Texas Barn Spider - re-visited

[xpatUSA]

Last time I shot this beast there was too much sunlight:



So this morning I went back and shot it again:



Not quite so sharp, this time around, but much better lighting and tonal balance. First shot was with 15MP Sigma SD1M, this shot with 4.7MP Sigma SD14.

Comments welcome . .

[Geoff F]

Yes better colour. I don't see any real problem with sharpness but difficult to compare closely because the spider is in a slightly different position. However, if I zoom in on the eyes I don't see any problem with this latest version.

[Shadowman]

Very nice, thing looks ferocious.

[Ziggy]

Nice shots.

Not a beast just a very beneficial creature we share the planet with.

[xpatUSA]

Thanks all,

I missed a magic moment when, while lining up the cam, it disappeared from the viewfinder and rushed off to another part of the web. I thought that I had spooked it but it came right back. As I continued to line up and focus, it turned around and wrapped up it's capture in silk, which I missed, grrrr, and then resumed it's vigil.

Oh well, that was a 1/4000 sec shot anyway . . . :|

[flashback]

I am a huge spider fan, both in terms of being a really big fan of spiders as well as a fan of really big spiders. I've seen these spiders many times and they never cease to intrigue. I know them as garden spiders and used to find them in the fields with their large orb webs on goldenrod. Technically they are Argiope aurantia, and they are a formidable size (but really harmless unless you're a flying insect). FWIW that silk zig zag, it's thought it may attract flying insects. And there is another thought that it is there to warn birds. Why ever it's there it doesn't seem to detract from their doing business.
The ones I'm familiar with are very much black and yellow, this one seems to be a bit washed out. Are the Texas variants paler or is the image maybe a bit light?

[purplehaze]

I was wondering about the zig-zag, so thanks for the explanation, Jack. Your reshoot is a great capture, Ted, and it looks plenty sharp to me.

[xpatUSA]

The ones I'm familiar with are very much black and yellow, this one seems to be a bit washed out. Are the Texas variants paler or is the image maybe a bit light?

Yes, those spots are more yellow to the eye generally. I have a feeling there's more to the spots in terms of surface reflection than just plain reflectivity. In the second image, the spots were certainly not over-exposed but still the yellow got washed out a bit and, in the first image, almost all of it. Some shots at different angles relative to the light might tell us more in that regard, eh?

I might even pay attention to WB for a change and shoot a card under the same light . . .

[IzzieK]

+1 to Janis' comment...I too was wondering about the zigzag silk, Ted...thank you Jack...