Photo New Zealand

"They came to Avondale in the 1920's - probably in Australian timber delivered to the railway station. At that time there were many eucalyptus and wattle trees near the station. These trees were also from Australia. The spiders settled in and laid their eggs under the bark. Until about 1970 the spiders were quite common in Avondale, but did not spread far. In recent years they have become quite rare - probably because their favourite trees have been cut down and houses now cover much of the land. Avondale spiders like to hide during the day in dark dry places. At night they come out to hunt for insects like moths, flies, cockroaches and earwigs. In summer the males sometimes come inside houses, looking for a female to mate with. Females lay their eggs in a papery looking oval egg sac about 25 millimetres long. An egg sac can contain up to 200 green eggs. The female guards these eggs, which take about 5 weeks to hatch out. She will stay with the spiderings for a few more months until they are ready to leave home. (This is a quite rare thing for spiders to do.) Avondale spiders are large - sometimes up to 20 centimetres across when their legs are extended. A large number of Avondale spiders were flown to the United States to star in the film "Arachnophobia". People can become very frightened of them, but really they are harmless. When they are disturbed they run away at great speed, looking for a dark place to hide in. There was a very large model spider on display above a shop and later a petrol station in Avondale for quite a few years. The Avondale Business Association are having it restored. They have named it "Dale" and will display it in Central Park , just across the road from the School." Source: Avondale Spiders

Bright yellow foreground is due to a street light nearby. Shutter speed: 13 sec

NRM

Follow a simple tutorial Making a Line Drawing from a Photo to stylize you photos. In a nutshell, first, use a standard Photosho filter High Pass, then finish you work with adjustment of Levels.

Picture was taken in Macro mode. That's why Depth of Field is so shallow. Cat's nose and right eye on the photo are in focus, left eye and everything behind is blurred.

View from Mt Eden In the dark on the bottom of the crater I discovered several large unclear spots which turned out to be a flock of about ten cows nestled peacefully to spend an upcoming night. Vulcanoes — well-known natural habitat for cows. :)