But, really… is anyone honestly afraid of Daddy Long Legs? They can’t bite you, they don’t bother you, and really they protect you from other spiders (or so my mother has told me since I was old enough to be afraid of all creepy crawlies in general). I don’t consider them real spiders, even though my heart still falls a bit every time I see one; but then my rational brain kicks in and ignores them. In fact I saw one in my house the other day, I just pretended I didn’t notice him and went about my afternoon.
By no means do I claim to be a nature photographer. But I saw these two on my porch and just had to capture the moment. So ignore the fact that the focus is slightly (mostly) off the insects (but look at the weave of the grill cover… perfection!!) and just get in a little nature channel type education for your morning entertainment.
Let me just say: this was difficult. Lets go back to the point that I do not like spiders. That being said, I will kill them if they are in my house, even with my hands if I can’t find anything to crush them with fast enough to get them before the escape, (the trick is to be quick, swift, fearless, and have a fierce landing). So I can’t say I am an arachnophobe, by any means, but I had a 100mm macro lens on my camera body and it took me about 50 photos and about 15 minutes to get close enough to get these shots, and they still aren’t perfect. (I’m really sorry to all who are cringing and hating on me because I just admitted to killing “other living beings”… it’s just bugs, not even all of them – mostly just the ones in my home and the harmful ones, I promise.)
Secondly, I was under the impression my lens had captured the insects perfectly. Uploading them I see it mostly captured the grill cover. It’s okay. It’ll do. People… animals… trees all much easier… most of the time.
I knew by the way they were spinning that 16 legged web that something was going down, but I had no idea what I was looking at until I uploaded the photos and imported them to my software. It’s pretty amazing. I’m not going to try to narrate because the photos tell a good storyline, but just the fact that I was looking at them through the camera and had no idea the details until I actually looked at the photos is pretty incredible.
I think about the nature/science of this and I’m proud of these shots. Then I really think about it and I kinda feel like a Peeping Tom.
*Photo quality degraded for social media use.
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