A spider web caught my eye yesterday afternoon as it flashed in the light from the low sun behind it. I grabbed a shot, and as I watched through the viewfinder I realized it was under construction, so I stayed with it for a few minutes.
The first shot has the basic frame and the outer web already in place. The basic frame was the surrounding suspension lines, the radials to the center, and a spiral that she used to walk around the web while spinning the rest. Time stamp on this frame is 4:34:51.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--...4/DSC_2129.jpg
Here she's carrying a new line down a radial, across the spiral, and about to move up the next radial to fasten it. Time 4:35:18.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-y...4/DSC_2130.jpg
Seven seconds later, working the next segment.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-J...4/DSC_2131.jpg
Just under 30 seconds later, and she's more than halfway around the web. Time here is 4:35:53.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M...4/DSC_2132.jpg
Three more seconds, 4:35:56.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_...4/DSC_2133.jpg
4:36:51, almost a minute, and she's been around 1-1/2 times.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w...4/DSC_2134.jpg
4:38:12, about a minute-twenty
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-o...4/DSC_2136.jpg
At that point I tried to switch to video, which turned out to be hopeless without the tripod. I was looking toward the sun and could not see the Live View on the LCD. By the time I gave up she'd finished the web and was sitting in the center waiting. Time here is 4:44:54, less than ten minutes after the first frame I shot.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p...4/DSC_2146.jpg
When we draw webs, we draw them as rings of web strands, but in fact the web is a spiral. That makes sense, but I'd never noticed it before.