A few days ago I went out to take some pictures of “spider alley” — a 5 foot gap between a narrow hedge and fence that attracts some impressive specimens — but some goofball had apparently blundered through and knocked down all the webs. (He must have been … surprised … when he realized what he’d done.) All I could get were some shots of the hedge-dwellers, who were numerous, but a little boring. (Most looked to be representatives of the same species, as opposed to the alley-dwellers, who display more variety.)
Autofocus
Spiders can be a little hard to photograph. They’re small(ish), their webs tend to move a lot in even a light breeze, and they tend to “float” in space in a way that confuses the heck out of an autofocus camera. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up with something like the photo on the left.
Now, if you have a SLR or something else that lets you focus manually, that’s great. With a point-and-shoot, you have to get a little tricky. The solution is to force the AF to focus on something at about the right distance (usually by pressing/holding the shutter halfway down) and then move the camera into position relative to the subject. This requires you to manually judge focus based on the camera’s LCD image, but it can produce impressive results.
Amputee
I feel a little bad for this guy. I photographed him because he was a nice big fellow, and because I could get his dorsal side (most of the other spiders were on the “inside” of their webs). When I got home and looked at him full-size, I noticed that he seems to be missing a leg. (The right front, if I’m not mistaken.) He’s still out there hunting, so good luck to him.
(As a side note, when I was walking away from the hedge — which is covered with spider webs — I noticed that a small moth/butterfly had landed on it. “Hope your life insurance is paid up, buddy”, I thought. Nature: Red in tooth and claw.)
