Summer brings with it the occasional visitor. We have had as many as three at one time, weaving their temporary domiciles around our home. Sometimes they are here for weeks while others stay for only a couple of days before disappearing. We always try to give them their space while admiring what they do.
I am not a big fan of spiders, but when I catch an orb weaver in the midst of spinning it’s web, i love to watch. Weaving fine filaments in a beautiful pattern, they are captivating. Once the anchor lines are secured and the pattern started, they dance quite quickly to create a shimmering, near-invisible net. Once complete, they sit, unmoving, in the center of their creation and wait.
When possible, I take the opportunity to photograph these artists, taking great care not to disturb their work. On occasion, they accommodate me by building in a place that gives me more creative control. This particular specimen did just that. I scrambled to gather the appropriate tools, recruited some help from the family, and spent about fifteen minutes attempting to highlight the marvelous weaving work.
Unfortunately, storms in the night did a lot of damage in our neighborhood. Tree limbs were snapped, debris scattered about yards, and our friendly, neighborhood spider is gone. We have watched for it, but I fear the weather claimed it or convinced it to move to a new location. I shall keep my eyes peeled for another chance to capture more images like these.
Creating images like this is fun and relatively simple to do if you have the right tools for the job. Next time, I’ll go into a bit of detail as to how I put so much color into a near-invisible web. For now, though, I have done enough weaving on this tale.
