Photographing Engineering Marvels

[SHANEA]

I am no "Lawrence Parent" when it comes to photographs.  My photos will never grace the cover of Life Magazine or within the pages of Nat Geo.  I'm a point and shoot and shoot and shoot kinda guy with an Olympus Digital Camera - just one of them tiny little things.   

There is an engineering marvel of nature in my front yard that I want to take some pictures of.  Try as I may, they do not come out.  It is a huge spider web - the likes I have never seen before.  What makes this engineering marvel so unusual is that the "supporting" strands" are of huge length.  The strands start out in a tree some 10' - 15' feet above the web - side strands extend about 5' on each side, and the bottom stand is also about 5' in length.  I'm not so much interested in photographing the strands per say, just the central web that is probably 6' in all directions and very intricate.  The whole thing is just a marvel of natures engineering feats.

When I try photographing it, with flash, w/o flash, fill flash, etc. - nothing shows up.  What is the "Lawrence Parent" secret of photographing spider webs please?

Thanks...

[RichardM]

Try early in the morning when there's a little dew on the strands. Also, don't shoot from straight on, use a bit of angle to get better reflection.

[tjavery]

Can you tell where your camera is focusing? If it's focusing on the background, then the spiderweb in the foreground may not show up.

See if you can get your camera to focus on a specific point. Use a large target, like the spider if it's on the web, and see if your camera will focus on that.

Also, if you're getting fairly close to the web, say about 2 feet or less, then you might want to turn on your macro focusing mode.

So, what is it? A banana spider? Those things make huge, and very strong, webs.

[Roy]

If you're camera will do it, try setting the f-stop to a relatively high number; 11 or 16 might work.  This will give you're area of sharp focus more depth.  It will also slow your shutter speed down a lot, so you'll want to do it when there's no wind, and maybe even set up on a tripod.
It may also show too much stuff in the background, so experiment with smaller f numbers until you hit a sweet spot.

[alcap]

Its for subjects like this that I'm so grateful for digital.  You can experiment with lighting, focus points, wait for dew, try "spritzing" with a fine mist spray bottle, any one of  a million things, and if it doesn't work...1) you know it nearly instantly, and 2) you hit "delete" and it costs essentially nothing. 
I used to think slides were cool, no 'mo.
Good luck!

[Al]

Shane, rather than try to take the pic head on, take it across the web at a sharp angle.  Should make the web much more visible as a higher percentage of the field.

Al

[SHANEA]

Thank you everyone.  Mother nature wiped out her handiwork yesterday before I could get back to it, it's monsoon season here.