As I was hunting for dragonflies last week, I was surprised to come across this wonderfully patterned spider at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I had figured that spiders were gone for the season, so I was not expecting to see on crawling across a fallen log.
I realize that spiders are a divisive subject for photography—some people love and admire then, while others fear and hate them. As you might suspect, I am in the former camp. Although I had a 18-400mm zoom lens on my camera, I was able to capture quite a few details of this spider and encourage you to click on the image.
I am not really sure of the species of this spider, but suspect that it might be a wolf spider.
Somehow this spider gives off a Halloween vibe to me. Happy Halloween in advance to those of you who celebrate thing creepy and spooky on that day.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I clicked on the photo and the close-up view is wonderful for showing us markings and details on this spider, Mike. Lovely.
Thanks, Jet. Some people freak out a little at spiders, but they are generally harmless and I usually leave them alone and simply admire their amazing web creations.
I love spiders! I encourage them to live in my house (much to the dismay of the three arachnophobes in the family) so that they can eat the things I don’t particularly like sharing space with. As a result, the wolf spiders can get really quite chubby (further troubling the arachnophobes).This portrait is lovely in that I can really see the velvety texture of the spider and it’s lovely patterns. Those nutty browns also seem very seasonally appropriate.
I wish I could persuade my wife to love spiders. She freaks out every time she sees one – even a tiny one – in the house, and I’m instructed to “deal with it”. At least she agrees that simply putting them outdoors is better than despatching them to arachnid heaven, though she is convinced they are “homing spiders” that dash back indoors as soon as my back is turned. I rather hope she’s right 😂
My arachnophobe sons are also convinced that spiders have a homing instinct and that every spider I turf outside just finds its way back into the house.
🙂
I totally understand what I consider to be a somewhat irrational fear of spiders, but I acknowledge that I am a little weird and also like snakes. 🙂
Thanks, Laura. I remembered that you love spiders, though I did not recall that the others did not like them at all.
Oooo! (Perfect for the “spooky” season.)