06/10/2012 ~ Cross/Garden Spider (Araneus Diadematus)
I had another indoor photo planned for today but that can wait for another day now.
I was busy in the garden when I noticed a spider sitting quite openly on its web so I went to have a look at it ... at which point I noticed Percy above sat in the middle of his web on the other side of the shed. He was a reasonable size and his markings struck me as particularly clear so I dashed off to get my camera and flash which was still mounted conveniently on one of my tripods with a softbox attached. This was perfect and allowed me to set everything up very quickly and take a shot. I used a couple of wimberley plamps (quite flimsy but already proving very useful) to hold a sheet of blue card behind the web as the sky was quite cloudy and washed out.
I fired off just 5 shots before I accidently tore his web down bringing everything to a premature end ... I feel very bad about this - I was trying so hard to be careful but I can only guess that there was a long strand anchoring it to the wall that I hadn't seen and one of the times I ducked underneath to adjust the backdrop I caught it on my hand.
I hope he's managed to rebuild it by now! To the flies of the world however ... "you're welcome"!
PS: If this is not a cross/garden spider then please let me know ;).
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.
This picture is #06 in my October Challenge project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the October Challenge Flickr Group page.