I've got a new lens and a tripod

[ewx]

Click on the images for even bigger spiders.

My new lens is one of these and is rather bulky compared to my camera (it's about 12cm end to end). My initial experiments with it didn't come out well but combining it with the tripod and very long exposures produced the above images.

The (far cheaper) tripod worked better once I'd figured out the right way round to attach the camera to it, initial experimentation chez crazyscot having left me worrying that it wasn't up to the weight of the lens.