Spiders in an English Country Garden

[Saorsa]

Just a couple of spiders from the last couple of days.

Top and bottom of one of them





And a bright green one.

[chauncey]

With the first two, you did well to capture them on the same plane as your lens and have good focus.
On the third one you may have been better served by using a stacking technique for more DOF.

[Geoff F]

First one is a Tetragnatha species. Possibly T. montana.

The bright green spider is one of the Araniella species. There are a couple of almost identical species. Always difficult to photograph without over exposing the abdomen so you did well to constrain the exposure. Tetragnatha are also tricky on exposure.

[Saorsa]

Thanks Goeff,

I'm only online intermittently so thank you for the IDs the other day as well.

I noticed you mentioned lighting then too. I've just been shooting with the walkabout kit which is the Nikon D7100 with 60mm D model Micro-Nikkor. The lighting is the SB-800 sitting directly on top of the camera. I do pull the built-in white card out and put the WA diffuser that comes with the flash on. Raising the flash slightly provides a bit of diffusion. If it's a dim location I may shoot directly. At home, I use the SC-29 flash cord to move the light off-camera. Thanks to digital, I usually have plenty of opportunities to bracket before the bug flies off.

Wind here is a bit of a problem The critters are in near constant 3D motion as far as the viewfinder is concerned even when standing still.

[Geoff F]

Yes, when they are on a heavy leaf you do stand a bit of a chance with less wind movement but when sitting in a web they are so difficult to focus in the slightest breeze.

[bnnrcn]

Nice shots