Golden-silk Spider

I got this image this morning in Jean Lafitte NP. I have had almost no luck finding these this year, so this is the first decent one I have been able to capture. When I was setting up, she was in strong sidelight. I frightened her away from the center of her web, but then after a couple of minutes she returned to the "striking" position at the center, and by then fortunately there was a partial overcast which rendered a nice even light. These (Nephilea clavipes) are one of two largest of all species in this area, the body being about 1" long. Overall as posed she is at least 3 1/2 inches long. The other large one is the Black-and-yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia), which has a slightly larger body but shorter legs. One web source says that a strand of the Golden-silk's web is six times the tensile strength of steel ! You can see from the color of the web where their name comes from. Image is as shot full frame, larger image included.

E-5 ZD50-200 @200 (focus distance about 4 1/2 feet) Manfrotto 410 geared head on GT2531, ISO 100 1/2.5 f9 0.0 EV, 4-second shutter delay with 2-second MLU.