Tropical Orbweaver (Eriophora ravilla)

Woke up this morning, let the cats and dogs out...trying to wake up, notice something hanging in the air near my banana tree clump beside the driveway. Still fuzzy headed, managed to recognize it was a spider with an impressive web. One of the anchor lines was about 15 feet long, going up to a neighbor's tree. Hanging at eye-height. Web anchors went up four or five feet, and down to the ground (so 10 or 11 feet total vertical reach).

Belly shot:

Nice shoot!

Lovely captures- impressive sized web
Brian v.

Good shots!

thats a big spider! light is a bit harsh, but the detail/dof is good...

I like how you showed 3 different views on the spider

That looks like one huge spider, Steve. Great find!

Yeah, lighting was harsh because the sun was not up yet, so it was that gray dull light you get just before dawn. All I had was my speedlite. If I had used a slower shutter, cranked up the ISO and opened up the aperture I could have used some ambient light, but then my DOF would have been very thin and the image would be noisier, and the image would be a blur due to lack of tripod.

The spider was only about 2 inches long including legs. So body was about 1 inch long. It just looks big because I got close...

These things are all over the place early in the morning around here at this time of year. But usually in fields with a mix of open space and trees, like a citrus grove - first time in my yard.

shinksma

nice capture steve.
I hear you about the coffee! cant function whitout it myself.

Wonderful captures

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

I need to start paying attention to the cool looking spiders in the yard. There must be a crab spider or two lurking about...

And I need to look at previous spider pics I've taken, to see if there is something interesting there, species-wise. And to see whether I can do anything different/better now that I've succumbed to Lightroom 5. It certainly seems to make my photos have a pop that I couldn't get before.

shinksma