Marpissa the Jumping Spider

I made this picture on a lazy sunday afternoon in my parents their garden. I had some spare time and the sun was shining so I picked up my camera with 90mm Tamron macro lens and started making a walk through the garden, keeping my eyes open for all insects flying and crawling around me. Within 5min I had spotted this adult jumping spider.
My favorite spider specy because it actually sees and reacts on things closeby rather then just run or fly away like other insects usually do.
I was able to persuade the spider to walk to a more picture friendly location and made some pictures. Some where shaky (hand held the camera) and at some the camera focussed on the wrong spot, but this one went well.

comments (7)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

So cool, Joost! Promoted to homepage. I really should buy a macro lens one day. Posted 13 years ago
1. Joost Thissen
  
  Lion
  
  Yeah you should ;) A macro lens is really nice. What I like is that you can make front-page pictures any time and everywhere. There are bugs everywhere (except in the winter).
  Only limitiation is the weather. You do need sunny weather so you can close your diafragma and get a DOF which is a bit acceptable.
  And the macro lens can also be used for normal photography. Because it is a fixed lens it is very sharp. The picture of the angry red-eared slider is also made with the macro lens.
  (wanted to describe here how I used the macro lens to make the picture, but added it to the descrition instead.) Posted 13 years ago, modified 13 years ago

Ludo Sak

Lion

Joost this is digitised greatness! did you only use that tele, or any additional extenders or other equipment? Amazing. Wow, I love macro shots. Did you use stacking?
Lots of Q, just curiosity;-) Posted 13 years ago
1. Joost Thissen
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks for your compliment Ludosak!
  I used only the macro lens for this, no extenders and no stacking involved. This magnification is about as big as you can get with a normal macro lens. In software I increased the sharpness and contrast a bit, but that doesn't increase the DOF much. The only setting responsible for the DOF is the diafragma of F10 and the fact that this is only a center part of the picture.
  Let's do some math: The lens is 1:1 macro meaning an object is as large on the sensor as in reality. The sensor is 25mm wide so an 25mm wide object fills the entire picture, speading the object over 5000 pixels. On a 24"screen the magnifiaction is about 50x.
  This spider didn't fill the entire picture and I cropped the empty rest so this image is now 1400 pixels wide. Still almost fullscreen :) but when you see the original picture most of it is 'empty'. Posted 13 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Interesting. With that kind of magnification you need a steady hand? Or did you use a tripod?
    
    Thanks for adding the videos by the way! Posted 13 years ago, modified 13 years ago
  2. 1. Joost Thissen
      
      Lion
      
      I needed a steady hand :), some of the pictures I took where shaken.
      I did not had my tripod with me and a tripod takes time to set up. I think that is difficult with a spider which moves from time to time. A bean bag would be ideal in this case. Without having to watch the exposure time I would be able to increase the DOF by making the diafragma smaller and making the picture a bit sharper by decreasing the iso number. Posted 13 years ago

Ludo Sak

Lion

Thanks for explaining it in such great detail, always interesting to hear how such a project takes shape. On the next sunny day I am itching to explore my garden in greater detail too. Inspiring! Posted 13 years ago

The Fencepost Jumping Spider

"Marpissa muscosa" is a species of jumping spider. Females reach about 8–11 mm length, males only 6–8 mm. Both sexes are coloured grey to brown. The whole spider has a furry appearance and is flattened in shape.

Info 21 5

Similar species: Spiders

Species identified by Joost Thissen