Orb-zilla (presumably Araneus andrewsi?)

Please view large if you don't mind seeing the spiny & hairy detail!

This quarter-sized orb weaver was lurking in a split branch of an oak

sapling, under dense shade so I shot from tripod with the camera set

to 2sec MLU release with f20 at 1.3sec and iso 800.

The regular size is fine.

Congrats on the final image.

Best regards Paul!

PDE

nice capture of this scary creature. Thanks God that these creatures are small otherwise we would scared to death if we faced with them in our normal life everyday!

.......... isn't this the ugliest thing ever??

The detail in the bigger picture is amazing...scarey but amazing.

How big do these things get?

Great image, well done.

Regards

Wow, nice capture. Haven't seen one of these (actual spider and photo) for quite a while. 

Thanks for the comments everyone! I must confess that as a kid back in Belgium I used to fatten up local orb weavers = Araneus diadematus aka the cross spider. This was by feeding them with crane flies in the fall just to see how big they could grow: about the size of a respectable raspberry.

 

But this ghoul-faced goliath is quite a bit larger than any of those ever got: its abdomen alone matched the size of my thumbnail. It's the first time I've seen this species since I moved continents though, so I have no idea if that's particularly big one for its kind.