Ms. Spider Solitaire

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Friends!

Myself, Andre and Carl were watching elephants from a hide in Tembe Elephant Park last week-end when this female Banded - Legged Golden Orb - Web Spider suddenly descended from the roof in front of Carl's lens. We observed her with much interest as she was busy attending to a bee trapped in its web. Don't know if those images interest you but I am quite fascinated with the "smaller things" and so I grabbed a few shots for interest' sake. The spider wrapped this live bee in its silk and then departed, probably saving this meal for later consumption...

Images taken with Nikon D4 and Nikon 500mm lens (no macro available at the time:2eyes2:), no support, ISO 800, F8 and F9, ss 1/800s. Some spots that look like dust bunnies here and there but I decided not to remove them, don't know what they are but they do not feature in other images taken that day. Could be water droplets or debris on the spider's web...

Perhaps not the most exciting images for you, but this is something I have not witnessed before and thought I had to share, also different from my usual lions and bokkies:) Would have been nice to see the male partner of this spider, but since he was not present I thought of naming this little spinner "Ms. Spider Solitaire"...

Have a lovely evening, I am pleased I managed to "spin" another story for you, and so looking forward to your contributions in this Forum:wave:

[Alison McCoy]

These are beautiful images and I thoroughly enjoyed the sequence and this from someone with terrible arachnophobia. Love the creamy green bg, it nicely sets off the vibrant colors of the spider.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Alison!

And thank you so much for taking the time to view:) I wish I could have taken those images with the Macro lens, but the spider was quite far so I took my chances with the 500. This is a relatively big crop and the spider was in semi-shade, my effort to bring out some detail might have compromised the IQ to some extent.

Hope you pop in again to this Forum, I really appreciate your kind comments and so looking forward to see some of your images here:5

Kind regards,

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Great macro images and interesting set Gabriela! The beautiful bg sets off the spider so nicely. Great captures using the 500mm.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you so much Jackie,

So grateful for your time to view and comment, will see what I can surprise you with next:)

Warmest regards,

[Carl Walker]

It was great fun wasn't it. The spiders add a bit different action to the scene. Nice series of images captured Gabriela. You seemed to be battling to focus on them at times though:t3. Your male was not there as he was visiting the neighbour seen here:tinysmile_shy_t:

[Andre Pretorius]

Great series! Gabriela battled to focus, Carl had his finger in front of her lens! I laughed so much, no images taken by me!:eek3::t3

BTW, nice image Carl!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Ahaaa! So you are the culprit, Mr. Walker! Thought my AF was severely compromised...I kept wondering why my ellies were sharp and my spiders not...but then I heard Andre laughing so I became suspicious of you:bg3:

Love to see the male spider - well spotted Carl - it looks like he was playing a little game with both females, amazing how tiny he is, I guess it's not long until he becomes "food"...

By the way...I almost forgot...Welcome to this forum, Carl - I really appreciate your contribution:cheers: looking forward to more!

Have a wonderful evening,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela great you posted something off the path:cheers:.
as always great story telling and lovely processed /presented .I keep it short ..... you know why

Looks like you had a ton of fun..............

Carl nice image ....... but who had the focusing issues :bg3:?

TFS Andreas

[Carl Walker]

Well clearly Gabriela of course, Andreas!!!!

With all the action at the waterhole and web spinners under the thatch overhang along with rata tat tat cameras I suddenly couldn't move my lens around. It felt like it was grounded by a chunk of heavy concrete. Following the procedure a professional would use, which is never take your head away to change settings my hand groped above my lens only to find a new Nikon 500mm lens resting over mine. So I guess this is the reason for the sharpness issues :2eyes2: :bg3:

[Gabriela Plesea]

So here it goes again...Nikon over Canon...the big issue...friendships were broken because of it...but our bond is stronger...like concrete:)

Ok, so I could not help it but rest my equipment on top of Carl's lens...he responded swiftly by blocking my view...it's terribly funny, we had a herd of ellie bulls at the water hole but we decided to fight over some spiders hanging from the thatch roof in front of us, LOL.

Carl, we are off to Ndumo next month - are you coming?:bg3:

Chat later Carl, so looking forward to more from you, and thank you Andreas for popping in - we are thinking of you, miss you dear friend:wave: