I held a moment...

Saw this little beauty peaking over the fence and had to capture her in the act.

Just Rosy

Very hairy with big green teeth

This little guy or gal is (usually) called a Daring Jumping Spider.  I'm not sure how daring it actually is but it can be pretty intimidating with those big green fang-like things.  This pic was taken on the back of a deck chair in our backyard.

For the photo nerds, this is an example of an EXTREMELY narrow depth of field.  Can you see that little sliver of chair that is actually in focus underneath and to the spider's left?  That is the "depth of field" or the amount of the picture that is in focus.  The further you get from that plane of focus either closer or further from the camera, the more out of focus objects will be. For example, the darker green blob above the spider is actually a tree that is another 30ft behind the spider.  Of course, that plane of focus extends to infinity if you go up, down, left and right. That small plane represents how much of the spider will look sharp in the image (its back legs are pretty blurry).  Thus, in order of the picture to amount to anything at all, the spiders' eyes need to be right in that small little plane of of focus.

Click the pic for a larger view...

How not to sell a macro lens

I had the bright idea to raise some more cash for buying a new lens by selling one of my current ones - a 60mm/2.8 macro lens.  I figured "I really don't need this thing anymore, I hardly use it."  So I thought I'd go take some test shots to prove to the prospective craigslist buyer that it does indeed work quite well.

In the process, of course, I fell back in love with it and decided I was crazy for even considering a sell in the first place.

Here are several I'd love to share with you: