{"id":1861,"date":"2025-06-02T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/?p=1861"},"modified":"2025-05-30T10:25:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T00:25:16","slug":"a-spider-in-our-backyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/02\/a-spider-in-our-backyard\/","title":{"rendered":"A spider in our backyard"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australiasian Garden Orb-weaver (Hortophora Biapicata) [18 April 2025: Nikon Z8, NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f\/2.8 VR S @ 1\/60s f\/24 ISO200, Nikon SB-910, Cygnustech Diffuser]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Australiasian Garden Orb-weaver (Hortophora Biapicata) [18 April 2025: Nikon Z8, NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f\/2.8 VR S @ 1\/60s f\/22 ISO200, Nikon SB-910, Cygnustech Diffuser]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Australiasian Garden Orb-weaver (Hortophora Biapicata) [23 April 2025, Nikon Z8, NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f\/2.8 VR S @ 1\/200s f\/18 ISO200, Nikon SB-910, Cygnustech Diffuser]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

On 18 May 2025, we observed a spider building its web after sunset. I took out my Z8 with a 105mm macro lens fitted with a SB-910 speedlight and the new Cygnustech Diffuser. This enabled me to take a series of detailed photograph of the Australian Garden Orb-weaver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first time I have seen such a large spider in our backyard. Previously, we have only observed some jumping and Lynx spiders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not being a seasoned macro photographer, I have to use the iNaturalist app on my phone to identify this spider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, the web disappeared and the spider was found hiding in a hole. Then just after sunset, it started building its web again. This happened for a few nights. On one or two days, the web remained intact. I suspect that birds might have destroyed the web after dawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spider disappeared after about a week. It may have moved on or got taken by a predator – possibly a bird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first night I took these photographs, I found that I have again let my macro photography skills slipped. This is rather disappointing because I have promised myself to do more macro photography the last time this happened. However, over the course of the few nights that the spider was around, I have managed to regained some of my skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As weather gets colder with winter approaching, I don’t think there will be many opportunities to photograph insects. I think I will try my hand at macro photography of flowers and fungi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On 18 May 2025, we observed a spider building its web after sunset. I took out my Z8 with a 105mm macro lens fitted with a SB-910 speedlight and the new Cygnustech Diffuser. This enabled me to take a series … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,27],"tags":[237,65,238,47,236,17,211,186],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1861"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1864,"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1861\/revisions\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeo.id.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}