A Sense Of Scale

Fleecy Jumping Spider (Pseudeuophrys lanigera)

Fleecy Jumping Spider (Pseudeuophrys lanigera) on my hand, complete with grooves left from the weight of the camera and lens digging in

I was sat at my computer recently and felt something crawling up my arm. Thankfully I’m not someone that responds to that kind of thing with instant hysteria or violence otherwise I would have risked squashing probably the smallest Fleecy Jumper I’ve ever seen.

It was a lively little thing so I had to settle for a few close ups whilst it was on my hand. Quite often with extreme macro photography it can be extremely hard to gauge the size of the subject. With the right kit, even the smallest of creatures can fill the frame with no point of reference or visual clues as to how small it actually is.

In this instance, photographing the spider on my hand, it was very easy to take a record shot to show just how tiny it was. I doubt it was even 2mm. You can see the big divots left on my hand from the weight of the lens digging in whilst trying to take some shots one-handed. The keen eyed macro photographer might even be able to deduce that a Raynox attachment was used, by the knurled pattern left in one spot.