WEBS OF LIFE

It's not just about spiders and bugs. It really never was. My new website name is in Effect entirely now so go here it is--My Interesting Images Above is a wildflower which grows around here on the tops of ridges and other places. It took a good macro lens to get this shot. Many of the wildflowers here are very small. It's been so cold here that I'm using older pictures--this one was taken a while ago. Today is the first sunny day--it's time to take some more pictures? It's going to take a while before things start to come alive after this late winter deepfreeze. Many of the things I like or want to photograph are still hiding.

It started when I despite wanted to take pictures of the things I loved. Spiders and soon--other things in photography. The idea of capturing a moment in time true to the world rather then drawing it which can leave out details really attracted me to photography. I used my dad's hand lens, then a bunch of old microscope lenses to build a cardboard tube lens which through hours of experiments and tons of expensive film I got the thing to work. Finally--I could take pictures to
describe spiders--and not draw them. I then went to a photo-shop where I found at that time a very good film SLR (digital did not exist then) and asked my dad to help me get it. For the lenses and the camera it was at least 500-800 dollars.



Another wild flower out here taken on the same trip. It was about a year ago if
I recall.

One from my trip to Australia. I carried my binder everywhere and fine tipped pencils- drawing the spiders and then writing down basic information about them and where I found them.
Before I found photographic description abilities--when I was a kid--totally out side of school (my teachers did not even know I did this) I wrote my first book on spiders. Describing around 30 or so different kinds I found to be very interesting in a binder. Everything had to be hand-drawn, and this was before the Internet! Back when having a home computer you can do writing on and stuff was rare and cost a lot of money. So it was also hand written. I did my best.
I got started when I wanted to take pictures of the things I loved. Spiders and soon--other things in photography. The idea of capturing a moment in time true to the world rather then drawing it which can leave out details really attracted me to photography. I used my dad's hand lens, then a bunch of old microscope lenses to build a cardboard tube lens which through hours of experiments and tons of expensive film I got the thing to work. Finally--I could take pictures to
describe spiders--and not draw them. I then went to a photo-shop where I found at that time a very good film SLR (digital did not exist then) and asked my dad to help me get it. For the lenses and the camera when it was all said and done I think it was nearly 1000 dollars. Most of my money went twards my education. I'm really glad I have preserved this first book I wrote on spiders--with all the drawings and a few ok pictures--these are the first natural history photos I
ever took.

My Dad really tried and really wanted too--but putting me through the Christian school at the same time was too much and so I never got started with an SLR back then. I would not pick one up and learn until years later. I have traveled all over the world but have never had much money. Nobody was able to fund buying me a thousand or even used 500 dollar camera for my bug pictures. I had other interests--and my photography was in the background-I loved to preserve moments but most of all de-bunk the world of insects and spiders and other animals. Around this same time, I also tried a number of times to build a regular 110 film camera at first just for normal pictures. At that time and through most of my teen years my Uncle and I did not talk very often. My interest in Photography hardly made it to him until 1996. I did not ask him any questions or begin learning from him until 2004.
(back when 110 was nearly as popular as 35mm)

My homemade cameras all failed because at 12 I had very little understanding of optics and shutter control. But able to use lenses from a microscope and some other stuff--I put together that tube lens which enabled me to get Polaroid shots every now and then that turned out. This was very expensive--even back then. But it was worth it to me. Previously--I put white backgrounds on pictures of this same spider and it was not even recognizable as a spider at the distance my camera had to have. At least 4 feet away. It was impossible to photograph spiders with this camera at all until I built that first lens held on with scotch tape, now so many years ago. This turned in me a further interest in photography and film making. I got my first video camera just a year later and made one really good documentary that looks like a collage documentary. It took me two weeks of shooting with my semi-pro camera to get it right--back and fourth between the VCR and editing so it was seamless--but it turned out great. My interests grew--but then you can say--I found what most all teens find when they hit 14-15--serious girlfriends! -and all kinds of other things that slowed my interests until they surfaced again in 1997. Then after my gear was stolen- it has taken me this long to build what I have now here in 2006. Finally really able to work on my hobbies, and now selling some of my pictures professionally. I am planning to start entering them into galleries locally.

This is one of very first pictures I ever took in the field. I've been meaning to finally put some of my old first stuff on my website. Sorry about the problems with quality. The picture here is not the entire Polaroid and is not very good. I simply took a picture of a picture here in the album with a compact camera. I have better shots of my first shots--scanned shots--but the problem is my database. On my computer currently I have over 17,000 that seventeen thousand pictures!

We were not in a snow zone but all the time you need a Jacket. The Big Island has a more diversified number of spiders then any place I've been to except possibly Australia and Java. The spiders got caught on the island and there is a range from very very tropical species to the cold-loving barn spider shown above living there and allot more. I have thought of going back but it's expensive now and it's too bad because back when those Polaroid were taken--I could have had several spiders I found named after me or my family. Now everything in Hawaii has been plundered, discovered, and categorized by thousands of people who call themselves "bug man". That goes for most other places and subjects in the world.




Since I have to take LOTS of pictures to get a good picture I don't change or make file names when they go into my computer. So--in a short time the numbers mean nothing--and I have to go through 17,000 pictures just to find the sequence (series of pictures) or just one picture. People ask why I don't have them organized. Most of them don't know how hard it is to be a digital photographer. I love taking the pictures--I don't like long drawn out computer-work. It gets very complex with my photo-viewing programs and other things to name every file--it would eliminate many possibilities and drain my time. I've tried to make categorized pictures.
The way that the camera stores them is the way my computer uses them so trying to move or name each one would take a very long time and would be very frustrating. I have rudimentary places I put files--but to make a clean photo album for a mega-picture taker like me would take way more work then I am willing to do. So I settle for the fact that I found it. This shot looks more blurry then it should because it was photographed in an album and I admit done quickly and not scanned. 17,000 pictures is frustrating to just find one. I'm working on a way to
organize them better.


This strange picture was taken on one of my train trips. It is lights--shot in black and white--moving so quickly that they look like human spider webs or lightning. These kinds of pictures can get really good if you play around with them for a while.


I said I would keep putting spider pictures on my website and here again is another one. It's been so cold here in The Dalles most spiders are hard to find. I have however two spider shots with my new camera I plan on posting soon. This is a shot to tell you spider people that I'm changing the name but I still remain very interested in spider pictures. This is one of my favorite species. Called the Barn spider, I first found them on the Big Island of Hawaii where I used to live and where those two above Polaroid were taken. This spider need cool climates to live--so we had to go all the way up the mountains where it's cold in Hawaii (and yes, incredibly it does snow up there on the Big Island) to find them. We were not in a snow zone but all the time you need a Jacket. The Big Island has a more diversified number of spiders then any place I've been to except possibly Australia and Java. The spiders got caught on the island and there is a range from very very tropical species to the cold-loving barn spider shown above living there and allot more. I have thought of going back but it's expensive now and it's too bad because back
when those Polaroid were taken--I could have had several spiders I found named after me or my family. Now everything in Hawaii has been plundered, discovered, and categorized by thousands of people who call themselves "bug man".

Changing subjects here because I found this picture quickly--
This is an idea of what it's like to drive into The Dalles. One of many rivers that turn into long waterfalls. I thought I would show a shot and a few more shots in the future of where I live--the scenery can be amazing but taking pictures of these waterfalls requires a car and insurance--two things I can't afford right now. That's ok--even though it's freezing cold outside--there is always something to photograph. Instead however I chose to stay inside to compile these Images.
for you.


Now this one (I think I already posted it) was a strange find. The same size as a barn spider only less harry and bright--bright red. Now what is this? It's anatomy is very very similar to the barn spider--in fact--I would have believed it's the same species. It might well be. Spiders, like dog breeds and fruit flies and stuff, change. In a relatively short time some spiders living in isolated patches change from there origins to match there environment. It seems possible that this unidentified species is a very close relative of the barn spider. Since some of these species of spider can reproduce--this could be anything. It's colors were spectacular--I have allot more pictures of her I think I already published so check under "all pictures" and use the dates if you want to see it. With at least 200 pictures on this site--sometimes I forget what I published
and did not.

A HUGE MALE WIDOW?? A FREAK! That's not a dead spider next to him, that's a skin shading--he had recently molted. He's growing--which does not make any sense if he's a widow. So here is another odd-ball. A real riddle. This looks to be a classic young black widow--or maybe even a brown or red widow. But those two big balls at the bottom of this spider shows it to be a definite male. I have been taught that male black widows are frail creatures who usually don't even eat--small and ready to die for there mate--they search out females and die young and half starved for the good of there offspring. Some species even literally commit suicide by forcing the female to bite. Nature has done this so that the female can have enough nourishment to lay the eggs. Male black widows have dull-short lives and are very small. This is strange because the above spider is NOT. It's definitely a male--and looks like a member of the
widow family for sure--but I can't figure out what the hell it's doing in it's own web--fed ok--and as large as a female would be at that age. This is no frail spider. I have to admit I don't have many of my old spider books and most of them are out-dated. Spider field guides are rarely made--so this spider might only be identifiable from an expert who knows allot more about northern Californian spiders. I took this shot in the field and I have no idea what this spider is. Clearly it's a member of the widow family--but it may be a while before I find out what kind it is. I admit I could do some more homework on this--and will eventually get too it when I have more time. It really surprised me because in the widdow family males have it about as bad as it gets. I need to go to some of the on-line up-dated field guides to figure out what this is.