- Geez, your nails! - Papa Goiaba
Anterior Median Eyes of an Adult Female Paraphidippus aurantius
Here's another beautiful Paraphidippus female found by Sam Martin (abikeOdyssey) last August. She had considerably different markings than the other female I photographed and filmed last July. As you may remember, that female eventually killed an adult male P. aurantius - the two videos I took are here:
Macro Video of an Adult Female Paraphidippus aurantius
Life and Death of a Male Paraphidippus aurantius Jumping Spider
The spider seen above was generally a bit more cooperative (and less violent) and at one point relaxed in the shade of some leaves and twigs I had set outside for her to crawl about in - allowing for some high magnification work with the bellows (~6:1-8:1). But make no mistake - this is never easy - healthy salticids are rarely completely cooperative - and August afternoons in Oklahoma are particularly unkind. This image is a crop from a 7 image manual focus stack taken at f/5.6 or f/8 with the 28mm reversed on the macro bellows. I took about 40 shots at this angle to get those 7, and given how long it takes my old flash to recharge, I must have been laying there for quite a while (things always seem to take longer when you're hunched over in odd positions with your eyes are pooling up with sweat). If you look closely at the reflections - my fingers change position slightly from eye to eye.
And I know you guys are probably tired of me saying this each time - but please speak up if the image looks odd to you - oversaturated, oversharpened, odd hue...
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To read more about jumping spider vision on Wikipedia, go here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_spider#Vision
And Dr. Wayne Maddison has a fantastic page about salticid vision over at Tolweb here:
Comments and faves
bevcraigwhite, PhotoArt Hartmann, pasukaru76, dustinupdyke, and 457 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Thomas Shahan (41 months ago | reply)
To give you a sense of scale, here's a still from a video with her perched on my thumb:
A bit closer:
And another (sharper) shot of her eyes:
Hamilton Images (41 months ago | reply)
Now that is close!!! Super cool shot Thomas. Happy New Year to you. Hope 2010 is a great one for you.
Steve
henk.wallays (41 months ago | reply)
You just can't seem to get enough of these spiders, no ? An seeing the results I hope you never ... another great one to add to your already impressive gallery. You actually make me wanna try too to get closer shots of my insects out here (mostly wildbees, dragonflies and moths)...
Great compo, quite sharp and again cryspy colors ;-) Great !!!!
Syl v H (admiring your shots in rare free time) [deleted] (41 months ago | reply)
Amazing! You'll never get to see this beauty without a lens!
PhotoArt Hartmann (41 months ago | reply)
Great!!!
no1chrism (41 months ago | reply)
Stunning shots. I have trouble getting them to stay still long enough. Your shots are quite brilliant.
keithtrueman (41 months ago | reply)
Just awesome.
Alex_14 (41 months ago | reply)
stunning macro once again
beautiful detail
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Piet Grobler (41 months ago | reply)
If awesome was the word to describe something outside the ordinary I would have used it, This is far better than awesome. it is totally and absolutely unbelievable. Thank you for sharing these maginificent photos with us.
Burbujamontoro (41 months ago | reply)
Fantastica Macro Saludos
amy_b (41 months ago | reply)
Beautiful photos!
Peter Hall (galadial) (41 months ago | reply)
Beautiful eyes. Love the ring-flash highlights!
tany_kely (41 months ago | reply)
WOWWW impressive macro!!
Greg 50 (41 months ago | reply)
Amazing !!
Rami ™ (41 months ago | reply)
I'm in love !
ObiWayneImages (mostly away) [deleted] (41 months ago | reply)
Incredible and inspiring! At least all that effort paid off :-)
tomatito rodriguez (41 months ago | reply)
beautifull
MD_MC (41 months ago | reply)
superb as always
Martin Brown :-) (41 months ago | reply)
Just stunning...
fabioeloi (41 months ago | reply)
awesome! awesome!
Dwi Janto Johan (41 months ago | reply)
excellent!!
A.G. Photographe (41 months ago | reply)
c'est juste incroyable de telles images
en plus la qualité est au top du top
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* Rhonda * (41 months ago | reply)
Wow... beautiful series.
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-Randy- (41 months ago | reply)
really amazing!
love those shiny eyes!!
VonShawn (41 months ago | reply)
Stunning Images!!
HerdingSnakes (41 months ago | reply)
a personal all time favorite, you are my hero!
LAP75 (41 months ago | reply)
I have never seen one of these!
Awesome macro!!!
Sam Martin (abikeOdyssey) (41 months ago | reply)
wow, even for you, that first shot is incredible...the last two shots in comments are fantastic too, all outstanding work...I can't imagine how long it took to get all the images for the first stack and line them up, and the sharpness on the last photo is crazy! Great-looking spider too, haha.
Joaquim F. P. (41 months ago | reply)
Fantastic work.
mjd-s (41 months ago | reply)
Just awesome as usual.
Gustavo Mazzarollo (41 months ago | reply)
Nice sharpness this stack should be not easy, noticed some colored pattern above the eyes not sure if it's a reflective pattern or the natural color of spider. But nice results, even better with f/5.6 to f/8
Spirit Dancing (41 months ago | reply)
Incredible photography! Thanks for explaining how you get such wonderful shots.
Maximus/Minimus (41 months ago | reply)
this is amazing how you can go so close up and to a subject that moves when things go near it
Brodie Foster (41 months ago | reply)
Incredible shot as usual, I love that last one of just the anterior median eyes.
nonoiphotography (post and run mode) (41 months ago | reply)
awesome work!!!
<magic mom> (41 months ago | reply)
Incredible shot...well done!!!
This beautiful photo was seen at:
"The World Up-Close (Nature Macro)".
Thomas Shahan (41 months ago | reply)
henk.wallays - Thanks! I took a look through your photos and you've got some wonderful bee shots!
no1chrism - Believe me, I have the same troubles. Patience is invaluable.
Piet Grobler - Thanks Piet, I'm always glad to hear you enjoy these arthropods.
galadial - Indeed. No ring flash here!
choobaine - Ha, that's pleasing to hear.
Sam - I must have spent at least 4 hours stacking those two close-up eye shots in Photoshop. Scale by scale... I think I listened to the Beach Boy's "Pet Sounds" all the way through a dozen times that day.
Gustavo Mazzarollo - Thanks! That odd coloration is the spider's natural iridescence - these Paraphidippus jumpers have some interesting scales and hairs.
m^X*s pH0t0gr^pHy - I've been at this a while and just when I think I understand their behavior and how they will react to different things, I'm surprised. Sometimes I get lucky - but more often than not - I get nothing.
Brodie Foster - Thanks, I like that shot too - it's sharper, has more DOF, and generally shows the eyes better, but I just wasn't crazy about the angle. Sometimes I wish I had no artistic conscience.
e_monk (41 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Stuff That Sees, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
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Turtelle (41 months ago | reply)
Amazing!
jenofdiamond (41 months ago | reply)
Wow Thomas! I really love this set, love how the eyes looks so liquid, the whole body (third) shot I think is my favorite ! Keep up the great work!
Carlos.93.Monsalve (41 months ago | reply)
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooowwwww!!
wow!
wow!
thats all i can say!!
Sir Mart Outdoorgraphy™ (41 months ago | reply)
Amazing!!!
rob's lensonlife (41 months ago | reply)
So well done - biggish spider too
DefJux921 (41 months ago | reply)
wow.. your patience has paid off.. this is superb
Duvali@-Lat@ (41 months ago | reply)
Encore une merveille... : Bravo pour tout ce "travail" afin de réaliser cette très joli Portrait-Macro.
zenit32 (41 months ago | reply)
wonderful macro!
Great details!
Gabriel Fotografía (41 months ago | reply)
amazing shot
great job
ml_thorsteinson (41 months ago | reply)
This is an Magnificent Macro!
Seen In:
Magnificent Macros (Post One-Comment One)
Please Invite Other Magnificent Macros Too!
Fotos Leandro (41 months ago | reply)
Wonderful macro!!! nice color and reflections!!!!!
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commented with SICI (2009-12-08)
Omnysce (41 months ago | reply)
excellent stacking, as usual.
congrats !