Monomad - Monday (Macro) - Spawn of Ungoliant

in #monomad6 years ago (edited)

Macro photography is a lot of fun, so I see Mondays being a frequent Monomad favorite for me. Turning again to my back yard, this time I was after something with legs.

My kids helped with the hunt. My daughter shouted out that she found a spider, and the decent sized arachnid was considerably speedy. I waited for the right moment when it stopped running. I'm not overly arachnophobic, but I wasn't exactly looking forward to laying on the ground a couple inches in front of this critter.

She was still enough for me to get in position and snap a couple of shots. Reviewing the freshly captured images as the spider scrambled away in the moss and grass I couldn't help but be reminded of Tolkien's ancient creature Shelob.


Shelob1.JPG
Click image for higher resolution.
Equipment: Nikon D5000, AF-S 18-55mm Nikkor 1:3.5-5.6 on 36mm macro tube
Exposure: f/6.3, 1/320sec, ISO-320


For those of you interested in joining the monochrome madness, here is the post that provides the guidelines for this daily photography prompt organized by @brumest.

It's as simple as sharing an original monochrome photograph on Steemit, tagging it with #monomad, and following this daily topic list:

MondayMacro
TuesdayStreet
WednesdayAbstract
ThursdayAnimals
FridayFlowers
SaturdaySilhouettes
SundaySkies
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Love it!

Thanks Bex. I've finally yielded to your prompts to do monomad. It's great to have something, even so simple, to provide the drive to produce some photography. Ill be honest though, I'm not too sure when I'll ever venture to make sometuing for a Wednesday--I don't really have the eye for abstract like you do.

Wolf spider?

You are asking me? Haha, kidding aside, I believe it is a wolf spider. However, I've had a lot of difficultly trying to identify a couple spiders I have seen in Alaska through the internet. It seems like there are some different varieties of wolf spider (some much, much fuzzier) and there are even debates if a certain kinds of spiders live in Alaska or not (see brown recluse).
The best I could conclude is that these must be wolf spiders--we've been seeing a lot of them this last week (spring has actually arrived now).

If it's nowhere near a web, that might be indicative.

Now that you mention it, I never spot then near a web. I always find them scouting about, this one perhaps on the hunt through the grass. Seems like something so obvious, but it doesn't pop up like a flag until someone points it out.
Thanks for sharing your expert knowledge of the natural world. :)

Enthusiastic and well practiced amateur, more like! I really enjoy these sorts of IDs.

Beautiful shot. There is a certain gracefulness in spiders. You’ve really captured it well, in close up black and white.

Sometimes I can appriciate their beauty, but I can't resist just thinking they're ugly most of the time. Haha. And if I find them in my house... it's on! Spiders are best appriciated in the outdoors.

Agreed! But I always wonder if they experience fear and what it must be like for them to see us looming over them. They are probably thinking “Eek! What is that giant monster doing in my house?” And subsequently, “Maybe it will go away if I bite it!”

Well, that's suitably creepy. I think I'd worry about being that close, and then having the dang thing jump right on my face or my camera. Camera would then get smashed, I would run, etc etc.

Beautiful pic though!

Haha, that did cross my mind. After watching how fast this thing could run, I had to bolster my resolve before laying down on the grass as close as required with a macro lens. I was fast about it, and as soon as I got the shot I jumped back to my feet. I'll admit, a moment of panic was likely to happen if it so much as twitched while I looked through the viewfinder.

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