CREATURE CLOSEUPS

Macro photography gives you the power to magnify and observe the world around you with much greater detail than possible with just your unaided eyes. This is an incredible, singular power, capable of completely changing your perspective on life and the natural world around you. To be able to see clearly into lives smaller than your own is an extremely enlightening and humbling experience.

I’ve always loved arthropods. The phylum Arthropoda includes insects, arachnids and other related invertebrates with an exoskeleton. Once you can see the beauty and incredible behavior of these tiny animals, it’s difficult to fear or loathe them. To meet them on such an intimate level can change one’s view of these oft-misunderstood animals. There’s untold beauty all around us deserving of a closer look.

It wasn’t until I started turning lenses backward in high school that a deep interest in entomology and arachnology took root. Specifically, it was noticing local jumping spiders for the first time—probably Phidippus audax, the “bold jumper”— that got