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| OHCC LIVING | DECEMBER 2022 | 31 During a hot day in September while taking my dog out for her first trip of the day, I walked into a spider web. Later that day, I found a large spider working a single web strand with a span of about 14 feet between the garage roof and the house roof and about four feet above my head. That got me wondering how this creature could accomplish such a task. This wonderment led to a Google search, and I found I was probably seeing the work of a European Garden Spider that are famous for their 'orb' style web. Generally, the female builds the web by first sending a single strand off into the wind hoping the sticky end will land on something and attach itself. When it does, she reinforces this main strand, and then builds a "Y" down as an anchor. The anchor is what I walked into. The orb web is then built inside the "Y." Over the next week, I watched this spider build an orb web during the evening. During the night, she would wait at the center, and the next morning there were a couple of specks suspended in the web which were the fruit of the nights work. During the day, the wind would basically destroy the orb web but not the main roof-to-roof strand or the anchoring strand. Then, the next evening, she would rebuild the web again. I have always wanted to photograph one of these webs and this was the best chance I've had. I found my Nikon D60 with the 70-300 mm telephoto lens and the flash worked better than my iPhone or my Nikon B700. The iPhone and the B700 are auto focus and I couldn't get a sharp image, but the D60 telephoto is manual focus and much easier to get the sharp image. To aid in focusing, I used a flashlight to illuminate from about eight feet away, and focused the camera on the spider, and shot into the night sky. I then enhanced brightness, contrast, and exposure on my Mac. The next day, my dog took down the main strand. Well, she helped me find the web in the first place. The Photo Club is open to all residents. Dues are $8 per year. Photography

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