Some Jumping Spiders
Above photo by (David Fairchild, Marian Fairchild), 1914. 1
I'm currently on holiday in Blenheim, New Zealand, enjoying a hot still afternoon outside. As I was walking around earlier, I was lucky enough to spot a few jumping spiders! If you're unfamiliar with these marvelous little creatures, then go read this or watch this.
Here are some of the photos I took. I'm using a Laowa 60mm macro lens, a Canon 90D, and my in-built flash with one of those flash diffuser things.
I'm far from an arachnologist, but I'm sure this is Holoplatys apressus. As a pallid and pasty Brit, I've never seen one of these before. Apparently it's flat body suits its preferred habitat of hanging out underneath bark.
These guys were more common, I saw 2-3 different individuals. I believe this one is a White Banded House Jumper (Maratus griseus). They're more traditionally shaped.
All the spiders I got round to bugging with my lens (ha ha) were skittish and camera shy. So I was only able to take some single shots without any stacking. I think I prefer having the shallow depth of field on these photos anyway; it communicates their size and draws the eye to their puppy-like eyes. These little subjects aren't small enough for the DoF to be a major problem.
Update: the next day I saw this little guy on the leg of a table. Also a white banded house jumper:
Full-resolution links:
