Many social media platforms celebrate #Arachtober which is really a celebration of spiders and other arachnids, but in October and thus the name. I suppose it ties into Halloween and the scary nature of spiders for a lot of people. Those who have been with me a while know I have no such fear, but instead a love and fascination for our eight-legged friends. It’s with that spirit that I bring you this video, the longest I’ve done to date and some of the most technically challenging.
Lots of filmmakers or photographers would have put a scarier context or vibe into this video; either with commentary or with making the video itself more moody and dark. More viewers would probably understand and connect with that aspect of the film as it certainly is a bit grim, but it’s nature and this is how nature is. While some aspects can be shocking and grisly, that’s not my first reaction to many of the “darker” sides of nature. Sometimes I have to detach my emotions from the scene whether it’s a live action sequence like this or coming across animal remains in the woods. Yes, it can make me a little sad to think about the creature that lost its life, but it probably meant that another got to live.
And that’s my intent with this film. The spider is just doing what they evolved to do and while it might be a little icky for our grocery store society to handle, it’s reality. Day in and day out every wild creature has to do battle for survival. Sometimes things aren’t dramatic or difficult, but very often they are and it’s fascinating to watch. In an upcoming post you’ll see a heron mangle a fish and while it does give me a little pang to watch, it is just normal life for both the bird and the fish.
So I hope you enjoy the spectacle of this tiny spider dealing with a huge prey item that she didn’t catch with any purpose or direction. They just have to take what fate delivers to them and if it ends up being a big job, they get on with it. No grocery stores for these girls.
For a little behind-the-scenes commentary on the process and some more spider info, have a listen –
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