Spiders Are Not Easy Subjects to Photograph

Spiders are not the easiest of photographic subjects, especially when they are spinning their webs.  Dr Desert Flower spotted this one last month, outside one of our upstairs windows, busily spinning a very large orb web that was nearly perpendicular to the window pane, hanging under an eve.

I tried autofocusing to no success, and then tried repeated to manually focus, but the spider kept spinning and spinning, moving almost a body length and completely out of focus 3 feet away.

 The red and black and yellow hairy striped legs were moving very rapidly, as the female (she later laid a big-ole egg sack under the eve - I wonder if her mate was delicious, or if he escaped the big beautiful female he impregnated before being devoured) built her nearly 3 foot diameter web, just before sunset.  She was fascinating to watch, and one of the largest non-tarantula spiders I have ever seen outside of a zoo.  Her body alone was nearly as big as a large peach pit, and her legs more than doubled that impressive size.


It did make a beautiful silhouette that was much easier to photograph though  = )

And when I backed up from the window, and then tried to zoom back in, I "sort of" was able to capture this perspective with the palms in the back ground:

This arachnid made an orb web outside the kitchen window, right in the line of sight to the kitchen window bird feeder.  Again, autofocus was no good.  Manual focus worked, from a distance, as the spider stood still, waiting for a meal to arrive.

So there's no wonder why our outdoor Halloween theme has a heavy Spider emphasis.  =)
 I do think the Mandevilla have thrived on the South Facing garage, replacing the very messy bougainvella that used to litter my garage floor with wispy pink blossoms.

The large orange & black spider is mounted on a spring that lets it bounce and spin in the wind beneath the downspout gutter from which it hangs.