UWOL 21.33333336: L. Mactans - Unofficial Why-The-Heck-Not Entry

[Kevin McRoberts]

So I squeezed in some time to shoot the other day, just in time... only my brain added another category (insects) that wasn't even in the running. So, rather than waste the footage, here's some of it without adornment of voiceover or pickup shots.

Oh, there's a cameo from a lizard, so... well, whatever that's worth.

L. Mactans on Vimeo

[Lorinda Norton]

Arachnids...I know they are beneficial and I appreciate them very much. But if one of those had made a dash toward the camera I would have been forced to hunt you down, Kevin. If my heart starting beating again, that is. ;)

Don't know my spiders all that well, but aren't at least two of those poisonous?
EDIT: Strike that question; I just noticed your title again and looked up L. Mactans.

[Bob Hart]

There's a spider out here I don't much care for that bears more than a passing resemblance - our redback.

Much respect for your patience and efforts and fine control over your camera moves like the pan reveal.

[Kevin McRoberts]

Yep, Redback, Latrodectus Hasseti (iirc), is of the same genus. Not that it's anywhere near the most poisonous thing you've got on your continent, but certainly an equivalent pariah.

I was both thrilled and horrified to find a male, female, and juvenile female there in our backyard fire pit. It's a perfect habitat for them, with the dark colors, many crevices, and abundance of "roly-polies," so it wasn't really surprising - I always find at least one in there. The male is the first spider with the conspicuous swollen pedipalps. He was exceptionally lazy until I tried to handle him, whereupon he hastily disappeared. The juvenile is the smaller spider with white markings that shows up later. The females' encounter was a complete setup using chopsticks as wrangling tools, so don't respect my patience too much ;D I tried feeding the female several times, but she was either well-fed or camera shy.

We shall not speak of how I treated my talent post-shoot.

[Simon Wood]

Originally Posted by Kevin McRoberts

We shall not speak of how I treated my talent post-shoot.

The ex-national parks ranger part of me is guessing you relocated them to a more suitable environment, riiiiiiight?

[Mike Sims]

Nice video, Kevin. Sorry you got confused about the theme. I hope you’ll try again next time! “Without adornment of voiceover or pickup shots”- I assume you mean in a real entry you would have done so? It reminds me of an embarrassing encounter I once had with Latrodectus. I was hiking in the Catahoula Preserve in East Texas and I stopped to rest on an overhanging rock. I noticed something retreating under the rock and bent down to look. There was a communal web with about two dozen L. mactans and thousands of spiderlings. Just then I felt something crawling up my leg! I was well into hastily disrobing when a discrete cough made me realize that I had stopped a troop of nuns out for a nature walk dead in their tracks. They were less than twenty feet away. Not knowing what else to say, I pointed at the rock and said “Black Widow spiders!”. They all had to have a look. A few minutes latter I started when I realized “I’m standing here with my trousers in my hand surrounded by nuns!” One of them noticed and confided in me “The Lord moves in mysterious ways, sir”.

[Simon Wood]

Some fantastic shots here. Were you using a dslr with a macro?

Hopefully you will get to use some of these shots in a future UWOL challenge (making use of the new 10% rule)!

[Kevin McRoberts]

Nice, Mike! One of my hobbies is fiddling with old trucks, things that have been sitting for weeks to years in all levels of infestation - I was on the road with one recent acquisition and felt a tickle on my neck, swatted at it and pulled off the huge, slimy remains of a portly widow. Nearly caused an accident in the ensuing freakout.

I'd started to write up a VO script, and just decided not to bother since I'm awash in other work at the moment. Already have a few pickup shots in mind and either VO or musical accompaniment, but I may have to wait a few weeks for the fire pit to become repopulated.

As for camera, kind of, Simon - a GH2 with Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5 and a reversed 70-210 zoom

[Rob Evans]

Makes me feel lucky that I can let my toddler loose in the garden without having to worry about things like this!!!
Nice shots - I too have encountered the Redback on my travels "down under" - the things just give me the chills. I don't know if it's the fact that they are venomous of just that they are so shiny and mechanical looking.

Great shots.