10-JUL-2007
Spider Spinning Web
My cat, Baby Kitty, and I were starting to play hide 'n seek and chase around the outside of the house. As we approached the side gate I saw a spider weaving a web. I ran into the house to get my Canon Rebel XT camera (with 100mm f2.8 macro lens) and tripod. Baby Kitty was not amused; this was delaying our game.
There was a breeze blowing. The tiny spider had already woven most of the web. He was finishing up close to the center which contained a white mass (extra "silk"?). I used Sports mode (fast shutter with AI Servo predicting the focus) trying to manually or auto focus while moving the camera on the tripod to keep the focusing spot on the spider as he made his rounds. The web moved whenever the breeze blew. Some photos were of an out-of-focus spider blob against a sharp fence.
I took a lot of pictures and then Baby Kitty began to scold me. We headed through the gate to play our game. I put the tripod down but kept the camera to photograph Baby Kitty during our game. Several times we passed the busy spider as we made the circuit around the house. I tried to grab a few more photos. Once as we approached the almost finished web a strong gust tore it apart and the spider was hanging at the bottom of the v-shaped remains (that photo wasn't sharp). The next time we came around there was no evidence of the web. All that spider work for nothing!
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10-JUL-2007
The Underside of the Spider
I went behind the web to shoot the underside of the spider while it was near the silky mass in the center of the web. This is a 4 inch crop from a larger photo.
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