Robert Whyte www.arachne.org.au's photostream  

Australian writer and also a director of ToadShow, a web, print and multimedia company in Brisbane, Queensland Australia. My day job is mainly as a writer and editor at ToadShow. I am building a web site / field guide as a collaborative project with arachnologists here: www.arachne.org.au Please note: I am no longer updating the Arachnid pages on the Save Our Waterways Now web site. All updates are happening on www.arachne.org.au

I am part of Save Our Waterways Now working to restore the habitats of creeks in the Enoggera catchment in Brisbane.

I use a Panasonic Lumix FZ150 12MegaPixel with an 25x zoom, a single extension tube and a raynox magnifier, usually a 2.5x but I have a 4x and a 5x I am using more and more as I get used to them.) This camera uses all its optical zoom to power the macro so it is about 135 times life size when seen 1:1 (actual pixels) on the screen.

Strong sunlight is often good but it is too hot and bright for spiders who avoid it, except some very bold jumping spiders. I now shoot indoors with a Panasonic flash and a Gary Fong lightsphere diffuser. I shoot a lot of specimens in alcohol, on a bed of sand, or a leaf, in a petri dish. This reveals the fine structures and hairs with no reflection, so you can see more. For this i white-balance my LED microscope lights. I now find using a stronger magnifier (4x or 5x) and zoom less to get the greatest depth of field, and even for small things like palps and epigynes this is better than zooming with a weaker magnifier. I shoot raw and manipulate the images to get the best results, usually brightening the 'darks' dropping the exposure and lifting contrast and brightness. Each shot requires different settings, as the animals are different colours and I use different coloured sands as backgrounds. Using low ISO is critical for avoiding excessive noise.

My main trick is knowing how spiders behave, and having a light and compact enough camera to shoot with one hand. I need the other hand holding the leaf, stick, or tray the spider is on. Then take a lot of pictures and toss out the bad ones.

I have a patch of remnant dry rainforest near where I live. It's Walton Bridge Reserve in The Gap, Brisbane. I have been systematically sampling this area in biodiversity experiments. It is connected to Enoggera reserve, Brisbane Forest Park, Mt Coot-tha, etc. I use a white tray about 80cm x 60cm x 15cm deep and a lump of branch about 3cm in diameter to tap the foliage. I tap each bit of foliage about 5 times dislodging the spiders above the tray. I record the results, sometimes plant by plant. I record the spiders to species, the other invertebrates to order. To compare other habitats I have been marking out 20m x 20m sections of bush or gardens, and sampled them using the same method. It's all about comparing, so as long as you have consistent sampling methodology what you record can be compared. Look for the most diverse habitat, both in plant species, structure and density. Where the plants are complex, dense and diverse, you will find more spiders.