A little brown jumper

At 1:1 magnification, the little jumper is seen here on a flower's stalk

To get the best out of the subject, here's a 3x or 3:1 magnification shot of the little brown jumper. At such high mag, the details are simply stunning

I've laid off macro photography for nearly half a year.
That was a good break as I am more focussed on cycling and planning long-haul trips.
As far as macro shots are concerned, jumping spiders are my favourite subjects.
I've have had a great time capturing them on camera.
They are not easy to spot and shooting these little critters - 5mm - 12mm on the average, are not easy.
With a 1:1 lens, you could only score a full body shot.
Anything closer, you would need to add an extension tube that would decrease your depth-of-field.
The solution to this: Canon's MPE-65 1x-5x lens.
For the beginner, this is not an easy lens to handle.
I learned from the gurus in the trade who shoots their subject handheld.
There are some recipes to maximise the full potential of the MPE and if you pair it with the Canon MT-24EX twin flash, the results can be stunning.
So, when I discovered the little jumper, I was really excited.
It moved a lot which made it difficult to score a decent shot.
After waiting for the exact moment, the subject entered focus and my immediate reaction was to press the shutter release button.
I knew that I had nailed it and out of four shots, only one came out sharp.
Well, with time in hand, I guess I'll have plenty of opportunities to capture more jumping spider images...