Avicularia urticans

[shane shacaluga]

Spent 3 weeks in the Peruvian jungle mainly searching for different arachnids. At a settlement we were staying i got the village kids to be on the lookout (if you ever want to find large spiders, ask the kids!)

On day three they called me to one of the houses as they found this nice Avicularia in the thatched roof they were removing

I collected it and took a few pictures before releasing it in the forest.

D800e
50mm f1.8 with 12mm ext tube
f14
1/200
ISO 100
Onboard flash fired

Slight crop for composition and some highlights removed by low opacity cloning. Cleaned up one eye which had a hair cutting through it

Thanks for viewing

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Shane. Sounds like a fun way to spend 3 weeks! Sharp around the eyes where it most needs to be. At this magnification your DOF is rather small and the OOF legs in the foreground detract from the image - IMO. I think I would prefer a view showing the whole spider - were you able to get some of those?

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks Steve

Yes I did get a load of shots actually. I took this other one for example

[Steve Maxson]

That is a very "hairy" spider!

[shane shacaluga]

hahaha yes it is! This whole genus is hairy and is the original Bird eating spider hence the latin name

[Jonathan Ashton]

Shane I infinitely prefer the second image for precisely the same reasons as Steve. I think at that magnification (first image) you were caught betwixt between. For me I suspect your intention was to concentrate on the eyes, in which case and may not be practical I would have gone in closer (longer lens with tube?).

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated

Avicularia are very docile tarantulas and I could have got a lot closer actually. Will keep that in mind for the next encounter!