A spider I happened to notice a while back while out and about. Its markings and size caught my eye, as it was very different from the spiders I typically see around here. I doubt they are rare, but it was new to me and I wanted to get a close up picture. It might not look particularly close, but it’s a phone camera with no optical zoom. I was only a couple of inches from the subject and didn’t want to disturb them.
Definitely an orb weaver. I have a love hate relationship with them. They are beautiful and build beautiful webs. They happen to build those webs in the worst places though. I run early in the morning, so I’m frequently the first through the paths/walkways. Once the weather gets a bit warmer they start really building huge webs from one tree to another, across my running paths. For the last couple months there has not been a single run where I didn’t end up covered in their homes/them. Face full of web and the accompanying spider is NOT fun.