A little bit of research at bugguide.net revealed that these are baby orb weaver spiders.  Everywhere around the stairs they were spinning webs.  They were crawling on the ground and a few of them even tried to create a nest on my camera!  Of course, I couldn’t resist getting a closer look at them.

The kids got a big kick out of watching them, though Nelya was freaked out.  While we were watching them some of them even began spinning webs on us!  Of course they are harmless, but try telling my wife that.

  Here is a shot of one as it spun its web.  I also decided to get an even closer look at one for identification sake.

Of course, the vast majority of these baby spiders will not live to see a few days.  Numerous predators were waiting for them and the odds of survival are not that great.  Of the hundreds of baby spiders, perhaps only a couple will make it to adulthood.  Here is one that didn’t make it – victim to an awaiting spider (I think it is a sac spider).

Each of these spiders will likely eat several of the babies over the day and are just one of the dangers they will face during their first several weeks.

I also could not resist taking the opportunity to take my first video with the MP-E 65!

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Most of the small critters were hard to find that day, but I did find some interesting things.  This one I found rather cute and it looks almost like the worm is introducing himself!

I also found a small sprout emerging from a crack and took a number of pictures of it.  Of the shots, I think I like the composition in this one the best.

Still, this probably would have been a better shot with a tripod and long exposure.  I’m not sure I like the effect of the flash here.

This one looks sort of like the insect (not quite sure if it is a mosquito or a midge) is taking a stroll…

I also found a rather large spider in a pile of wood.  Spiders are usually rather easy to get pictures of and this one obliged.  At first I rather liked this picture but it bugs me that one of the palps is hidden behind the leg.

Therefore when I sent the shots out for criticism I used this one instead.

In this shot the palps are balanced better and the spider looks more “natural” in its environment.  I’m not sure either of these are really great shots though – although they have freaked a few people out.

Still, I felt that the efforts for the day were quite successful and with daylight hours getting longer and the weather getting warmer, I have a feeling this will be a great year for photography.

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I did manage to find this tiny spider though on my kids’ slide.

This spider was incredibly tiny – requiring 5x magnification from my MP-E 65 to get this shot.  After downloading the shot, I looked through some of my books to attempt to get an ID – but after some investigation I can 100% say I have no idea what type of spider this is.

When my wife looked at the picture, she picked out an obvious mystery.  It only has six legs.

I thought for a bit on why this is so. 

1. It is an insect that mimics a spider.  I do not think this is so – mainly due to the arrangement of the legs (four on one side and two on the other) and the palps on the front.
2. It is a spider but has lost two of its legs.

I believe the second possibility is true.  Take a look at the side of the spider.

It looks like there are stubs where the two legs used to exist.  Here’s a closeup.

Why would this occur?  I’m not really entirely sure but I have read that when the spider attacks poisonous prey, sometimes it gets bitten in the leg as it grasps its prey.  When that happens, the spider will often amputate its own leg in order to stay alive.  Perhaps that is what happened here?

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I took all of these about two months ago shortly before shooting a house for Nelya.  She didn’t mind too much that I showed up quite dirty from my previous shoot.

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Still, I used the opportunity to get a number of shots of it.  It clearly was on its last legs as it was no longer able to fly – just crawl around.  I debated a bit about what to do with it when I noticed a spider web with on orb weaver spider next to our house.  Naturally, you can guess what my idea was.

I put the moth in the spider web after some difficulty, but this turned out to be a poor choice.  The moth (which I still have not identified) was extremely strong and tore through the spider web, much to the dismay of the spider which wisely stayed off to the side safe on a leaf.

I felt bad for the spider, as this was my fault.  The moth fell to the ground and after a few moments the spider hurried back to its web to assess the damage.  It then started the long process of repairing its web, which I took several shots of.

After searching for a bit longer, I found what appears to be some type of cricket laying upside down on a leaf.  I prodded it a bit and it moved – still alive.  However, it was unable to right itself and seemed resolved to its fate.  I then decided to atone for my making a mess of the spider’s web.  I placed the bug, much smaller than the moth, in the web and the spider quickly came towards it.

Unfortunately, my photographing scared the spider a bit and it moved away from its prey.  It is also possible that the spider envenomated its prey and was simply waiting for it to pass away.  Either way, this was the only shot I was able to get off (unfortunately a bit overexposed) and I waited patiently for the spider to return to finish the job.  It was then that I got the unfortunate call that our own family wanted to eat and it was my turn to make waffles.

I left the kitchen door open and, after mixing the batter, proceeded to check up on the spider in between waffles cooking.  At last the spider returned to its prey and I ran for my camera (after starting a new batch of waffles).

Within a period of about 3 minutes (or enough time for one set of waffles to cook), I took around 60 shots of the spider in different poses.  Interestingly, I wound up with a good variation of objects in and out of focus – which enabled me to try out focus stacking for the first time.  I have other shots which at some time or another I intend to stack.

Here’s another shot of the spider with its prey.

These types of spiders are very common here around Seattle.  Almost every home has them and they are especially common around gardens.  They seem to like hanging their webs near Rhododendron bushes – where this one was found.  They also don’t mind their picture taken and I have more photos of this type of spider than any other.

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Continue for more on how I did this.

The following are the two shots I used to make it.

In this shot, the spider is in focus but not the prey.

In this shot, the prey is in focus but not the spider.

I would have liked to use a program like CombineSZ, but the problem is the shots are not aligned.  Therefore I used the following steps to combine them.

1) I copied the entire shot with the OOF spider.

2) I then pasted it over the shot with the IF spider, creating a new layer in the process.

3) I then reduced the opacity significantly of the new layer, enabling me to see through it.  Using this mode I aligned the spider and prey as best as possible.  The spider had moved a bit so I made more of an attempt to align the prey than the spider.  When finished, I changed the opacity back to 100%.

4) Using a small eraser, I carefully erased the OOF spider in the top layer, which had the effect of displaying the IF spider underneath it.

5) I then merged the layers and concentrated on the areas (particularly of the web) that looked a bit strange.

6) I used the cloning tools in replace mode to redo the parts of the web near the feet.

7) I had some problems with the right foot, so I copied the foot from a third image not displayed here.

I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but this is my first attempt and I rather like how it came out.  This isn’t the first shot of a spider with prey that I have taken (these spiders are very common around our house) but it is the one with the best depth of field.

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Jumping spiders, unlike many other types of spiders, have very good vision.  They need this vision to be able to attack insects with their traditional jump.  They tend to stay very still and then jump on top of their prey.  Many other types of insects go more on scent or on vibrations.  The result is jumping spiders are very aware of both me and the camera.  This can make them rather tricky to photograph, as they often do not give me their better side.  They also tend not to be very large, meaning I need to use a magnification of at least 3x to get them.  The following is one of the better shots I have gotten of a jumping spider.  Unfortunately it entered the house so Nelya squished it while I was putting my camera away.

Recently I had another opportunity to photograph these fascinating spiders.  The results after the jump.

The first attempt came on Saturday.  I found a jumping spider in the lattice work on my porch and decided to try to photograph it.  It evidently had different plans and decided the best location was the side of the lattice work I was not on.  After walking back and forth over a dozen times, I finally got it in a corner of the lattice work.

I took several shots at a higher magnification, but unfortunately they did not come out.  Here’s another that did.

All of these appear to be zebra spiders, or Salticus scenicus.  I could very well be wrong though, as my book has quite a few pictures of jumping spiders.

On Sunday I had another opportunity to photograph one.  This one took up residence on my kids’ teeter totter.  I carefully elevated the teeter totter to convince the spider to not jump down to the grass and then attempted to track it across the seat.  Unfortunately this one was not nearly as cooperative, but did like to torment me.  When I gave up, it found the best pose on the seat and looked up at me.  I would then attempt another shot – too tempted by the pose, and again it would climb to the opposite side of the seat.  The following is the best shot I could manage.

I suspect that this one is a different (and far more annoying) species, but I have no idea which one.

Despite the difficulty in photographing these little guys, I find them one of the most interesting types of spiders.  Many of them have very interesting patterns on their bodies (such as the zebra spiders) and can be very photogenic.  Some other time, when I have a lot more patience, perhaps I will try moving one to a flower and see if I can get it to stay.  However on this weekend there were a number of things to photograph so I soon gave up and found other subjects.

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Unfortunately, this particular spider did not feel like getting it’s picture taken.  It made it clear that I would expect a battle to get a decent shot of it.  After chasing it all around the recycle bin it used a silk thread to slide off the top of the bin and dropped to the pavement to run to safety.  There I decided to take a shot of it, as I didn’t know who would win the ensuing struggle.

The above shot isn’t very interesting, but I at least wanted a chance to guess what type of spider it is.  Most spiders are not difficult to photograph.  Ones found in the house will often sit still for some time as long as you avoid bumping them.  This one, though, seemed to be running for its life – particularly from my large camera – perhaps it took the camera for a bird.

I finally managed to use to leaves – one to get the spider to crawl on top of and the other to coax the spider to climb on top.  I then set the spider back on the recycle bin and hoped it wouldn’t take off again.  Interestingly, when you transport a spider to a new place I have noticed most of them do not take off, but instead remain extremely still.  I used this moment to get a shot of it.

I’m not quite sure whether I like this shot, but I wasn’t very happy with the pose at the time so I waited for it to take a move off the ridge.  Sure enough it did and I corned the spider again with my camera.

I think I like this shot better than the other one.  As usual I got a number of shots of it from this angle and many of the other ones used the rule of thirds.  However I think I like the spider centered in the shot better.  It’s certainly nothing anyone would hang on the wall, but I do like the contrast of the spider and the blue recycle bin.

After taking a number shots of the spider, I figured it was about fed up with me so I moved to the fly/beetle.  Unfortunately this thing I was not able to get a very good shot of.  This shot I got of the head.

To get a better idea what type of insect this is, I took a shot of the entire body.  It appears to be very similar to one I found last week.  Unfortunately the shot did not turn out well but I hope it will be enough for when I have time to identify it.

Finally I decided to do a short experiment based on other insect photographers that I have seen take interesting shots by their cars.  I investigated my car and sure enough there were some interesting insects.  Unfortunately Nelya called that it was dinner time so I only had the chance to get this shot of a whitefly or small mother looking the other way.

I hope to soon get the chance to case out my car again in the search for interesting bugs.

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However, I felt the need to be stubborn and spent some time on Friday in my backyard, where I have a better sense of where to find certain insects.  Still, I found it very difficult to find much of interest to photograph.  I eventually decided to cool looking for insects and photographed a dandelion that was ready to burst.

Generally I have found that when I have difficulty finding something, turn to a different subject and your original subject will eventually capture your eye.  Shortly after playing with the dandelion, this turned out to be true once again.

The first thing I came across was this small spider.

From the arrangement of the eyes, this appears to be a ground spider of family Gnaphosidae.  I found it on a piece of wood that I turned over.  The picture is nothing extraordinary, but I find it amazing the number of species of spider that live in my backyard.  At first look this seemed like one of the sac spiders that are very common in my backyard, but the eyes are obviously different.

When the going gets tough, go looking for springtails is what I always say.  These are by far the easiest insects to find if you know what to look for.  There are myriad species of them, but in general the easiest way to find them is to either dig through relatively dry soil (wet soil is much harder) or look on the leaves of plants such as camellia or rhododendrons.  The ground was wet, so I didn’t bother to look there but after looking for a few minutes on my camellia I found this globular springtail.

When my wife saw this shot, she remarked “what a cute little spider!”.  Nope, not a spider but a springtail.  For more information about these little guys, see my previous post on them. 

I then gave up looking for insects and played with some of the drops on my Japanese maple bushes, which are great drop generators.  I picked a small flower and played with the reflection of the flower in the drop.

Like the other shots that day it was nothing much to write home about, but it was still nevertheless fun getting some shots.  However at this point my hands – holding a camera with a metal L bracket attached – were getting rather cold and it had started to rain again, so I went back inside glad that I had the chance to take some pictures.  Luckily, over the weekend nature gave me a much better chance to get some shots.

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However, I felt the need to be stubborn and spent some time on Friday in my backyard, where I have a better sense of where to find certain insects.  Still, I found it very difficult to find much of interest to photograph.  I eventually decided to cool looking for insects and photographed a dandelion that was ready to burst.

Generally I have found that when I have difficulty finding something, turn to a different subject and your original subject will eventually capture your eye.  Shortly after playing with the dandelion, this turned out to be true once again.

The first thing I came across was this small spider.

From the arrangement of the eyes, this appears to be a ground spider of family Gnaphosidae.  I found it on a piece of wood that I turned over.  The picture is nothing extraordinary, but I find it amazing the number of species of spider that live in my backyard.  At first look this seemed like one of the sac spiders that are very common in my backyard, but the eyes are obviously different.

When the going gets tough, go looking for springtails is what I always say.  These are by far the easiest insects to find if you know what to look for.  There are myriad species of them, but in general the easiest way to find them is to either dig through relatively dry soil (wet soil is much harder) or look on the leaves of plants such as camellia or rhododendrons.  The ground was wet, so I didn’t bother to look there but after looking for a few minutes on my camellia I found this globular springtail.

When my wife saw this shot, she remarked “what a cute little spider!”.  Nope, not a spider but a springtail.  For more information about these little guys, see my previous post on them. 

I then gave up looking for insects and played with some of the drops on my Japanese maple bushes, which are great drop generators.  I picked a small flower and played with the reflection of the flower in the drop.

Like the other shots that day it was nothing much to write home about, but it was still nevertheless fun getting some shots.  However at this point my hands – holding a camera with a metal L bracket attached – were getting rather cold and it had started to rain again, so I went back inside glad that I had the chance to take some pictures.  Luckily, over the weekend nature gave me a much better chance to get some shots.

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