Wealthy tarantula, True, Texas
Years ago we decided to spend a hot summer evening cruising back roads north of Newcastle looking for tarantulas. June is a good time to hunt for these impressive spiders as they wander about seeking females hiding in their burrows. We encountered this fellow while we were driving slowly down a dirt road in True, about 6 miles north of Newcastle. I'm not lucky enough to EVER find $20 just sitting waiting to be picked up. I would NEVER be lucky enough to find one with a Tarantula guarding it... waiting to be photographed. This situation is actually a followup to a failed attempt to capture a tarantula (this one) and bring it in a Tupperware salad bowl back to our cottage in Newcastle for an extended photo session. The lead-in to this pic's situation is here:
www.flickr.com/photos/61377404@N08/50111294752/in/album-7...
After grabbing a single tarantula / Tupperware bowl image and having our would-be captive scoot away into the weeds beside the road, we figured a different approach might net us a few pics.
The $20 bill was carefully planted by myself a few feet away from the tarantula, which had paused in its flight from the salad bowl. I worked the bill into the grass to make it seem like it had been dropped, blown by the wind and carried along until it lodged in the grass. The bill just sitting flat on the ground wouldn't do. We wanted something to show the size of this creature, but the setup had to look natural. With a small twig I carefully "coaxed" our subject onto the bill. My sister wanted no part of this operation. His jinking in the wrong direction a few times was corrected with light leg taps which eventually maneuvered him into the position you see here. When we were finished he was NOT allowed to keep the $20.
Nikon D60, Lester Dine 105mm f/2.8 macro lens, pop-up flash reflected off foil covered reflectors of a home-made macro lighting bracket.
DSC-4121
Wealthy tarantula, True, Texas
Years ago we decided to spend a hot summer evening cruising back roads north of Newcastle looking for tarantulas. June is a good time to hunt for these impressive spiders as they wander about seeking females hiding in their burrows. We encountered this fellow while we were driving slowly down a dirt road in True, about 6 miles north of Newcastle. I'm not lucky enough to EVER find $20 just sitting waiting to be picked up. I would NEVER be lucky enough to find one with a Tarantula guarding it... waiting to be photographed. This situation is actually a followup to a failed attempt to capture a tarantula (this one) and bring it in a Tupperware salad bowl back to our cottage in Newcastle for an extended photo session. The lead-in to this pic's situation is here:
www.flickr.com/photos/61377404@N08/50111294752/in/album-7...
After grabbing a single tarantula / Tupperware bowl image and having our would-be captive scoot away into the weeds beside the road, we figured a different approach might net us a few pics.
The $20 bill was carefully planted by myself a few feet away from the tarantula, which had paused in its flight from the salad bowl. I worked the bill into the grass to make it seem like it had been dropped, blown by the wind and carried along until it lodged in the grass. The bill just sitting flat on the ground wouldn't do. We wanted something to show the size of this creature, but the setup had to look natural. With a small twig I carefully "coaxed" our subject onto the bill. My sister wanted no part of this operation. His jinking in the wrong direction a few times was corrected with light leg taps which eventually maneuvered him into the position you see here. When we were finished he was NOT allowed to keep the $20.
Nikon D60, Lester Dine 105mm f/2.8 macro lens, pop-up flash reflected off foil covered reflectors of a home-made macro lighting bracket.
DSC-4121