Yay! It will soon be spring, and that means spiders!!!

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/250 sec at f/8. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing and cropped (mouseover for original) in Adobe Camera Raw.

More to come soon!

- Bill

Ok - nothing spectacular here, but I managed to find two spiders yesterday and bring them home for a quick photoshoot (the second one I actually carried in my hand because I didn't have containers). I have just been thinking that I haven't been using the camera much recently, so I am excited to start finding spiders again!

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/250 sec at f/8. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

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.

That second guy is at 5x magnification, so he was pretty darn tiny.

- Bill

Just like yesterday's nudibranch assortment, what would a restrospective of this blog be without some spider photos. However, we'll take a little twist with it and look at a couple that got away and aren't as good as I would like.

This first one is another fairly early shot, and despite being a rather classic photo is one I don't have many of (in fast, this might be the only set of photos that includes some). Even this one isn't as good as I would like (there's a bit of motion blur involved), so this will serve as a reminder to seek this kind of shot out in the future and try it again.

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro1:2 at 300m, 1/60 sec at f/5, ISO 400. No post production.

Here's another that I wish I could retake. This little guy was jumping around all over the place on this little nature walk Anya and I took not too too long ago, and so I only managed a couple shots of him before he disappeared back into the underbrush. I like this shot enough to keep it, but I missed the focus point just a tad and the spider is a little blurry. He came into this positioning a couple times while on this dead stem, but after I took this shot, he didn't do it again, so I missed my shot to get the pose that I wanted.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/30 sec at f/5. Image Stabilization on. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Oddly enough, I saw a spider on my walk home the other day... in temperatures in the 30s no less! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch him to bring it home to take photos of. I'll have to remember to always carry my containers with me no matter what temperature it is!

Regardless, I'm sure there will be plenty more spider photos here in the future!

- Bill

Ok - been a while since we've had any spider photos...

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 can't wait till jumping spiders are around again.

- Bill

I know I've been a bit lax in posting recently. I have been trying to get the gallery system upgraded to the latest version and that has been proving less than simple. On top of that, I've had a backlog of photos to process - today's is one of them.

I recently noticed that at the right angle, the containers I use to catch these jumping spiders in produce a nice soft reflection of the spider. There are some distracting elements (note the while line through the reflection). This shot is a fairly aggressive crop to highlight the spider and reflection while eliminating those distracting elements as much as possible...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/250 sec at f/13. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

As the weather gets colder, it will be harder and harder to find spiders... but you know I'll keep looking. We've had one of these interesting spiders living on our shed all summer, so when I saw this one with the nice background, I figured I needed to get a shot of it.

These spiders are called trashline for obvious reasons, and it is used as a form of camouflage - to great effect.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/25 sec at f/14. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 1250. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

The species is Cyclosa conica which is in reference to its cone shaped abdomen, and it is one of the things that actually helps one to spot this spider on its web. As it hides among its 'trash' (which is the remains of its previous meals), it blends in almost perfectly.

Such a cool spider...

- Bill

Too many posts without a spider... so here's a whole assortment to get us caught up... enjoy!

There. Now I feel better.

- Bill

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

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