Posted in Arachnids, Nature, Photography, spiders, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, outer space, Prince William Forest Park, spider, spider web, Tamron 180mm, Triangle VA on August 10, 2019| 19 Comments »
As I was exploring Prince William Forest Park yesterday morning, I spotted this little spider. I was shooting almost directly into the sun when I captured this image and the light caused the spider’s legs to look almost transparent and the web to glow with all kinds of colors.
It looks almost like the spider was in outer space (and a Facebook viewer commented that she was totally ok with the spider being as far away as possible from her)..
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Arachnids, Art, Nature, Photography, tagged autumn, Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, spider web, spider webs, spiderwebs, Tamron 150-600mm, webs, Woodbridge VA on November 9, 2018| 10 Comments »
During a recent morning walk at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I came across some spiderwebs in the fields that glistened in the sunlight thanks to rain the previous night. Many of the webs were only partial webs and I wondered if perhaps the torrential rain had ripped them apart.
Light was mostly coming from the front, which made it a little tricky to get a correct exposure, but that kind of backlighting is the reason why the webs are visible.
The backgrounds were different for the different webs and most of the time I had to deliberately underexpose the images to have the webs “pop,” which meant that the backgrounds looked really dark. I was thrilled when I managed to capture the first image below with a background full of autumn colors.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in abstract, Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, spiders, tagged Canon 50D, dew, landscape, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, pearls, spider web, Tamron 180mm, transparent pearls, Woodbridge VA on October 9, 2018| 15 Comments »
The spiderweb was tattered and the spider was absent, but the globular drops of dew gave the scene a magical feel as the early morning light turned them into transparent pearls. As I looked more closely, I saw there was a miniature upside down version of the landscape in many of the drops.
For the ease of the viewer, I flipped a cropped version of part of the scene 180 degrees in the first photo below to give a better sense of the “landscapes” that are shown right side up. The second image shows a wider view of the strings of glistening drops. The final image is the same as the first one, but rotated back to its original orientation, so that the normal rules of gravity apply and the dew drops are hanging down from the silken strands of the spider web.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in abstract, Arachnids, Art, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, raindrops, spider web, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on September 23, 2018| 13 Comments »
Raindrops can enhance the beauty of many subjects, like this spider web that I photographed on Friday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. As I looked at the drops, they somehow brought to mind an elaborate necklace of loosely strung pearls.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spiders, wildlife, tagged Argiope aurantia, Black and yellow garden spider, Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, spider web, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on September 17, 2017| 13 Comments »
Although some folks find spiders to be creepy, I look at them as wonderfully creative architects and artists and I was thrilled to capture this image of one in its web that I spotted early yesterday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I have found that early morning is the best time to get shots of spider webs and they tend to show up best in shots that are backlit, which is to say that light is shining from the front. In this case I tried to frame the shot carefully for maximum effect and did not have to crop the image at all.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, Halloween, Huntley Meadows Park, spider, spider web, web on October 31, 2013| 6 Comments »
On Halloween night, it somehow feels appropriate to post this photograph of a spider web that I took earlier this month. Some people find spider webs (and spiders) to be creepy, but I find them to be fascinating. I look at spider webs as a form of beautiful natural art, filled with wonderful geometric shapes and designs and always marvel at the ability of spiders to weave them.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, autumn, Canon 50D, canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom, Huntley Meadows Park, spider web, spiderweb on October 10, 2013| 2 Comments »
I haven’t seen many big spiders this fall, but I did come across this spiderless web early one morning recently. The morning was damp and foggy and the droplets of water on the web made it easier to spot in the cattails of the marsh. Using manual focusing, which is still a challenge for me with my DSLR, I was able to capture this image of the web. If you click on the image, you can see the beads of water that look like tiny strands of transparent pearls.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, spider web, Tamron 180mm macro lens on September 18, 2013| 6 Comments »
Last year at this time of the year there were lots of large Argiope orbweaver spiders at my local marsh, but I couldn’t find a single one this past Monday, when I showed up just after sunrise. I was able to find a number of smaller spider webs, however, on the railings of a raised section of the boardwalk. The photo looks to be more appropriate for a Halloween posting, but hopefully I can find something a bit creepier for that day.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dew, huntley meadows, spider, spider web, spiderweb on April 3, 2013| 5 Comments »
We had a foggy start to one of the weekend mornings and I traveled to my local marshland park with the hope (but no real expectation) of seeing some spider webs. When I arrived at the park, the ground was covered in places with funnel webs, but that was not really what I was looking for.
As I walked along, I suddenly came upon this modestly-sized web. It is not really ornate and is broken in places, but I was thrilled to find it nonetheless. I did not see any spiders, but the web is clear evidence that they are around.
It’s only a matter of time now before I post a shot of a spider!
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, spider, spider web, web on October 26, 2012| 7 Comments »
A few days I posted a photo of a giant spider web (which one blogger said looked to be big enough to catch a dog) processed in a couple of different ways. I received lots of helpful comments about adjustments that I made or didn’t make. With those comments in mind, I worked on this photo of a different web that I photographed earlier in October. It’s not quite as big as the previous one, but is in better condition and the spider is still present. The web was suspended between two cattails and I had enough room to set up my tripod on the boardwalk that runs through the marsh, so hopefully my shot is pretty clear (although I confess that manual focusing is still a challenge for me). I may work on some more variations of this photo, but here is my initial effort.
So what do you think of this spider web (click on it to see a higher resolution view)?
Almost giant spider web with spider
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dew, early morning, Huntley Meadows Park, spider, spider web on October 23, 2012| 18 Comments »
I was really happy when I came across this large dew-covered spider web early one morning this past weekend. I am not sure exactly how big it was, but I think it was probably about 18-24 inches across, with an amazing number of rows, especially at the bottom part that is fully intact.
I processed the same photo in two ways to get different looks. In the first photo, I desaturated most of the color to try to draw attention to the strands of the web (and you should click on the photo to get a somewhat higher resolution view of the web). In the second photo, I tried to punch up the colors a bit by increasing the vibrance and saturation settings.
Which one do you think works best?
Spider web (mostly desaturated)
Spider web (increased vibrance)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
