The Fragile Magnificence of Nature: Spiderwebs!

reddragonfly (64)in #photography • 5 years ago

Spiderwebs are pretty amazing structures... small miracles of nature.

They are incredibly strong, given their dimensions and yet incredibly fragile. Their geometry and "natural engineering" is pretty amazing, too.

From the photographer's standpoint they present some interesting challenges, too.

For starters, you are pretty much phtographing AIR. There's nothing there, as far as most cameras and sensing equipment is concerned.

At the same time? What acttually is there is extremely reflective, often causing all kinds of light trickery and bouncy reflections that make a sharply focused image actually look blurry.

It's a little easier on a foggy day when there are tiny water droplets to "define" what you're shooting... but sometimes the most eye-catching spiderwebs can be seen on bright sunny days when the light is coming in from a low angle.

This was the original version, this spiderweb suspended in one of the trees in our back yard

I make no claims to being an expert when it comes to shooting spiderwebs, but thanks to my love of nature I have photographed a large number of them... and it has been a challenge, every time!

Hope you like this one, shot in our back yard, a few days back.