I know that spring has truly arrived when I start to walk around with a macro lens on my camera. I captured this shot of a Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax) on the boardwalk yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park.
As I was walking into the park, a departing fellow photographer alerted me to the presence of the spiders, so I changed lenses in the hope that I would see one. Most of the winter months I have been using my Tamron 150-600mm lens to shoot birds and other wildlife, but I had my Tamron 180mm macro lens with me. It’s amazing how my field of vision changes with the shift in lenses. With the long lens, I am used to looking up and out, in part because it has a minimum focus distance of 8.9 feet (1.7 meters). With the macro lens, I am am scanning a much smaller area, primarily near my feet and just beyond.
Eventually I located a jumping spider. It seemed to be spending most of its time in the cracks between the synthetic boards of the boardwalk, but occasionally would venture out. Despite its name, the Bold Jumping Spider seemed to be pretty timid. In fact, I never did see it jump—it seemed content to crawl slowly.
The coolest thing about jumping spiders, of course, is their eyes. I am absolutely mesmerized by their multiple eyes and I was really happy that I was able to capture some reflections in the eyes. The reflections are most noticeable in the head-on shot, but they are also visible in the action shot. It’s a fun challenge to try to capture action when this close to a subject, but somehow I managed, though the higher shutter speed needed when shooting handheld meant that that my depth of field was pretty limited.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Perfect shots. The color is great.
Thanks, Victor. I was fortunate to have good light coming from a good direction.
Wow! I love that close-up, Mike!
Thanks, Dan. I’ve gotten more positive reactions to the shots of this spider than I usually get for spiders. Some folks are simply creeped out by spiders, but many folks have said that this one looks friendly and cute.
I never knew about the multiple eyes. How fascinating!
As I recall, spiders like this have eight eyes arranged in pairs, with the biggest ones right in the middle.
Wonderful pictures. I wish it would warm up here in Iowa.
We’re suddenly in the midst of a cold spell here (low 30’s in the morning), but I am sure that it is colder there in Iowa. This has been a crazy spring so far and we may have snow showers this weekend.
Glorious images, Mike! Tack sharp, all that texture, and the colour the eyes and those mandible (that’s not the right word, is it?) pieces. I love spiders. I have had to teach myself not to pick them up here since I am not used to having to be wary of potential venomous spiders. My kids are all scared of spiders but nevertheless fascinated by them. I will need to show them your photos of this little guy since he looks so cuddly.
Thanks, Laura. Whenever I post photos of a spider viewers seem to be divided into two groups–those that react with horror and those that react with fascination. This little spider seems to have pushed most into the latter camp, because it seems cute and friendly and not at all threatening.
This is one of my all-time favorite salticids. There was one that prowled a small rock wall behind our house several years ago, and I’ve been hoping for one of its offspring to take up its place in the territory, but I’m still waiting. Full compliments on what you’ve done here, Mike–really lovely work!
Thanks, Gary. I’m looking forward to capturing more spiders with my camera as we move deeper into spring and into summer. It’s an interesting challenge adjusting to shooting macro after a winter of shooting mostly long telephoto shots.
It’s interesting how a camera coaxes us into seeing things that we normally wouldn’t pay any attention to. Maybe we should all carry one and see more of nature.
I never thought of spiders as being cute but this one could change my opinion. These are great shots. I love those blue eyes!
Not only is the spider marvelously captured (I really like that first photo), you’ve given me the “photo-speak” phrase I needed to make sense of something I’d just figured out for myself.
Sharp focus has been a real problem, although some photos were great. What I figured out is that I’ve been getting too close to my subject. It’s a habit born of a lifetime of near-sightedness, where getting closer always meant seeing more clearly and sharply.
I’ve been violating the minimum focus distance of my 18-135mm lens (17″) on a regular basis. I starting trying to change that last weekend, and I’m interested to see if that behavioral change improves my photos.
Sharp focus is a constant concern for most of us. There are so many factors to take into account, including the minimum focus distance. I like to shoot in aperture priority mode, so that I can control somewhat what will be in focus. In my spider shots, you can see that only certain parts of the spider are in sharp focus due to the limited depth of field. The trick, of course, is to try to get the right things in focus. Recently I have taken to shooting with a higher ISO to try to keep the shutter speed up a bit. Too many of my photos were a little blurry because of motion blur caused by a low shutter speed.
[…] Photographer Mike Powell knows that spring has truly arrived when he starts to walk around with a macro lens on his camera. You may find some nice shots of a Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax) on the boardwalk the 4th of April at Huntley Meadows Park in his article Jumping spider in early April. […]
Pretty!
Thanks, Robert. It’s unusual to hear the word “pretty” used to describe a spider.
Probably first time ever 😃