January in northwest Wyoming is not supposed to look like this! With a record number of days of temps above 50*F, I have seen insects, spiders and even fresh snake tracks in the last couple weeks. The only thing I haven’t seen is snow! I came across this grass spider on January 5 as I was out hiking with my long lens. f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400, 400mm.
The weather has been strange that’s for sure, Kathy. First off great eye to spot the spider in it’s natural environment. I think if you cropped in closer so that you just had the spider on the wood it would have more impact. As is it does get a little lost with everything being pretty much the same color. Just my opinion of course. BTW, great details and textures in the wood.
Hi Kathy! I agree with Ed’s comments - nice detail in the wood and a crop to highlight the spider would be helpful.
It’s been a weird winter in western Washington as well. I have some summer flowers that are still pushing a few blooms. And some of our spring flowers have started the bloom too. Not much has gone dormant, even flies and are out and about. Strange times!
Thanks Ed. You are right, of course. Funny how we sometimes have a hard time cropping even when it is clear the subject would benefit from less!
Thank you Steve. I have lots of data so it will be easy to crop this image (although I may not bother since the spider is facing away from the viewer). Hoping winter arrives before spring!
Kathy, I agree with the others that you did very well spotting this spider. I like the details in the setting, with the wood grain showing well. I’m going to guess that you’re using the Canon 400, f/5.6 lens. It was a long time favorite of mine for wildlife. However, it didn’t focus close enough for my tastes in macro/close-up work, so I would add a full set of extension tubes when I wanted to focus closer than it’s ~10 foot limit.
Thank you Mark. Good advice. I rarely hike without at least some minimal amount of macro gear in my bag but who knew I would be spotting spiders in Wyoming in January?!
Another slightly different approach, Kathy. Reduce the exposure to bring out more detail in the bright, curved piece of wood above the spider, as well as the other wood that seems a little too bright for me. Perhaps increase the contrast a bit to really highlight the texture in the wood. To me there is tremendous feeling in the curves in the wood. I would even leave more of the wood at the top that you cropped out. You could even work with the spider to make it almost a surprise rather then the first things that draws the eye. There is indeed a lot to be found in these intimate landscapes.