I thought I wouldn't like it, that it would be more difficult and less successful, but in fact it has turned out to be fine. It's a bit like the transition to manual focus. I'm pretty comfortable with manual flash these days. And once I did move to a manual flash I realised there was in fact an advantage over what I'd been getting with ETTL, that I wasn't getting inconsistency from shot to shot of the same scene. It struck me that if I was going to have to adjust the flash level through FEC on a scene by scene basis there wasn't much difference between that and adjusting the flash level using manual mode, which made moving to a manual mode flash seem less onerous than I thought is would be. And I was also getting some inconsistencies from shot to shot of the same scene. If you’re really not a fan of sharing your space with your uninvited guests, then avoid chemical treatments to repel or kill them – these little beauties are great for biodiversity and so be sure to relocate them gently outside.I can't use ETTL at the moment as I'm using a KX800, but one of the things I noticed when I did previously use ETTL was that I was altering the Flash Exposure Compensation compensation quite a lot. Now you know six of your friendly local spiders (ok, five spiders and one crane fly), you can make friends with them around the house. These are helpfully quite easy to recognise, too as well as their iconic, traditionally-spider-web-shaped webs (lovely round spirals that they sit within and wait for the vibrations of a struggling insect), they have white, speckled cross-like markings on the back of their brownish bodies. Introducing the orb weaver spider, or more specifically, the most common kind of orb weaver spider that we have: the garden spider. In the centre of these webs? A brown, patterned spider, no more than 2cms big. They all have 8 legs and can produce silk.
Perhaps you’re walking along a row of houses, turning your collar up against the cold, and, again and again, notice beautiful spiral webs between bushes and trees in each garden. Spiders are in the class Arachnida together with harvestmen, mites and ticks. It’s late autumn, into winter- heading into November. These little companions aren’t interested in chomping on us but, like all of us, are just after a good feed.Ī garden spider inside its perfect spiralling web | James Johnston via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) This is a good reminder of how well-adapted spiders are for their hunting, as all spiders can give a bite – but most don’t have fangs that can make an impact on human skin.
The experts at the Natural History Museum soothingly tell us that of the hundreds of UK spider species, only 12 can give us a nip at all – and only two or three of these would give a painful bite. Good news! Unlike our pals down under, we really don’t need to worry here about dangerous spider bites. So why does autumn seem to bring in so many spiders? Well, the same reason that we hunker down instead of those lazy barbeque evenings the weather’s getting colder and the spiders are tempted into houses, sheds and garages by the prospect of a bit more warmth.Īnd the million-dollar question: do UK spiders bite, or can they be dangerous? The nights are darkening, the heating is back on and hot chocolate under a cosy blanket takes the place of cool summer drinks in the garden.Īnd with this come some new housemates yes, it’s spider season again. Our spidery spotter’s guide to some of the most common spiders you’ll see around in autumn – and some fascinating facts to help you learn to love and admire our eight-legged friends.