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Field Spider

Gallery: Weekly ChallengePosted June 12, 2016108 views5 comments

I have no idea what the actual species is, but it's a fairly common spider of the local prairies. This was taken on a nice chilly morning in late August of 2012 and I was able to get a number of shots without her moving, so this is a two-shot stack. If I'd been smarter, I would have taken enough to get the ends of the legs in focus.

7D, 300mm f/4 + 1.4TC, tripod and ballhead, f/8, 1/1250, iso 640, aperture priority, pattern metering, -1EV to keep from blowing out the yellow. Processed in LR5 & CS6. Cropped from two horizontal originals to a 9.7 MP 4x5 vertical. Taken at 8:01 AM on August 25th, 2012.

Comments and criticisms are very welcome. I'm especially interested in suggestions for better angles for this kind of beastie.

Thanks,

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Jim Gavin on June 13, 2016 at 2:32 PM

I like that the leg tips are a bit out of focus. It further emphasizes the body and color pattern which I find very interesting. Did you take any from the other side showing the underside?

Registered on August 14, 2008, 293 Posts, 1250 Comments

Comment posted by Balan Vinod on June 14, 2016 at 2:19 AM

Denis ..nice work here..the magnification makes the size of the spider deceptive. One would think this to be quite large. Nice effort here Denis..

Balan Vinod

Registered on March 20, 2006, 889 Posts, 2312 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on June 14, 2016 at 10:29 AM

Her colors show well here, Dennis, and you've got her above the web. In my very limited experience, spiders hang from the bottom of the web, which makes it hard to get below them. I've had some luck with side on and top side shots that show lots of web (especially after a heavy dew) and the spider. Those are times when a stack on a windless day can add a lot by getting lots (or all) of the dew in focus as well as the web and the spider. I think your dof here looks fine and the oof green stalk in the background adds a nice touch of context.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on June 17, 2016 at 10:28 PM

Excellent detail, Dennis, and the size of the spider is very impressive.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Ed Williams on June 20, 2016 at 4:06 PM

Nice color here Dennis. If that doesn't say look out I don't know what would. Great detail on the spider as seen in the large version. Good work.

Registered on December 28, 2010, 636 Posts, 3499 Comments