Ok - normally I would leave a poll up for a little bit longer as the top post, but I just couldn't wait to post this...

Yesterday, on my walk home from work, I found what I believe is an ant-mimic jumping spider Sarinda hentzi). I've been searching for one of these for years - I can't begin to count the number of actual ants that I've given a second glance to to try and find one. As you'll see, it is a wonder I even found this one.

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 and cropped (top left, bottom left) in Adobe Camera Raw.

As you can see from the image in the top right, this little girl (I think it is a female, but I'm not 100% certain) is only 2mm in size. Yes, that is a ruler showing the mm scale that it is climbing on. Adults can grow to between 5-7mm, so this is obviously a juvenile - you can also tell this by the semi-transparent nature of its legs (remember the other spiderlings?). All of these shots were taken at 5x magnification, and the two on the left were cropped even more.

I'm not sure why these little spiders do this mimicry to look like ants, but they do a very good job of it. As you can see in the image on the top left, it will often hold its front two legs up to its head much the way an ant's antenna look. I don't know if this helps them to catch more prey or to be more likely to be ignored by other insects and spiders (ants can usually put up a very good fight and rarely travel alone, so picking on an ant isn't always wise).

Regardless of why, I find this little spider incredibly fascinating, and I am so glad to have been able to finally see one first hand. However, I'm sure this means I will spend many more seconds of my life looking at ants a second time to count how many legs are there... :)

- Bill

So my two sets of spiderlings have grown up and were ready to be released. I took a handful of photos of them as they were leaving, and it definitely looks like even spiders have that awkward adolescent stage where they just aren't quite grown into their bodies yet. Check out just how almost comedic these little guys and gals look...

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.

I have a bunch of photos that I've finally gotten through processing, so hopefully I can get some more frequent posts up over the coming weeks.

- Bill

My father-in-law recently made this model of Dan Webb's Golden Submarine remake of a 1917 race car. This model is about the size of a Matchbox car and has some really intricate details. When he asked me to take some photos of it, I figured I'd approach it like a regular car shoot and see whether I could make it look almost life-size in the photos...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/250 sec at f/16. Image Stabilization on. ISO 100. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

This may actually be a bit of a precursor as this weekend is the annual Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, and as in the past couple years, I will be attending. This time around I'm actually "leading" a MeetUp group, so we'll see how that goes.

For now, here are a couple other angles of this cool little model:

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/250 sec at f/16. Image Stabilization on. ISO 100. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

I may have to reshoot a couple of these and try a couple other angles again sometime, but we'll see.

- Bill

Ok - I have tons of photos to process, and with my wrist hurting, it will likely take a while to get through them all. In the meantime, here are some more shots of the spiderlings...

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 (and 3rd & 4th images cropped) in Adobe Camera Raw.

Notice how their eyes don't look quite fully developed in these shots? Either that or they're just still too big for their heads or something. The little guys have started their first molts, so I think they'll likely be ready to be release soon... I'll try to get some more shots of them before I let them go along on their merry way.

- Bill

Ok - I still need to process all of the other photos in this set, but I just couldn't wait to share these, so I uploaded these two specifically to post early...

The one above is at 1:1 magnification, and unfortunately I don't seem to have a photo of the mother spider. The one below is at 2:1 (twice life size) magnification, and are the offspring of this previously posted female.

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.

I still think they're a little under-developed to be released just yet (I have larger magnification of both, and I don't think their eyes are quite ready. They seem to want to stay in the web, so I've brought them back inside for now and will keep a close eye on them and will release them soon (hopefully with some more photos). Regardless, I have some others from this set that I will share soon.

- Bill

Here's a vertical orientation with some more dramatic lighting for this fluorescing jumping spider...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM with Yellow 12 Filter and unknown extension tubes, 1/120 sec at f/5. Image Stabilization on. ISO 800. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode and special fluorescence excitation filter. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

The jumping spiders seem to have vanished recently (I think due to wasps moving in), but I managed to find a couple the other day. This one is the same species as the female I have sitting on a bunch of eggs (which incidentally I think are starting to hatch). I figured I'd try the fluorescence photography again...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM with Yellow 12 Filter and unknown extension tubes, 1/120 sec at f/5. Image Stabilization on. ISO 800. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode and special fluorescence excitation filter. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

I may have to look into a second flash with filter to increase the light output to make this kind of photography a bit easier and allow me to increase the depth of field (f/5 just is a bit too shallow).

- Bill

So I'm waiting for this spider to finish incubating a clutch of eggs... She is currently wrapped up in a cocoon of sorts with her bundle of eggs. She completely walled herself in and hasn't moved much since she laid the eggs. Hopefully once they hatch, I can get some good photos of them, but before she did all of that, she posed for a couple photos - this is one of my favorites...

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.

- Bill

I recently had this jumping spider molt. This is the first time I've ever seen such a small spider do this - I've seen it with tarantulas plenty of times, and I figured all spiders had to do it as they grow, but I'd never even seen evidence of a small spider like this molting. Well, as it turns out, they do...

When I found him, he had already partially molted, and his legs and mandibles were already shed. I tried to photograph them, but they were tangled with some silk and I kind of made a mess of things trying to position them so I could shoot them. I got a couple useable shots (as long as you know what you're looking at)... and I must say those fangs certainly look impressive.

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 400 and 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Then, I noticed that he hadn't fully molted - his carapace was still hanging on, and his abdomen had not yet shed. I tried to help a little, but wasn't very successful (I didn't want to hurt him in the process), so I resorted to returning him to his container with some piece of damp paper towel that would help raise the moisture/humidity so that his molt would loosen a bit.

However, before I did that, I noticed two things about this spider... First, this apparently isn't the first time I've worked with a spider of this species, as it is another one of these skull-faced jumping spiders that I'd photographed last summer.

And apparently the skull-face effect isn't the most fearsome thing about this spider... Due to his recent molt, the coloration on his face is very bright. It certainly makes me think of war paint.

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 and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

These spiders never cease to amaze me.

- Bill

Ok - I bought some new toys not too long ago, and their only function is to allow me to be able to take photographs of things that fluoresce. So far this has been very tricky because I only have some of the pieces, which means I have to take a photo to even be able to see if something fluoresces, and many times things just don't. Add on top of that, the fact that you can only do this in the dark, so focusing and just about everything is made much more difficult.

But tonight (with the help of my lovely wife/assistant who was on light and spider tracking detail), I managed a couple shots of a small (the shot below is at higher than 1:1 magnification) jumping spider on a leaf. To my utmost pleasure, the little fella does indeed fluoresce a nice green color, while the leaf fluoresces a lovely red (the spider is mainly a greyish-brown, and the leaf is normally green - in fact, if you look closely at the spider's shadow - you will see that the leaf that was shielded from the flash is indeed still green!).

This shot required me to focus, hold steady and then have Anya turn off the lights. I then fired off a frame or three and checked my results and tried again. The spider actually did sit still at this point, so I might have been able to use a tripod, but at this point, I was still working handheld.

Regardless, the results are just super cool.....

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM with Yellow 12 Filter, 1/250 sec at f/7.1. Image Stabilization on. ISO 400. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode and special fluorescence excitation filter. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.