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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Simply put, I am terrified of spiders!!! I absolutely love nature, and I have the utmost respect for spiders, but they are often the source of nightmares and stress for me, depending on the environment I'm in at the time. Currently I'm in a relatively spider-free area, and I've only had 4 or 5 small spiders in my condo since I moved in 3 years ago; however, I have lived in areas, such as damp, wooded areas, where the spider population is such that I am confronted with face-to-face spider encounters daily...this causes me great stress. Well, despite my spiders fears, I try to photograph them when I can. Perhaps it might be therapeutic to get close to these amazing, evil little creatures ;).
For this particular shot, I was trying to photograph deer at sunset in a field. I wasn't having much luck with the deer, so I started searching around for smaller creatures to photograph. In my search, I came very close to walking into this argiope and its its big web that was stretched across some blades of grass. The sun was getting very low and was close to setting, and the low, golden light was lighting the spider perfectly. The background, however, was very tan/brown and mottled, and didn't provide a great backdrop. The orb webs that these spiders weave are a perfectly flat plain, so I was able to lay the grass behind the web, prop up my photo backpack, wrap my black sweatshirt around the bag, and make use of the directional light to keep the background dark and the spider lit. The breeze kept moving the web back and forth, bringing the spider in and out of focus, so I had to snap many shots (with a tripod and cable release) to get one with the body, including the pedipalps, in focus. If you look closely at the spider, you can clearly see its silk gland with the silk coming out. It looks pretty crazy when I print this photo 13"x19"....it gives me the creeps!!! :O |
mala-zaba, tuslaw has marked this note useful
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