Backyard Jumping Spider Photos

I know they aren’t for everyone, but I’m crazy about jumping spiders. I’ll photograph them every chance I get.

These small spiders are pretty easy to find. I often have good luck searching the side of the house. Jumping spiders love warm days and bright sunlight, and seem to completely disappear on cloudy rainy days. The jumping spiders belong on the family Salticidae, which comes from the Latin root word “Saltare” meaning “to jump.”

Taking shots of such tiny beasts can be tough. Jumpers move surprisingly quickly. In the macro world your depth of field is severely limited and you need a ton of light to get decent shots. Often I’m using extension tubes to cut the focusing distance down. This give a dramatic increase in magnification, but at the same time your depth of field plummets and you are forced to drown the spider in light from the several flashes so you have a good portion of it in focus.

Sometimes I do the photography outside in the garden. Even with all that natural light, I bring along at least two flashes to help even out the lighting and reduce the harsh shadows. Other times I gently collect the spiders and take them to the basement studio to photograph them in a big diffuser tent with a three flash set up and then release them after I get their photos.