Black and Yellow Argiope

[pathoulihan1]

Walked out my front door today and this veteran Argiope had set up shop right next to my front door. I've never seen one in the wild before so I grabbed my camera and got to shooting. I actually didn't notice until I was reviewing my pictures that it was missing a leg. I did end up relocating this particular spider (something I don't usually do) to the backyard. For fear that when my girlfriend came home she would kill it (it was impossible to miss).

More of a close-up than macro but, certainly fun to shoot. These things are impossible to spook, I feel like it barely noticed I was there, and even when i was moving it, it was very docile.

 

[itBurns]

I wish you put something near the spider to get a perspective on its actual size.

The bug caught in the web helps slightly, but, then again, hard to tell on the size of the bug. Nice pictures for that Sony

 

[pathoulihan1]

I wish you put something near the spider to get a perspective on its actual size.

The bug caught in the web helps slightly, but, then again, hard to tell on the size of the bug. Nice pictures for that Sony

"That Sony", what a jerk! Especially for a guy that I happen to know is terrified of spiders, I'd like to see a picture of you anywhere near a spider like this. It makes me chuckle just thinking about it.

On the other hand, I agree something for scale would have helped but, in my defense the Mosquitos around my house are ridiculous (testing my patience and reducing my shooting time). And the spider was in a tough spot to shoot, as there was only about six inches of clearance between the spider and the house, at ground level. If I could do it again, I'd set up a table top tripod, set the timer and focus and get something behind the web for scale.

 

[pathoulihan1]

Here's a different crop of the 4th shot, there's a little more background, but not much. Something that I'm still learning with macro photography is remembering that DOF is just as important as lighting, focus, and composition. I find myself so excited to have a cool subject that I rush to shoot it and forget to really think about the shot.