spider

Tarantula strolls across my photo shoot in Rio Rancho New Mexico

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Tarantula strolls across my photo shoot in Rio Rancho New Mexico

Unexpected photoshoot guest — tarantula!

During a rural land real estate shoot in the desert NW of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, I had an unexpected guest show up, a very large tarantula! I was waiting for the sun to go down to get the last shots I make at these shoots, my signature HDR sunset shots, when coming down the road was this arachnid. I ran over to the Jeep to take out my other camera which had a 70-200mm lens on it to make these photos from a safe distance! The tarantula obliged quite well choosing to walk further down the road rather than turn into the desert. I am glad I saw this spider in the open and did not see it crawling on my foot when I was in the desert getting the sunset shot!

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Tarantula Spider in New Mexico Photography

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Tarantula Spider in New Mexico Photography

Tarantula encounter in New Mexico

This was my second time seeing a tarantula in New Mexico, and my third time overall seeing one in the wild (the first was in Malaysian Borneo). In the same area where I photographed this mule deer, the day started with a big spider encounter. I know I was certainly surprised to learn that there are tarantulas in New Mexico, and I was reminded of this meeting this fellow in a remote area of Ramah some 11 miles down dirt road. Have you seen a tarantula in New Mexico or elsewhere in the wild?

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Dragonhunter Dragonfly & Garden Spider macro

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Dragonhunter Dragonfly on green leaf - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/22 ISO 200 1/60th SB-600 hotshoe mountedPicking organic blueberries was only really a facade for actually doing macro photography.  Just before I moved back to Florida after living in Asia for nine years, I thought that insects would be crawling and flying all around just outside my door in Florida, wouldn't it be great to have a macro lens?  As I tend to do with such things I became obsessed with finding an affordable priced used Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens, Nikon's flagship macro lens.  Just a few days before I left Tokyo, I did.

black & yellow garden spider Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/22 ISO 200 1/60th SB-600 hotshoe mountedHowever, there was no parade of fascinating insects marching past my front door in Florida.  Then I remembered it is much easier to hear an insect, than to see it.  I would soon learn that macro insect photography requires much, much more than just having a great macro lens.  

Anyway, the blueberry bushes were quite popular with black and yellow garden spiders, who make a web much interesting looking than their common name would make you think.  It reminded me of either a polygraph test readout or the graphical representation of speech.  

Dragonhunter Dragonfly Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/22 ISO 200 1/80th SB-600 hotshoe mountedThe dragonhunter dragonflies mostly hung out on wires strung between the rows of blueberry bushes.  They have faces that are very easy to anthropomorphize.  It really looks like they are smiling at you.  I would have to say that dragonflies are perhaps my favorite insect.  They leave humans alone and they eat mosquitoes.  Cannot ask for more than that from an insect!  Plus, one day looong ago, I had no car at that time.  I got every where on my trusty Trek mountain bike.  This meant rain or shine I rode.  Florida in the summer produces torrential rain storms of various lengths.  That day one of those storms was raging while I had to go to work.  I put everything into a plastic bag inside my backpack and rode shirtless to MOSI (museum of science & industry).  Riding in that kind of rain obviously is pretty hardcore.  I looked down at my handlebars and clenched to the brake cable was a dragonfly.  We looked at each other, neither showed aggression, and I rode on.  The whole 20 minute ride he was locked onto my bike and I felt a camaraderie with him.  He was gone when I returned to my Trek to ride home.  These are things that have meaning to me, even some 15 years later.  

black & yellow garden spider Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/22 ISO 200 1/60th SB-600 hotshoe mounted

I have struggled with macro insect photography in the past year, but I feel I am refining and improving my technique.  All these shots were at f/22, the first time to shoot with such a small aperture using the 105mm VR micro lens.  I look forward to my next macro chance . . .