Believe it or not, this thing is real...

Anya found this on one of our walls, and a quick google search later, turned up that it is called a pseudoscorpion. Like it's namesake, it is in the arachnid family, but obviously is missing the stinger. It is very small, only a few millimeters long. I have a few more shots, but for now I have an episode of Sherlock to watch.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/200 sec at f/16. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Stay tuned.

- Bill

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

So Friday night, our one dog kept going to the back door and making a fuss. He was acting like he was seeing something outside, but we just couldn't see anything. Finally I grabbed my night vision binoculars and scanned the yard. I saw a shape on the ground and so I snuck outside without the dogs and discovered that there was a pheasant hanging out in the yard.

So I decided to see how the camera would perform with the flash at night. At first I thought I would need my Better Beamer to increase/direct the flash since I was working at a bit of a distance; however, that simply made a very strong vignette to the shots. So in the end, I went with just the flash itself (and even set to flash compensation of -1 stop).

I took a few shots from behind the fence and then finally decided I wanted to see if I could get a better angle of the bird. He was being fairly calm, so I went around the house and approached him slowly from the front. I was staying low and almost crawling on the ground - I managed to get fairly close until he popped up and I got this shot. I then tried to rotate the camera to get a vertical orientation and that must have been too much for him because he took off running....

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/60 sec at f/4. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode with -1 EC. Image Stabilization on. ISO 1250. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Fun stuff. I might have to take a nocturnal wander around the property some bright moonlit night and see what I run into...

- Bill

Ok - as promised, we're going to take a break from the spiders today... though we are going to stick with something with eight legs (or are they arms?)

I use a version of this image as the wallpaper on my home computer. When I go to turn the computer off, it fades the image to B&W. Truthfully, I'd never noticed how good of a B&W image it made until just a few days ago. After seeing it, I decided it was time for another go at making underwater black and whites.

I first tried one edit of this image, and then decided I wanted to make a few more modifications to it. I'll share all of those edits, their B&W conversions, and the original (sorry, no B&W of it), and then you can vote on which is your favorite.

Original	Edit #1, Color	Edit #1, B&W	Edit #2, Color	Edit #2, B&W

Place your vote and let me know which version you like best...

- Bill

OK - let's round out the 10 for 10 spider posts with some more shots of that ant-mimic jumping spider...

- Bill

So I've decided that I might as well go for 10 in a row and have the entire front page be spider posts... This is number 9, so we'll have one more, and then I have a treat for you.

Today's spider photo came out of the camera just like this. I managed to catch this little jumping spider in this nice pose on a pure white background. I really like the composition here, and I think the shadow positioning just makes it perfect.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/250 sec at f/11. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Obviously, stop back tomorrow (as long as I can find a few minutes to post it) for one more spider, and then we'll try something different.

- Bill

Ok - been busy, haven't had much time for photography or blog posting, but I found another ant-mimic jumping spider last week, so I couldn't pass up that opportunity...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/250 sec at f/11. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

I have more to share, and hopefully I'll be able to find the time to do so.

- Bill

Alright, I will admit - this is a creepy looking spider. This is the first time I've seen a spider like this, but it really is an interesting one. I've never seen a spider sit in this posture with its back legs bent in such a way.

As you should have surmised by now, it is a Tmarus angulatus (sorry, there isn't a common name for this one), and it is in the crab spider family. Apparently these tend to rest on branches of plants and trees (instead of flowers like some crab spiders) and use the shape of the abdomen to look like a new bud growing out of the branch. Then they pounce on their prey with lighting quick speed, holding on to them with those long front legs.

It is amazing just how many types of spiders there are, and how they've adapted to so many niche environments.

Creepy or not, they are really fascinating.

- Bill

Ok - been a while since I've done one of these... here's a nice assortment of the jumping spiders I've been shooting so far this year...

Good stuff.

- Bill

Just a quick post today, I'll provide more background on this later...

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