Garden Spider - a photo on Flickriver

Garden Spider

Continuing my foray into macro photography with flash, here's a male Garden Spider , (argiope aurantia) which lives by our chicken coop. Apparently this species is also known as a Banana Spider, Writing Spider or Corn Spider. The male is quite small, around 3/4 to 1 inch long, but the female can grow very much larger, perhaps 3 inches long, and makes a very spectacular sight on its huge web.

For the technically inclined, this was shot with a Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro lens stopped down to f32 which appears to me to be the best aperture for really close shots like this. The lens will drop down to about f55 when you are as close as this but I notice the sharpness drop off way down there and f32 gives me the depth of field I need so I'm tending to stay in that area.

For lighting I had two SB600s, one camera left at about 9 o'clock (camera pointing at 12 o'clock) and slightly above the spider, and another handheld camera right and also slightly above the spider. Both were set to the same power.

The main trick here was determining suitable camera and light positions to highlight not only the spider but also the fabulous web it spins. From many angles, the web disappeared into the background but here I managed to make it visible without having to resort to water sprays and other devious means.

If you like my photos, your vote in the 2009 Photoblog Awards would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

Gallery | Blog | Photoblog | Twitter

View on black
View large on black

Taken on: July 25, 2009

Tags:

Spider

arachnid

banana spider

corn spider

garden spider

texas

writing spider

yellow garden spider

Macro-Life « less

Sets appears in: • Macro • Texas more » • Butterflies, Insects and Spiders • Getty Artist Picks July 09 « less

Groups appears in: • Macro • SPIDERS more » • The Spider Web • Tamron 90mm f/2,8 Macro Lens Group • Macro! Closeup Shots! • **Macro-Life**Moderated Pool • Nikon D90 « less

Camera: Nikon D90, f/32.0, 1/60 sec, 90mm (=135mm), ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D90
Aperture:	f/32.0
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	90mm (35mm equivalent: 135mm)
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Return not detected
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
Color Space:	sRGB
Show full info

Stats: 5,584 views / 14 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder