Hanging by a thread

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi all, it has been ages since I had the chance to post something here in macro. Work is very busy and I'm still sorting out my 1500+ images from my trip to Western Australia. This is one of them. I think this is a Golden orbweaver (Nephila edulis), hence the golden thread of the web. We met this girl hanging in her web on the side of the footpath. My 8 year old son wasn't paying attention and accidentally walked into the web. Luckily for me (and him) it ran of along one of the vertical threads supporting the web, giving me a nice photo opp and my son a lucky break. This spider was the size of my hand and I've seen pictures on the web of it eating a bird :eek3:. Does anyone know where the scientific name comes from? Edulis is usually used for edible species....

D7000, Nikkor 200mm f/4D ED-IF AF Micro, handheld, ISO-320, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec, +0.3 EV.
Minor PP work in ACR6.7/CS5: cropped for composition, sharpening, vibrance, levels, S/H to bring out the details in the jaws.

[Bob Miller]

Wow ! Big as your hand! Your image looks sharp and the slight diagonal composition works for me!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jerry. I'm impressed to learn how big this spider is! We have generally similar looking ones around here, but they are all rather small. I like the simplicity of the image with the one golden strand at a slight diagonal and with the spider set against a clean background. Good sharpness and enough DOF to cover almost everything. Very well done! :cheers:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Here's a link to the article and photograph of a golden orb weaver eating a bird it caught in its web. Mine wasn't as big as that one (pfew!).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3353693/Giant-spider-eating-a-bird-caught-on-camera.html

[Jonathan Ashton]

Excellent shot, all the techs look good, I note she appears to be spinning silk. The composition looks good and I note the golden thread. It must have been something to see a spider that size, I must admit I don't think I would want to get too close! Glad no one was hurt I can imagine they would deliver a rather nasty bite.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Jonathan. Luckily, the 200mm gave me about 2m working distance for this shot. I guess that the longer macro lenses are not only good for critters that are easily spooked, but also for the ones that can easily spook the photographer :S3:!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Jonathan. Luckily, the 200mm gave me about 2m working distance for this shot. I guess that the longer macro lenses are not only good for critters that are easily spooked, but also for the ones that can easily spook the photographer :S3:!

You bet Jerry! I suspect if I had been there it may well have been the 500mm and an extension tube:w3