Okay, you have been warned. You might want to skip this post if you’re not a fan of spiders, creepy crawlies, or any of those things that definitely crawl on your face at night whilst you’re asleep. Seriously, they do. Maybe.
Look, since I’m being really nice, I won’t put any pictures in this little preview. You’ll have to click ‘read more’ to see them. Just in case you’re really creeped out by small hairy things (insert your own joke here). Because although the spider in this post is not small by Australian standards (where the spiders can grow to the size of Utes), it is pretty big by UK standards. And I managed to get pretty close. Are you ready? C’mon, let’s take a look.
1/125sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250, exposure bias -0.67, 100mm
Right, now you’ve seen it, let’s get on with a bit of the backstory.
Just outside my flat a couple of big spiders have taken residence. This big guy (his body was a couple of centimetres from nose to tail, if he had either, but my spider biology is a bit rusty so I have no idea) had built his web right by the entrance to our block. He’s a hardy fellow, too: he survived at least one pretty hellacious thunder and hailstorm during the summer. And I think his web is big enough to comfortably detain a kitten.
So, after a some months of passing him as I arrived home every day, I finally gave in, snapped on my macro lens, and headed out to get some shots of him.
1/100sec, f/4, ISO 400, exposure bias -0.67, 100mm
Frustratingly, I headed out when the light was good and the weather calm – but as soon as I got out there a wind picked up that blew his web all over the place, making it really difficult to get a decent shot of him.
1/160sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250, exposure bias -0.67, 100mm
Whilst I was out there photographing, someone arrived, presumably visiting one my my neighbours. She stopped me and asked if I was photographing one of the cars in the car park. I was a bit bemused by the question, to be honest – for a start, half the car was obscured by the bush the spider’s web was attached to, so if I had been trying to photo the car in question I’d have been doing a terrible job of it. I’m also not entirely sure what the problem would have been – it’s not like I haven’t photographed cars in public before (slightly different sort of case, but still).
Anyway, doesn’t matter. I was photographing a spider. Perhaps I should have put it in her hair? Too far?
Of the handful of shots that weren’t scrubbed for being to blurry and out-of-focus, this one is my favourite.
1/160sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250, exposure bias -0.67, 100mm
What I like about it is the composition (the movement of the web forced me into a high ISO and robbed me of the ability to frame properly) and the bokeh of the background. I also love the colour and the fact the spider is fully in focus.
You can take a look at the rest of the shots of the spider in the gallery below. Unfortunately, if you like that sort of thing, the EXIF data still isn’t displaying in the gallery view. I need to dig up and revive the support ticket on that one.
