2309_0315 Banded Garden Spider with Grasshopper Prey
Arachnid eats insect! Unlike yesterday's grasshopper, this one wasn't so lucky. This is the underside or ventral view of a female Banded Garden Spider, spinning silk to enshroud the hapless hopper she has already killed. Her spinneret - the silk producing organ - is that circular brown shape on her upper abdomen ("upper" because her preferred position is upside down).
Backgrounds are very important in macro photography, and here my result is sub-optimal: too much detail. Yet I felt I needed f/16 to have enough depth of field to get both the live and dead subject in focus. And I was unable to maneuver into a better position. In retrospect, I wish I had tried some wider f-stops as well, but I was nearing the end of a long, hot day, and probably addled.
Tomorrow, a portrait of this species, without cocooned prey, but with a better background.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2023 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
2309_0315 Banded Garden Spider with Grasshopper Prey
Arachnid eats insect! Unlike yesterday's grasshopper, this one wasn't so lucky. This is the underside or ventral view of a female Banded Garden Spider, spinning silk to enshroud the hapless hopper she has already killed. Her spinneret - the silk producing organ - is that circular brown shape on her upper abdomen ("upper" because her preferred position is upside down).
Backgrounds are very important in macro photography, and here my result is sub-optimal: too much detail. Yet I felt I needed f/16 to have enough depth of field to get both the live and dead subject in focus. And I was unable to maneuver into a better position. In retrospect, I wish I had tried some wider f-stops as well, but I was nearing the end of a long, hot day, and probably addled.
Tomorrow, a portrait of this species, without cocooned prey, but with a better background.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2023 James R. Page - all rights reserved.