September’s dose of abstract

long jawed orb weaver Tetragnatha against lily pads and reflection
For September, we have a little composition I threw together out of odds and ends that were lying around. A long-jawed orb weaver spider, common near water sources, sits suspended in its web above a small ornamental pond, framed against the reflection of a cloud-shrouded sun – but I’m belaboring the obvious, aren’t I? Yet you have to appreciate a spider with such a wide disparity in the lengths of its own legs.

That, however, is less than September deserves, so we’ll add another; admittedly, we’re going back to July for this one, but I won’t tell if you don’t.

overexposed hibiscus blossom
As much as this might appear to be from playing around with cheesy photo editing filters, it’s actually straight from the camera, albeit a tight crop from a particular frame. It was one of a sequence of images taken during the Outer Banks trip, another being the second image here when the breeze had turned the blossom more. Given the dark water background, the camera had set an exposure that badly over-exposed the white blossom in direct sunlight, but curiously, the faintest edges of the details can still be made out. Coupled with the bleached buds and the defocused background, it becomes very impressionistic.

wider aspect of overexposed hibiscus blossomThis is, I think, the entire image, showing how the dark water dominated the frame and dictated the exposure – since cameras are always set to render a mid-tone from the light reaching the exposure meter, anything dark will be brightened up, and the small white flower, too small to affect the rest of the frame, got bleached out. This is why a good photographer pays attention to the overall brightness of the frame and compensates accordingly (which is why the image on that other post looks so much better.) But for our purposes here, it’s a neat effect.

And I said I think it’s the entire frame, above, because I don’t remember for sure, and discarded the master image after resizing and cropping it for this post. This was really the only use it could be put to, and not too compelling at that. But while you have been occupied with this post, my associates have been ransacking your house.