Normally I wouldn't expect to be photographing spiders this late in the year, but during the demo work on our bathroom, I spotted this guy (ok - it really wasn't all that hard as he was fairly large and ended up in the tub!). Anya grabbed me one of my trapping containers and I plum forgot about him until yesterday when my mom mentioned there hadn't been any new photos up recently (so yeah - these spider photos are all my mom's fault! ;) hah!).

Anyway, there is something about "normal" spiders that just seem to make them so much harder to photograph. Perhaps it is their different stances (and this one had a fairly aggressive stance) or their longer legs that cause those shadows - especially around their body. Perhaps it is that they tend to cover more area and thus make it harder to get the shot lit and enough depth of field. Perhaps it is just that they don't have that "playful" look that jumping spiders seem to have. Whatever it is, I always struggle with them, and I usually end up throwing out most - if not all - of the attempts.

This one sat fairly still for me, and I was able to fire off about a dozen to fifteen shots, keeping nine - which seems to be pretty good results. Here is a sampling of the best...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/250 sec at f/16. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

- Bill