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Posts Tagged ‘spiders’

Spider games

Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on October 19, 2013| 11 Comments »

I am not really sure what these spiders were doing, but it looked to me like they were engaged in a game that I played as a child called “King of the Hill.” The objective of the game was to climb to the top first and then to repel the efforts of the others trying to unseat you and take your place.

The two spiders seemed to be racing to the top of this plant’s stalk in the first photo and the second image shows that the one on the left was the winner. Somehow that second image reminds me of the iconic shot of King Kong on the Empire State Building, clutching the spire of the building.

It was a challenge trying to track moving subjects like this with a macro lens and my need for a higher shutter speed caused me to sacrifice some depth of field. I do like the simple, uncluttered composition that I was able to achieve and the fact that I was able to capture these little spiders in action.

spider_games2aspider_games1a© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spiders galore

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 25, 2013| 7 Comments »

I seem to be seeing spiders everywhere recently, so I thought I’d feature photos of three of them to represent the wide diversity of the population that I have observed.

The first one was very small and appeared to be hiding at the bottom of this leaf, waiting for its prey to come along. It did not appear to have made a web.

The second one had a web suspended over the water and is, I believe, a kind of long-jawed orb weaver of the Tetragnathidae family. It has awfully long legs compared to most other spiders. I usually see them making webs late in the day as the sun is beginning to go down.

The final one is a kind of spider that I see pretty regularly, though I don’t know what kind it is. It appears to have captured some prey, perhaps a grasshopper.

spider_leaf_blogjaw_blogspot2_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Dewdrop spider

Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on September 23, 2012| 7 Comments »

Last week I did a posting entitled “Kleptoparasitic Spider“ that talked of the little spiders that hang around a larger spider’s web and steal or feed on the prey captured by the other spider. Today I managed to take a much clearer shot of one such spider. I am pretty sure the little spider below is of the genus Argyrodes, which are also known as dewdrop spiders.

The spider was positioned in such a way that I was able to get close enough to use my 100mm macro lens, although there was not really enough room for me to shoot with a tripod. I was able to close down only to F10 because I was shooting handheld and wanted to have a shutter speed of 1/200 sec, so depth of field suffered a little. I have found that depth of field is a problem with spiders most of the time because of the length and positioning of their legs.

This spider was really tiny and I am happy that I was able to get this good a photo of it. The portions of the web that are visible help to add an interesting geometric pattern to the background, which I think enhances the image.

Dewdrop spider (genus Agyrodes)

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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