Spider web construction

[wfooshee]

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.


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.


Seven seconds later, working the next segment.


Just under 30 seconds later, and she's more than halfway around the web. Time here is 4:35:53.


Three more seconds, 4:35:56.


4:36:51, almost a minute, and she's been around 1-1/2 times.


4:38:12, about a minute-twenty


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.


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.

[armando_m]

very nice ! thanks for sharing it !

[Photo-John]

Super cool, wfooshee! That would make a really good timelapse subject. But yes - a tripod would be necessary. Something to file away in my mind in case I catch a web build in progress. Thanks for the inspiration

[Intrepid Berkeley Explorer]

The sequence leads to a most attractive, colorful web. Great work by you as photographer and by that tiny white spider as construction engineer.

Video might produce something like a time lapse by having one still shot transition into the next. I know how hard it is to hold a camcorder still enough for super close-ups. But I've done OK with video of larger spiders/webs. Background music has been "Boris the Spider" by the Who.

[Cormac]

very cool!