Micrathena Sagitatta: Arrow-shaped Micrathena Spider

Canon EOS 6D Mark II & Tamron 90 mm Macro Lens, ISO 400, f/2.8 @ 1/400s Manual exposure

In my last post, I talked about how I really wanted to get a chance to photograph some spiders.  I could not believe it but today I got my chance.  I went out in my backyard today, to start cleaning out a garden that we had just let get away from us over the last few years.  But as I started to trim back some of the branches off the bush in front of me, I saw two different Arrow-shaped Micrathena Spiders.  After some research I found out they were both females.  I managed a few good photographs, and I hope over the next few days I get a few more.  One of the spiders was rebuilding its web so I focused a lot of my time on that spider.  I just could not believe that these spiders have probably been in my backyard all summer.  To me they are some of the craziest looking spiders around here.  Ever since I photographed and wrote a post about them back in 2012, I had not really seen any.  (Link to 2012 Post)  Maybe I just was not looking hard enough.  Since then I have done some research a few times but I never posted anything about these spiders.  So I figured I would put a little information about them here.

Canon EOS 6D Mark II & Tamron 90 mm Macro Lens, ISO 400, f/2.8 @ 1/400s Manual exposure

What do they look like?

Arrow-shaped Micrathena Spiders are one of the smaller species of orb-weaving spider.  They are sexually dimorphic.  The males are smaller averaging around 0.5cm and females about 1.0 cm. (without including the legs)  The females have the more striking features and beautiful colors.  Both have the distinctive arrow shape, but the females are more pronounced.  The females also have additional small spikes on the abdomen near the thorax.

Web Structure:

The most interesting thing I did not know about them is that the web consists of two portions the frame and the orb.  The frame is a relatively permanent structure and some spiders will leave them up for days and weeks.  The orb however is built each day at dawn before being taken down in the evening.  When they take it down they consume it.  They also typically stay in the hole at the center of the orb where it hangs upside down waiting for its prey to wander into the web.  In my case because they were upside down the good side was facing into the bush.  So I had to climb in behind the bush and the brush to be able to get the shots.

Where are they located?

Micrathena Sagitatta is one of only three Micrathena spiders found in North America.  It is most common to the eastern half of the country.  Nationally it is found in nearly every state east of Kansas, and as far north as Maine.

Are they dangerous?

Most people who look these spiders up are rightly concerned as to whether these spiders are dangerous?  For the most part, they aren't dangerous to people.  They have venom that they use to paralyze and kill bugs, but their venom isn't strong enough to do the same to larger creatures.  The venom may be a concern for those who are allergic to it, but this is rare.  That said, the bite can be painful, so you should try and avoid accidentally sticking your hand into their web.

Even though these spiders are not really dangerous they do look quite scary.  Once you get past the fear of them they can be very interesting just to watch.  I hope over the next week I get some more opportunities to photograph them, and as I clean out the garden maybe I will find more interesting bugs.  Until next time.

Finding My Passion Again

It has been over three years since my last post.  I cannot believe it has been so long.  The last three years were probably the toughest years of my life.  I lost my grandfather, my aunt, and my father in less than two years, all which took a toll on me.  None harder than the loss of my father.  It was so sudden and unexpected that it really crushed me.  After his passing, I realized how little time I spent with him doing his true passion, woodworking.  So, I guess to help cope with my father's loss I spent a lot of my free time in his wood shop doing everything that he enjoyed doing.

Looking back at my life, I realized how much influence my father had on me.  Almost everything I enjoyed doing I learned from him, and we always did them together.  Since I was a child I remember getting my first Minolta film camera, and the two of us would go out and photograph wildlife together.  For probably 20 years or so, we were always going together to take photographs.  I guess without him I didn't have the drive to go out alone.  Also, with my new full time job, I didn't have the free time that I had before.  I believe that I had gotten used to staying home, when I was not working, and finding more things to do around the house.

Just before my father passed away, I had started growing some bonsai trees from seeds.  I had also bought some pre bonsai to work on.  I thought it would be something that I would enjoy doing.   Over the last two years, I have learned a lot about bonsai care, but I still have a lot to learn.  I have really enjoyed spending the time outside and enjoyed the process of bonsai.  Now, I have approximately  two dozen different trees, in a large variety of species.  None of which I would consider bonsai at this point, but they are a work in progress.  After some reflection about the past few years of my life, I realized that maybe this was my way of coping with the losses.  Either way, I have enjoyed working on my trees, and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon.  I have started a lot of seeds over this winter, and I am waiting to see if they will sprout.

From spending all the extra time outside caring for my bonsai trees, I realized how much I was missing being out in nature.  So, I charged up my camera batteries for the first time in over a year last fall and finally took a trip out to the local reservoir.  I saw some bald eagle's fishing, some geese, and ducks, and some other small bird species.  However, I did not get any pictures.  I was focusing more on macro photography at the time.  I wanted to photograph insects because I was seeing much more insects than anything else.  I did manage to get a couple of photographs of dragonflies and frogs.  I also photographed a lot of flowers and other subjects just to have something to photograph.  I did get some good shots, but it simply felt good to be back out taking pictures.

Since my trips in the fall, I did take some other trips out during the winter.  I just didn't post anything about them.  I plan on sharing some photographs from those trips soon.  I also recently took a trip out to the Bashakill Wildlife Management Area.  I will post more about that as well.  Soon, I will also be taking a trip to Alaska for the first time.  I am so excited to finally get to visit Alaska.  I have been wanting to go there since I was a child.  I've been preparing for the trip, and I purchased a new camera lens.  The sigma 150–600 mm contemporary lens.  So far, I really like it.  I have not had much time to test it out, but it is a vast improvement over my last lenses.  I look forward to getting more opportunities to use it.  I am also thinking about getting a new camera body for my trip.  I will keep you posted on that once I decide what I am going to purchase.  I am also looking to buy some other accessories.  As I purchase the equipment, I will probably post about it.

For this post, I decided to include some photographs taken since my last post.  As a reminder all the images posted on my blog have been reduced in size for storage purposes. I hope you all enjoy them.  Until next time.

Productive Outings

Finally I am starting to have some productive photography trips.  The last few I have been on were great.  The fall foliage is at its peak and the scenery is absolutely beautiful.   My most recent trip was the most productive.  I made my way to the Bashakill Wetlands and was hoping to find some warblers and other fall migrant birds.  I did get a glimpse at a few of them but didn’t manage a good photo.  Once I decided that birding was not going well, I changed to photographing insects.  I managed a couple shots of dragonflies and butterflies.  Most didn’t come out due to the harsh natural lighting.  There were no clouds and it made it very hard to control lighting.  After a while I remembered I had extension tubes in my camera bag, so I put two of the three on.  That’s when I saw this little jumping spider crawling up a boulder.  The spider was probably about the size of a pencil eraser.  The spider didn’t sit still very long so I only managed a few shots before he hopped off into the grass and disappeared.  I was pleased with the shot but I wish I could have gotten closer.  

While I was home after this I realized that maybe if I added the extension tubes and then attached my small lens reversed it might actually get me more magnification than I had with my 250 mm with the extension tubes on.  I plan on running a test to see if adding extension tubes to a reversed lens lets you stay a little further from the subject.  I’m hoping this is the case because with the reversed lens you have to get so close to the subject that it’s almost impossible to do, because the wild animals don’t stay when you get that close.  I hope that the upcoming week is as good as this one.  I hope everyone enjoys the photographs.  Until next time.    

Arrow-shaped Micrathena Spider

I have a recent post about Arrow-shaped Micrathena Spiders.  Follow the link to check it out.

I have been quite busy lately and I have not had to many opportunities to get out and take photographs.  I have been mostly testing my new reversing ring and trying a lot of Macro Insect Photography.  I was quite amazed with the one spider I found.  I had never seen one before and after some research I found out it is called an Arrow-shaped Micrathena Spider.  So I took a couple of shots of it.

I took a ton of shots the last couple days but not many were any good.  I'm still getting used to focusing by moving closer or further away from the object.  Later in the week I would like to make a post about Photo Stacking and also I would like to do a Review on the Reversing Ring that I bought.  So my next two posts should be more informal.  Until Next Time.

More Dragonflies

It has been a slow week.  I have not done much photography, but I did photograph a few more dragonflies at Lake Superior State Park.  It was not easy to photograph them because it was a little windy so they were swaying back and forth in the wind, making it very hard to get crisp focus.

I have also been working on collecting some driftwood from the river and some of the lakes from the area.  Hopefully soon I will set them up outside and hopefully I can get some of the woodland birds to come.  I believe that it will help me get some really nice woodland bird shots this summer.

I hope you enjoy the photographs.  Let me know what you think.  Please comment.  Feel free to ask me questions.