Spiders are awesome

[Count Nerfedalot]

Looking at those black widow pics, I was suddenly struck by the fact that I was actually surprised to see that they eat bugs.  I somehow kinda assumed their preferred prey was something more impressive, like dogs or kids or elephants or something.  I mean, I guess if I'd thought about it I would have realized they ate bugs. But I guess I just never really felt inclined to think too much about their eating habits. or something. 

Wish I had a pic of the one I included in my middle school insect collection (carefully labelled as NOT AN INSECT) but with a leg span at almost 2.5 inches (6+cm) across it was too impressive not to include. I found it in the back yard while collecting lacewings and moths and butterflies and beetles and turned over a log in a wood pile and HOLY COW LOOK AT THAT THING!!! 

[calapine]

Eek. Was it dead? And if not how did you kill it without mashing it into a pulp?

[Count Nerfedalot]

it was quite alive, but not for long. I was collecting bugs and had a mayonnaise jar with something in it (naptha maybe?) for killing them so I just scooped her up, screwed the lid down tight and waited till the wiggling had stopped.  For a couple of days. 

[RhyssaFireheart]

[KallDrexx]

So in my back yard there's a small bushtree-thing that's about 4 feet tall.  I looked at it and there are about 7-8 different spiders that have made webs in various parts.  I'm not one who is scared of spiders in most cases, but then I looked at one closely.  It was a black spider with what looked almost like an hour glass.  I freak the fuck out, take a gardening wall thing (4 foot long piece of wood) and start trying to destroy it (who knows if I even did, I probably just broke the web and it swung to another part of the tree.

Later I find out that 1) black widows have red marks, not bright neon orange and 2) they don't like the sun much.  So most likely I freaked out for no reason but hey, I regret nothing.

[01101010]

From what I have read, Widows are kinda pussies in terms of biting. They won't unless all other avenues are null and even then, the bite is usually not fatal. However, I'd recommend just using a spider killing spray and target specific spiders. Widows don't jump and don't move all that fast so spraying them is pretty easy and they die pretty quickly when doused.

[TheWalrus]

Do not spray jumping spiders however. You will regret it. Usually.

[Selby]

Widows don't jump and don't move all that fast so spraying them is pretty easy and they die pretty quickly when doused.

I disagree.  When it is warm out widows move almost light speed to hide themselves.  If it is cold they tend to be sluggish.  And the bites are rarely fatal, mostly just painful (see previous picture of me getting my arm bit).  Although orange and not red can signal widows, widows spin a specific type of silk that is very distinct and definitely do NOT like the sun (they can't see well and when shadows flash around them they tend to flee).  Not that it couldn't have been a widow, but when it usually is it's pretty obvious.

[Count Nerfedalot]

If it's a shiny black hairless spider with long spindly legs I figure it's safest to assume it's a widow.  Some widows (or their close and also poisonous relatives) have orange or red-and-white markings, not always hourglass shaped. And sometimes the marking is only on the bottom and since you only usually see them from the top...

You can probably get away with spraying jumping spiders too, as long as you hold a flame in front of the can while spraying! 

[Lantyssa]

Later I find out that 1) black widows have red marks, not bright neon orange and 2) they don't like the sun much.  So most likely I freaked out for no reason but hey, I regret nothing.

Around here we have a lot of these dark greenish-black orb web-weavers with the neon orange markings outdoors.  Probably one of those.

[KallDrexx]

Around here we have a lot of these dark greenish-black orb web-weavers with the neon orange markings outdoors.  Probably one of those.

We have some orb weavers supposedly.  I haven't seen their markings, since i only see them at night, but they always form massive (and I mean massive) webs in the middle of my yard at night and they are always gone by the morning.

Half the time I know cause I accidentally run into the web while trying to get my dog to stop barking.

[Selby]

We have some orb weavers supposedly.  I haven't seen their markings, since i only see them at night, but they always form massive (and I mean massive) webs in the middle of my yard at night and they are always gone by the morning.

Female European Orb Weavers were infesting my previous house and that was exactly their MO.  They do spin some pretty webs even if they were quite inconveniently placed in front of my porch and mailbox...

[Count Nerfedalot]

Orb weavers are not poisonous to my knowledge, at least not the North American ones.  Widows don't really make very pretty webs, and certainly not strung up across the garden path or anything so public.  They make messy irregular almost cobwebby webs in out-of-the way places.  I've found them in wood piles, in an old unused garbage can, under rocks and logs, under the workbench or amongst the clutter in low shelving, etc.  Basically you usually have to move something to find a black widow.

[TheWalrus]

Which makes you wonder why they're so damn poisonous. What is so wily that it takes a tiny critter that much juice to kill it dead? What don't we know about that they're eating...

[01101010]

I'd imagine because instantly killing a victim is much less dangerous to a fragile spider. I don't think widows are all that durable and a fight with another insect that is larger or more aggressive would probably mean death for the widow. Then again, I am just guessing here.

[Bzalthek]

Too much talky

[lamaros]

It's been raining again.

[Fordel]

Are those the communal spiders again?

[Tale]

It's lots of little spiders trying to survive a flood. I think in Wagga, NSW, Australia.

(edit) Actually no it's right now in Gippsland, Victoria http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-21/veil-of-spider-webs-cover-gippsland-after-heavy-rain/4771202

[Signe]

It's an Orange Tortoise Spider.  It's very cute so it probably jumps.

[Cyrrex]

It's an Orange Tortoise Spider.  It's very cute so it probably jumps onto your face and lays its eggs in your eyeball.

Fixed.

[apocrypha]

Had a very quick go at focus stacking this morning. This is blended from 6 shots, hand-held and shot through glass, so it's a bit rough, but just a test of Photoshop's built-in focus stacking tools really. Lovely big orb weaver outside my study window :)

[Selby]

Very nice detail shot of her!

[Merusk]

Wow, that's awesome.  Now I have to go read-up on what the hell focus stacking is .

[Signe]

Wow, that's awesome.  Now I have to go read-up on what the hell focus stacking is .

[apocrypha]

Focus stacking is where you take multiple shots, gradually changing the focus between each one. Then you use software to layer them and pick the most in-focus bit from each image and create a final image with much greater depth-of-field than each individual photo. I should have got the tripod out but I was just testing so I didn't bother, which is why it's a bit blurry in places :)

Here's one of the 6 shots from the stack that made that pic above:

[Draegan]

Focus stacking seems like cheating.

[Mosesandstick]

That's absolutely brilliant Apoc.

[Merusk]

Yeah I looked it up right after I asked. Nifty and now I'm thinking of trying it via stealing your Legoman technique for "shit, what's something small I can photograph?"

Focus stacking seems like cheating.

Most Digital/ Photoshop techniques seem like cheating, TBH, but that's the world we live in now!

[Trippy]

Yeah in my day we worked with toxic chemicals that we breathed in and absorbed through our skin all day AND LIKED IT.

[Ironwood]

Yeah in my day we worked with toxic chemicals that we breathed in and absorbed through our skin all day AND LIKED IT.

And we called it a hobby.

[apocrypha]

Hehe yeah been there, done that. My first real (i.e. full-time) job before I went to uni was as a rostrum camera & E6 technician. Rostrum cameras were basically large, precision cameras that you used to re-photograph slide film and do effects with. It was how photo manipulation was done before it all went digital. E6 processing was the chemical processing of slide film.

You would not believe the kind of effects we could achieve with just analogue methods. The group I was working with just did simple advertising work, but the same effects were the basis of all the special effects in films before digital technology - matting, reshooting, layering, etc. Star Wars, Alien, etc, were all shot using these techniques.

Digital technology just makes it easier and faster really.

[apocrypha]

Actually I really miss those days. There was something amazingly satisfying about the simple skill involved in analogue effects.

[Slayerik]

Do you get bonus points if you spell it Analogue over analog?

[Pennilenko]

Do you get bonus points if you spell it Analogue over analog?

While there is some relation, there appears to be differences.

Analogue

Analog