though, that I never want to wake up in the morning and have this view of a spider. With my near-sighted vision, that would mean that it was way too close to me for my comfort. Happy Halloween!

UPDATE: Thanks to the assistance of my mentor and fellow blogger, Cindy Dyer, I am now pretty sure that the spider is the orb-weaver spider Neoscona Crucifera, sometimes known as Hentz’s orb-weaver or a barn spider (though there are other spiders known as barn spiders too).

Pre-Halloween spider enjoys a snack

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »