Pic 1: Spiny Orb Weaver, Thailand
What the?! I’d imagine most of you are rather repulsed by spiders, but I hope at least to show their unique form and often colourful side from an artistic viewpoint to keep up the habit of posting ‘less-than-cuddly’ images on my blog.
It was the spines on the abdomen of this spiny orb weaver spider (class: gasteracantha) that initially caught my eye, my torso bent double looking under branches and grass stems for insects to photograph.
Then, as it comically rotated away from me to hide as I tried to compose my shot, its striking yellow crab-like shell hit the sun.
They can reach up to 30mm from spine to spine (about the size here) and their bites are generally harmless to humans says Wikipeadia*. Having just recovered from a spider bite myself over the Christmas break in Bangkok that phrase ‘generally harmless to humans’ still means alot of pain and suffering…
Macro work is utterly absorbing once you find a garden cornucopia. Spiders make great subjects as silhouettes or with a backlit web adding an extra dimension to the composition as in this pic (to be identified, pic 2, below).
The large golden silk orb weaver here (below), measured approximately 6 cm and was rather easier to photograph than its spiny cousin at top. The composition exploited the large bokeh ring (how the lens renders out of focus detail) to place the spider coming into the shape created by the blurry background.
Winter in Thailand has seen little insect activity in the gardens I’ve frequented whether grasshopper, dragonflies or butterflies but spiders are there year round it seems.
Pic 3 Golden Silk Orb Weaver, Thailand
Image Specs PIC 1 Olympus E-3, f5.6, 1/200, ISO 320, Zuiko Digital 50mm f2.0 Macro, white balance auto, manual exposure, manual focus, image stabilizer, hand-held, shade, curves, crop. Trat, Thailand.
PIC 2 Olympus E-3, f8, 1/100, ISO 400, Zuiko Digital 50mm f2.0 Macro, white balance auto, manual exposure, manual focus, image stabilizer, tripod, afternoon, bright sun, curves, crop. Trat, Thailand.
PIC 3 Olympus E-3, f4, 1/80, ISO 400, Zuiko Digital 50mm f2.0 Macro, white balance auto, manual exposure, manual focus, image stabilizer, tripod, afternoon, bright sun, curves, crop. Trat, Thailand.
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© Warren Field 2012 Taken on OLYMPUS E-System Cameras and Zuiko lenses.
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