This summer I gave myself a goal of getting some good macro photos for drawing and painting reference. Last year I concentrated on dragonflies and damselflies. This time around I was especially interested in spiders.
I spent a few days focused on crab spiders. They are similar to the jumping spiders in a few ways. They don’t rely on webs as their main method of hunting. Instead, crab spiders rely on stealth, hiding as still as possible, camouflaged in a flower’s petals. When an unwary insect comes in for a little nectar or pollen, they are pounced upon and eaten. Although they don’t have the massive median eyes of the jumping spiders, crab spiders are still excellent visual hunters.
Once I got into a proper search mode, I was able to find plenty of them to photograph. They were particularly fond of some small rudbeckia flowers. I was able to find many on one plant alone and got plenty of macro shots. I temporarily brought a few of them into the basement where I have a macro set up with several slaved flashes and a large softbox for lighting. Afterwards they were released back into the garden.
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