I have been looking for a spider to photograph for this month's photo contest with no luck, and last night as I was barbequing on my porch, I looked up and spotted this spider under the eaves of the porch. Because of low light I had to shoot this at pretty high ISO and a pretty open aperture, so I decided to attempt focus stacking free-hand to get it all in focus. This is a stack of 8 shots. I think it needed about 15-20, but it is not easy standing on a chair and trying to hold the camera still enough pointing above your head to end up with even 8 shots. The good news is the spider doesn't look like it will be going anywhere soon, and I just need to come up with a way to hold the camera steady for a good focus stack. Stay tuned...

[Heinrich Lohmann]

That is excellent work Todd, the spider by the way is a Black-and-yellow Argiope

[awscreo]

Nice shot! That Irix lens looks to be a very nice piece of glass

[ToddK]

This is an amazing shot. Nicely done.

Thanks so much swip!

---------- Post added 07-24-21 at 05:56 AM ----------

That is excellent work Todd, the spider by the way is a Black-and-yellow Argiope

Thank you Heinrich! I remembered the black and yellow part, but couldn't remember the proper name.

Nice shot! That Irix lens looks to be a very nice piece of glass

Thank you! It is an outstanding piece of glass.