Jumping Spider

[Steve Maxson]

This little Jumping Spider (body 5 mm long) is doing its "Touchdown" display. (OK, I made that part up - and my apologies to those not familiar with American football. :) ) Jumping spiders often use their forelegs in elaborate courtship displays, but there was no courtship going on here so maybe it was a defensive posture?? 40D, MP-E 65 mm, 1/160, f/14, ISO 200, 580EX flash with Micro Apollo diffuser, hand held. The spider was taken indoors and placed on a leaf. My daughter acted as spider wrangler while I tried to get this active little guy in focus. RAW file PP in CS5 - curves, saturation, NR on background. I removed a few flash-generated specular highlights from the spider and cleaned up some tiny bits of debris on the leaf. I also painted green over some of the light areas of the leaf at low opacity. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Steve, Wonderful pose and sharpness. Love it!

[John Chardine]

The image is so sharp Steve, and it's that "easy" sharpness that is so attractive. You just know the original was sharp too! This is a super look into the tiny world of this animal. All the techs are perfect as far as I am concerned. That is quite the lens too!

[Jeff Parker]

Good job! Very sharp.

[christopher galeski]

nice one,very sharp.thanks.

[Ken Childs]

Hey Steve, great sharpness on most of this and that pose is fantastic! I'd give a shot at sharpening the tips of the raised legs. There's no way to make it look perfect but I bet you could get them looking better. I'm debating a tighter crop with but maybe that's just because I've been exposed to Roman for too long. :D

Was it displaying often or mainly when you stuck the lens in front of it? I'm wondering if it was displaying to its reflection in the lens.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Steve, what a great pose. Good sharp details where it needs to be. Well done.

[Steve Maxson]

Hey Steve, great sharpness on most of this and that pose is fantastic! I'd give a shot at sharpening the tips of the raised legs. There's no way to make it look perfect but I bet you could get them looking better. I'm debating a tighter crop with but maybe that's just because I've been exposed to Roman for too long. :D

Was it displaying often or mainly when you stuck the lens in front of it? I'm wondering if it was displaying to its reflection in the lens.

Hi Ken. Thanks for the comments. The idea that the spider might be displaying to it's reflection in the lens hadn't occurred to me. Given that the lens was only about 2 inches away from the spider, this is a distinct possibility. :) I'll have to try sharpening the foreleg tips a little more and a tighter crop, taking off some canvas from both sides, would also work well as an alternative.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Love the shot Steve. These guys are one of my favorite subjects also with the 65. They are hard though, and tend to run around to the bottom of the leaf. I would think bringing him inside and "wrangling" him, probably got him pretty agitated. For me they usually run away, or jump on my lens! The OOF leg tips don't bother me, since those forward looking eyes are the real focal point for the image.