Not quite camo!

[shane shacaluga]

This young White Crab Spider (Thomisus onustus) usually finds white or very light coloured flowers from where to ambush its predators. In this instance however, it stuck out like a sore thumb

D7000
70-300 with Raynox DCR250
f14
i/125
ISO 125
Inbuilt flash with homemade diffusor. Handheld using live view magnifying glass.
Cloned out a dark spot of sand or wood on the purple flower and cropped for composition
USM on the spider

C&C Welcome

[Mitch Haimov]

Congrats on finding this wayward crab spider on a nicely contrasting flower! Have you tried a little selective sharpening? While most of the spider is sharp, it does not appear to be the crispest thing in the frame. You could also try some selective blurring at a very low level (perhaps a NR filter) to help keep the viewer's eye on your subject, or darkening the flower (thistle?). Did you make any images from the front of the spider (looking down on the flower)?

[shane shacaluga]

Hi Mitch, thanks for the comments. I did selectively sharpen the spider but I think i should have sharpened a bit more to show more detail on the eyes etc

The purple is the centre of the thistle flower. On hindsight I should have toned it down or removed some saturation to make the spider more prominent.

I was unable to get on the other side of the flower due to there being a huge thorn bush and only managed a few shots before the spider disappeared.

Will try and rework the shot and repost if I have some time tonight

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well spotted Shane and nicely captured. Now this is easy for me to say and I suspect much more difficult to do.. If possible I would have taken the image slightly more to the left and a tad higher to help minimise the interfering petals. The other alternative which does not always work (i.e. the spider flees) is to trim off a few petals as low as possible.

[shane shacaluga]

Hi Jonathan, thanks for the comments.

The spider was about 2mm in size, only saw it because it stood out like a white speck in the middle of the thistle flower. Each of those petals was really really fine and short, about 5mm so trimming without disrupting the spider was nearly impossible.

Will revisit this flower patch and try again as they usually stay on the same plant if they can hunt successfully

[Nancy Bell]

Fantastic colors and I love that the lines of the petals are on the diagonal from the lower right corner, and fade upwards to the upper left corner. I know thistle flowers are very densely packed with petals and how difficult it would be to find a totally clear view of the small spider. Still a cool image.