Something a little different today.  We have a spider living basically right outside of our front door.  It has spun it’s scary beautiful web between the end of our mailbox and our brick.  It’s a popular spot – we had one there last year as well.  I have been looking at it for a few days now and rather than kill it like I really REALLY want to do (I am not a spider fan in the slightest), I decided to attempt to conquer my fears and get some cool photos of it instead.  I have this macro lens that I use for my newborns, so why not on something different?  I had used it to capture a baby bee a few days prior and got a really nice shot…so I set off to get the spider.  This involved me getting about six inches away from the spider.  Looking back, I must have been really focused on “getting the shot.”  Because I don’t know that I would get that close again.  And thank goodness the thing didn’t move because you would have heard me shriek wherever you are living.

Let me tell you, macro shots are a lot more difficult than I thought they would be.  (I am going to drift into photographer speak here for a minute so bear with me)  The depth of field is just SO so shallow shooting that close that to get the entire spider in focus I found was almost impossible.  Especially when the wind would blow the web.  Even the slightest little breeze would throw everything off.  I finally ended up shooting at f/16 for the last shot and even then I still didn’t get the entire thing perfectly focused.  Ah well.   I am still pretty pleased.  And I could have gotten closer and gotten even more detail but yeahhhhh.  Wasn’t happening.  So enjoy something different for a minute…starting with the baby bee to not freak people out right away.