Look at those fangs...

 Now I know that most people to varying degrees dislike spiders and would rather not look at them too closely, and while am among those people who would jump if I saw one running across the floor in my living room or creeping up the wall in my bedroom I am weirdly drawn to look closely when I spot them in my garden. And when I spot a specimen like this one I cannot resist getting my camera and getting a few shots.

I love the colouring of this European garden spider that was sitting patiently at the centre of its dew covered web waiting for its next meal. Given the position of the web I couldn't get a shot of the spider's back but these shots nicely show the underside and its legs, and if you look closely (go on, I dare you) you can see its fangs. I am sure they could give a nip to your finger but just think what they can do to a fly or moth. 

Cute mini beast

 I haven't posted any photos lately despite having had a couple of days out. I haven't really got round to sorting through the pictures I took but hopefully I will soon get some time  to process them and then share the best ones.

Today however I finally got to do something I have been planning to do for ages but due to Covid restrictions I have not had the opportunity to do and that is go and do a photo shoot of some of my daughter-in-law's collection of spiders. She has 27 tarantulas if you can believe that, 27!!!

Now I do not like spiders, at all, and I am grateful that in my house it is not me who has to remove them when they become a nuisance (which is whenever they appear). I once did a presentation about spiders to a youth group, thinking that if I understood more about spiders then I wouldn't be so afraid of them, guess what, it didn't work. The more I knew the  more I realised it made sense to be afraid...

Despite that I do find them fascinating and extremely photogenic and the opportunity to get up close and take some macro photos of a few of the species in the collection was something I didn't want to pass up. There were some species that I definitely did not want to get close to because they are very fast and extremely poisonous but the ones that I will share with you were a little more easy going. I even surprised myself by moving the containers to get closer, without thinking about just how close my hand came to the venomous beasts. 

Anyway I have decided to share some of the cutest pictures today. Meet Pebbles and Jasper. These are two Phiddipus regius or Regal Jumping Spiders. They are just too cute with their whiskers and 8 shiny black eyes. 

They are also ridiculously small, so these images are cropped to get up really close. Pebbles is the largest of the two and I have included the full image of Jasper with his owners hand in the shot to give you a true sense of just how small he is.

I have some more shots of Pebbles to share but I will save them for another day and before I get back to them I will share some images of some of the larger species so come back for more if you dare.

Mini Beasts

I know that many people will give a little shudder when they see these shots of garden spiders, after all they're pretty beastly little critters but I hope you will all agree they are decent shots all the same.

I recently had my macro lens fixed and so I wanted to get more use out of it. Over the past week I have been sharing some of the flower and bug pictures I had captures at Bodnant garden in North Wales all shot using my 100mm macro lens.

Then on the recent bank holiday I went into my own garden on a hunt for mini beasts and I spotted these spiders. I was lucky with the light especially in the last shot which gives a great view of the spiders beady little eyes.