Photographing Spiders at Night
I had a rare view last night of a male Garden Orb Weaving Spider visiting the web of a female. It is an event fraught with danger for the male. If he doesn't take his time approaching the female, he becomes dinner!
He hung around the edge for ages, twirling and twanging the threads before approaching.
I photographed them using a 60 LED torch that I held to light the spider and at times to highlight the web. Next time I will mount the light on a stand so that I can free up my hands for the focus and shooting. A second light to shine from the side to highlight the web could be useful or even putting it behind. It gives a great effect.
The camera a Sony A77 with a Sigma 105mm macro lens was mounted on a tripod. I focused it manually as it was too dark for the auto focus to work.I originally set the ISO on 800 and f4 to get a reasonable shutter speed but it wasn't enough. I went up to f10 with an ISO of 1600 and held the light closer to increase the intensity. I then started getting some decent sharp images.
It was hard work trying to focus on a twirling spider while hand holding the light and being eaten alive by mosquitoes! But the shots made it worth the pain!
The female is the big fat one eating a moth. You can see the remnants of the down in the web on the left
