Orb weaver spiders have been taking over our backyard. Yesterday one created their signature oval web between the house and a bush, blocking sideyard access. We left it alone all day, and this morning it was broken and he was gone. Such is the life of a spider.

The photo is actually of another one that’s made its home near our garbage cans. He’s been there a while now. What amuses me is that the spider is actually positioned with it’s head pointed towards the ground…but if you flip the image (which I did), his mandibles etc. look like a face. Arms raised, he’s coming to get you! Hahaha

The other thing I like about the photo is the spinnerets on its behind are very noticeable. Lastly, don’t forget this is a macro crop, they are nowhere near giant sized or anything. ;)

It’s raining. Which of course means pictures.

I need a waterproof camera. But I guess a baggie held on by twine and rubberbands works in the meantime.

Another minor “complaint” about this new version of WordPress … I don’t like the photo uploader menu anymore, either. Sigh.

They’re actually a lot more black in color, not this grey/blueish. He was in dark shadow and I used the built-in flash to fill it, which caused his dark color to wash out, or something.

Hoverfly hanging around our rose bush. As usual, these are crops. The full-frame pics or slight edge crops are actually ok at 8×11 printed size, but if I resized it down to 450px webpage size, the fly becomes minuscule. So the webpage gets massive crop versions. :P

I still refuse to use a tripod most of the time. Besides…with insects in the wild, they wouldn’t sit still for tripod framing anyway.

This is a ladybug pupa hanging ‘upside down’ from it’s anchor point on the fence. I like the image because one, it’s funky looking, and two, it’s not the typical top-down shot of ladybug larva. Apparently, they’re not black/orange on their underside. :)

This ladybug had recently “hatched” from it’s pupa shell and was still gathering its energy.