pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

as you can see the inside is GONE. He blew his top and then pulled himself together and crawled away to continue his life.. I think I'll get a closeup of his eyes, the inside cavity, and his fangs while I've got the guy. Note how the old web was blowing in the wind.

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oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

Great capture. Had an orb weaver on my computer go through molt but he did it one leg at a time and left no other evidence.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

WOW! That is just fantastically sharp. Great job.

Dennis

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

thank you oldtigger and Dennis --

Here is the blown top... so we can see his eyes. The spider husk has an 1.5 inch spread between it's legs. The first shot was 1:1, this one is a crop of 3:1. (I'm going to guess it is a huntsman). My spider knowledge is next to none.

Edit -- the "ridges" on his back freak me out.

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cameraniac Loc: Huntingburg, Indiana

Talk about freaking out ... just wait until you see one running around inside your house and those ridges are packed with babies :shock: Vacuum time!!

napabob Loc: Napa CA

well done......enjoyed scrolling around the picture

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Very cool pictures!!! I see he got a new set of fangs too, although the old ones look plenty functionable!

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

LOL cameraniac - you are SOO right!

thank you napabob - someday I wish to do better with these things while they are still crawling around. I admire your work!

Hi Muddy, let's just say that for these spiders, having fangs is like a lady having shoes - you just can't have enough of them!!! They have to be replaced often.

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Macronaut Loc: Redondo Beach,Ca.

Wow! on all of these Piet...just Wow!!! :thumbup:

Muddyvalley Loc: McMinnville, Oregon

Absolutely beautiful fang photo!! Up close & personal. Hard to believe that it's a shed, molt, or whatever the correct term is. Would you share the stack settings?

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Magnificent set! Textbook worthy.

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

These are super good Piet and very interesting to see.

rhadams824 Loc: Arkansas

The correct term is exuviae for the cast skin of arthropods and others animals shed during ecdysis or moulting.

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

Thank you for that correct term rhadams. I bet it must be a sight to see when the spider pulls herself out of the old skin.

Thank you Bill.

Thank you Douglass

Thank you Brenda

Thanks Muddy, This is the first “normal” stack I have run after my experiments with the Nikon Objective. So, if these images are different from my norm, I can only attribute that to differences made since my last normal stack. Those differences are:
1) More frames, I used 37 frames to cover a distance of about 3/16 of an inch travel at F/7 for the last one (taken at about 5:1 life-size)
2) I had tightened a screw holding the rail to block of wood.
3) Used ETTL flash on my concave diffuser (this is standard for me) at 1/180 second exposure
4) KEY CHANGE. Since I ran stack using live-view (or whatever it is called) the mirror was locked open. I think mirror slap does more damage than we know and that locking the mirror is a major improvement
5) In post-processing, I have been experimenting with the use of Tony Kuyper’s luminosity mask actions.
6) I did not change the pause/settle time between shots, I think it is around 1.5 secs

sford122 Loc: Amarillo TX

He blew his top... you blew my mind. These are amazing.