Shooting a spider
September 6, 2010
Given the number of spiders who’ve gone to their ultimate reward in my house, you’d think I’m one of those jump-on-a-chair-and-scream spider-haters.
Actually, I love OUTDOOR spiders, and spend a fair amount of time in the fall watching them festoon my windows, deck rails and garage doors for Halloween.
Photographing them, however, takes some thought. The golden orbweavers like this one are a gorgeous combination of color and texture, with a translucency that reminds me of amber or jade, or maybe pate de verre. When the light hits just right, they glow.
It’s hard to cram all that into a photograph, especially if you want to include the web and there’s no obliging mist or rain to outline it. When I saw this spider, hanging proudly between the rails on my front porch, glinting in the sun, I gave a long, low whistle and ran for the camera. She was beautiful.
She was also hanging on a dark porch in very flat mid-afternoon light. And I’d dropped a rock on my shutter release and not yet replaced it, so I’d be grabbing the camera to shoot from the dark into a busy, sunny background. that’s about the worst combination around for catching delicate detail like spiderwebs.
So my first effort sucked–they usually do.
Camera re-autofocused, missed the spider entirely.
Obviously, the spider needed a background. I tried a plastic sheet, but it cut out too much of the light. It also flattened the colors and lost the gorgeous translucency.
This looks more like a spider pinned to an antiseptic specimen card, and you can just barely see the web. The detail’s OK, but…ugh.
I switched to a single sheet of vellum for the backdrop, and tried raising it up a bit above the spider to let in more light, and hopefully backlight things a bit. I kinda like this shot, but it still wasn’t right.
It’s better, but there’s too much distraction, and you wanna know what the weird triangle is in the background. Still, the thorax is beautifully backlit, and the legs have some glow. It demonstrates why I think of these spiders as jeweled.
Finally I leaned ‘way over the rail with a single cut-down sheet of vellum, just wide enough to fill the field. Light still streamed in around the vellum, giving me the backlight I was looking for. I’ll probably go out there again and set up a couple of white cards to reflect light back onto the spider and emphasize her furriness, but otherwise the shot looked great.
I, on the other hand, looked pretty dumb. The neighborhood kids watched in bemusement as the crazy glasslady (me) removed her shoe and tried to hold a sheet of vellum steadily between two toes, leg flung over the front porch stair rail in what has to be the most ungainly arabesque in history. Meanwhile, my front half inched back onto the porch to delicately trip the shutter without shaking the camera or the web.
(And no, I do NOT have a photo of this. Thank heavens.)
The youngest girlchild stared at me a minute, then shook her head and headed down the street. I suspect I’m the most entertaining thing on the block.
But I did get my shot. I didn’t ask the spider what she thought of the human cavorting around her, but I do thank her for holding still.
Astoria Farmer’s Market
September 3, 2010
I woke up Sunday morning in Astoria, looked out the window, and the streets were covered with white tents. A farmers’ market had sprung up all around my hotel.
I must attract these things, which is fine by me. I’d thought I’d have to miss buying my produce at the farmers’ markets this weekend, since I was doing the Hood-to-Coast thing, but the gods of vegetables must be looking out for me.
I pack up and check out of the hotel, stow my stuff in the car, and head for the tents.
Sharkbait
September 1, 2010
Last Sunday I was sitting in Astoria’s Steve & Andrew cafe, having breakfast down on the waterfront. It was a gorgeous day, the pancakes were more like breadcakes but extremely tasty, and all was right with the world.
“You should go surfing in India,” proclaims the surferdude at the next table. He’s an older guy, maybe 35, bald, well-muscled and proselytizing to an eager wave of young acolytes.