A Female Jumping Spider

Jumping spiders are my favourite macro photography subjects.
Unlike the harvestman and orb weavers, these little fellas have character.
Their large eyes made focussing easier in high magnification.
I found this adult female jumper when I was scouring the undergrowth in Kg Pertak yesterday.
She was resting on a small leaf when it was spotted.
I wasted no time by working on a frame on my Canon MPE-65 macro lens.
With a heavily diffused MT-24EX twin flash, I had only seconds to work with my model before it gets spooked.
And since the MPE-65 has a very narrow focal band, the tough part is to get the spider in frame with the right composition.
I first went for a full body shot before working on its close-up.
For jumpers, a 3/4 profile on 3x magnification or more is the ideal set-up.
But getting it sharp and in focus is the toughest thing you can ever deal with especially when your subject is no larger than 10mm in length.
Lucky for me, I still haven't lost it and the results are simply stunning!