Mimicing Spider

I noticed the most interesting small species of spider (about 4mm body length, very tiny) around the house recently: It mimics everything from a piece of dead leaf (blowing in the wind) to a thorn or piece of bark (here pictured sitting on the peg of the window stay in my bedroom - not a natural candidate for growing thorns!).

If you harass it, it freezes up into one of these positions, and then you can pick it up (gently), move it around, etc. Only when sure that the "coast is clear" will it start moving.

I have been living there for years, and never noticed the little guys (effective camoflage!) but I have now found at least three of them around the house and garden (I am in Johannesburg, South Africa).



(Micro Mimicry, Part 1)




(Micro Mimicry, Part 2)


Technical note: EXIF embedded in the images, taken with EOS 1D MkIIN, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro, MR-14EX Ring flash with 8:1 Left:Right ratio, handheld. In both cases, shot with high ISO to let some ambient light bleed into the image (as they are taken at f/18 and f/14 respectively, full manual mode)

Dawid Loubser said:

... If you harass it, it freezes up into one of these positions, and then you can pick it up (gently), move it around, etc. Only when sure that the "coast is clear" will it start moving.

Click to expand...

Dawid, well done.

Fascinating creatures to observe, when you can spot them. I guess you'll see them everywhere from now on (even when they are actual thorns ).

The shots look well executed, although I'd have sharpened them a bit more (but then I like things sharp) for even more 'tactile' realism.

Bart

Thanks Bart, I am trying to improve my skill at using the ring flash.

I agree, I guess I could have sharpened more, I am always too conservative on that front - just different styles, I guess. Also, since they are ISO800 and above, and I never do any noise reduction, I also don't want to sharpen them too much, as it is to the detriment of the noise at the original sizes.

But I will keep that in mind... These can definitely "pop" more. What I like about the first one, is how I got just a subtle bit of green background to bleed in - on a bright monitor, or in a dark room, it adds to the impact of the image, I think. Again, because of high ISO, I can't really push the background much without first doing selective noise reduction.