Shot almost straight into the sun at dawn Sunday, in the cactus garden in Balboa Park. It was a hot, humid morning, and I couldn't see what I was doing because everything kept steaming up. My "assistant" wandered around spotting likely spider webs, and I followed her around, spritzing the webs with water and shooting.
I think this is a common garden spider. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Post processing...I don't remember exactly what I did, but I think this would have worked in a minimal editing challenge...
* rotate 180 degrees
* slight NeatImage to reduce the overall file size.
* resize
* sharpen
* save for web
Post challenge...OMG!!! I won!!!! Thanks for the votes and the excellent comments, everyone. It's nice to win with something that's basically straight out of the camera.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 364 Avg (all users): 7.0471 Avg (commenters): 8.7619 Avg (participants): 6.9241 Avg (non-participants): 7.1538 Views since voting: 15458 Views during voting: 348 Votes: 170 Comments: 69 Favorites: 33 (view)
I didnt get to vote in this challenge but I would have scored this way high. I also have gotten away from faving images after challenge because I prefer to just do it in challenge while voting. But I am favin ghere and now. Excellent image. Congrats onthe blue.
This is a wonderful image, and so deserving of the blue ribbon. I love the warm colors and you managed to get the focus of that shallow DOF just right. In addition, you somehow managed to make a spider look un-creepy! :D
Congratulations on a great photo and your first ribbon!
OK, its a really nice idea, and looks good, but seems a tad oversharpened and even a tad out of focus on the spider? that has been saved slightly with the oversharpening though.
On the plus side the use of foreground AND background bokeh is truely stunning and the colours are beautiful and compliment the whole image wonderfully.
Still, the voters loved it and granted it is very creative, which I guess we should be encouraging on DPC.. well done on the blue.
On, one last thing, you are SOOOOOO close to breaking the 6 barrier for your overall average score over all challenges.. Being in the "6" club is a great achievement, I am sure you will get there with your next challenge..
Congratulations on the ribbon. This is a superb shot. And yes, it's a European garden spider (Araneus diadematus) you've got there. I'm so jealous of the nice dof you got on the web and the perfect lighting. (Check my profile for my attempt at the same species, similar angle), you really nailed the background as well.
Congrats on your first ribbon and new personal best! Ah spritz 'em with water ... THAT'S the secret. I can never seem to get the camera to see the webs.
This is wonderful shot! Really nice bokeh! I enjoy especially the net and it's fantastic "shadow-bokeh-stripes"( sorry! My English is really bad!)! - Whish it in the Top 5! Good luck!
Comment:
Composition: Subject Placement, Cropping, Background very good,
Technical: Focus, Exposure: good,
Appeal:has the real wow factor of true bokeh
Total Averaged Rating 10.
Spinning Her Web
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