Crab-like Spiny Orb Weaver

This Crab-like Spiny Orb Weaver is one of my favorite spiders to photograph. I like their smiley faces on their backs and their colors.

These spiders are fairly common in this part of Florida. I can see them on most any days in my backyard; which is where I spotted this one. They're pretty small, only about 3/8" in diameter, but their webs are distinct, so they're easy to spot. They can be found in woodland edges and shrubby gardens and their favorite food is small insects.

Settings used for making this image are as follows: ISO 400, partial metering off the spider in aperture priority mode; 1/250 at F10 for greater depth of field and +1 2/3 exposure compensation because he was backlit against the sky and I wanted to retain detail in his head. I used fill flash at -2 exposure compensation to keep the whites from blowing out and I used my Tamron F2.8 90mm macro lens. This was shot hand held; but I recommend using a tripod whenever shooting macro shots. In this case, this spider was quite a bit over my head, so a tripod wasn't practical.

Rainbow

This is a very strange rainbow. This is all there is to it; no arc, just this short rainbow in the sky. It wasn't even raining, and hadn't rained; but it started to rain soon after we spotted the rainbow. How weird is that?

Sunday morning, a few people from 2 of my combined meetup groups went to Ft Desoto planning on shooting daybreak, the sunrise, then going over to the other end and shoot the early morning birds.

We arrived at East Beach at Ft Desoto at around 6:00 am. There were 6 of us brave people who dared to get up early on a Sunday morning in hopes of getting a great sunrise. That we did. I wish I could display all the photos right here. It was a perfect morning. Lots of beautiful clouds and gorgeous light. We got amazing shots! If you want to see them, they are in the July album on my Facebook account. You can find my link here: Check out the other photos and let me know what you all think.

After the sun rose, we drove over to North Beach on the other side of Mullet Key, (but still in Ft Desoto), to try to catch the birds feeding. I have a favorite spot that I usually go to where I'm sure to get plenty of birds. As luck would have it, there weren't many birds there, but we did get lucky to see and photograph a Reddish Egret during his white phase. We don't see Reddish Egrets everyday like we do with the Great Egret and the Great Blue Herons, but to see a Reddish Egret in his white phase is a rarity. What a catch! We'd have missed him if a kind lady didn't come over to let us know he was there. We got some great shots of him that I'm still editing and even watched his dance.

They are the funniest birds when they're feeding. You'll see them stand very still until they spot their prey, then all of a sudden they run around in every direction, jump up and down, and spread their wings before going in to grab their fish. They use their wings to shade their appearance so the fish doesn't know they're there, but I don't know what the dance is for. It's the strangest behaviour and a blast to watch.

Watch my Facebook page over the next few days if you want to see the photos of the dancing Egret.

White Rose

Recently, I took a trip to the Florida Botanical Gardens. The Roses are in bloom and it smelled so good at the garden. This is one of my favorites taken that day.

Florida has been going through a drought and it's really affecting the plants, flowers and even the trees in my yard. Thank Heaven we've had rain the past couple days. It won't help with the drought unless we get rain for many days, but our grass is starting to come back and the trees are looking a lot healthier. I was afraid we were going to loose our Avocado tree. That would've been a shame. I love Avocado.

Anyway, back to the Rose. My friend brought a spray bottle of water and sprayed this flower just before I made this photo. What a difference it makes. It made the flower come alive! Spray bottles also help when photographing butterflies, insects and dragonflies, by the way.

While I admit I'm a lazy photographer, this day I set out to get some great images. I brought along my closeup filters and used them. Most of the time they just sit in my camera bag adding weight to an already heavy bag. For this shot, I added a +1 closeup lens and it was just enough to allow me to fill the frame with this beautiful Rose. I also chose to use an fairly small aperture because closeup lenses tend to make the depth of field really shallow and I wanted the whole rose to be in focus. This was shot with my Canon 40D, 75-300mm lens at 190mm, +1 closeup filter, at F8, 1/250th, and ISO 400. I'm including the technical data because several people have asked me for it. Just keep in mind that different cameras and lenses react differently to the same settings. These settings are just a starting point. You'll have to judge the results for yourself with your own equipment.

Magnolia Blossom

If you have never smelled the sweet fragrance of a Southern Magnolia tree, then you've been missing out on something very special.

I found this tree growing in a church yard right next to the dumpster. In the summer in Florida, a dumpster can get pretty rancid smelling within a day or two. The Magnolia blossoms completely hid the smell of the rotting trash in the dumpster. It's the closest I've ever been to a dumpster in the summer.

Besides not having a sickening odor, the dumpster was painted beautifully. This church is not only beautiful, but the grounds around it were kept nice and trim and it was magnificently landscaped. Check out the photo of the dumpster! I've seen a few painted trash cans in my day, but never anything as well done as this.

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