spiders, cousins and CNN

post #98

     First the spiders!  Four days ago I discovered a web across our path to the woods.  Waist high.  I stopped walking.  Just in time to do no damage and to take a look.  I was impressed.  And fascinated.  Became amazed.  Sat on the ground to look some more.  Took out my only camera on hand, a Panasonic Lumix point and shoot that can be used in water.  I decided to see what it could do with a web.  I was guessing here, and let it use the flash.  Here are two of those photos: 

This is not what I could see with my eye.  What can I say, the digital part of the camera helped me be aware.  There was more here than I realized. I could of course see the spider and the whatever it is with her.

  There may not be gold medals for what spiders do for their dinner, but doesn't this hard work at least look just like the Olympic stadium?  Again, the flash is doing its magic.

        The load that seems to be attached to the spider appears to be her bug "fridge" -- two days later, after a heavy rain and my husband's not knowing where this web was and walking through it by mistake, the spider seemed to be still carrying the same load.  ANY EXPLANATIONS BY ANYONE WOULD BE MOST WELCOME.  (Note: the next post has an identification for this spider and her shape.)

        So, I made these next two photos toward dusk, the first with my new-ish 16-35m 1:28 lens.  However, it wasn't really late enough yet for the wind to have died down enough, so I returned a bit later, for the second photo, with my 70-300.  (I then tried photos  with a macro lens but the air became too volatile with the lens and me being that close to the web.  Wobbles galore.)  Note: I could NOT see the greater web myself when I took the second  photo.  It was almost as if it weren't there except through the lens. I just knew where the spider and her load were located and the mended splotches.

 

 

      On the way back to the house, I took a flower photo since the macro lens was still on the camera.  How could I not do it.  My confession would be that I didn't use a tripod, which would probably have made the petals look even sharper.  This is from our Rose of Sharon shrub.

      There is more to tell about spiders, but I will save it for next week.  For now, I want to add that one of the unexpected paths my life has taken was this artist one, in my fifties.  Such work never occurred to me earlier.  I have always claimed that two cousins of mine were the only artists I knew in the family, and now they also are taking their art more seriously.  Claudia, who retired as a newspaper journalist, has begun a blog where she writes about such a journey.  I enjoy her writing -- and her humor -- so I wanted to share the link to her blog  (The Insecure Artist) and to their joint website (www.twosisterspaint.com).  I am proud of and happy for us all.

     The CNN in the title for this post refers to an article today about photography that is already generating lots of discussion.  Here is the link.  Its title is "Art Photography: when 'reality isn't good enough.'"  I am sure to have more to say about this topic in the future. For real!