Wolf spiders courting

[LordV]

Lucky enough to catch a pair of wolf spiders courting today. The males are getting darker and showing some interest in the females. The male was madly signalling with it's palps- it would hold a pose for about 30 secs and then change the signal. The female sat there gently vibrating most of the time. Just as the male got really close, the female took umbrage at something and retreated, leaving a highly displeased looking male :).
Focus not perfect on some shots but it's quite hard trying to keep two spiders in focus. I did do some focus stacking on other shots but not these.
Brian V.

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[pxl8]

Great behavioural shots Brian. Bet you wish the 20D had a movie mode ;)

[LordV]

Great behavioural shots Brian. Bet you wish the 20D had a movie mode ;)
Thanks pxl8,
Think I would have run out of memory if it had a film mode- this was quite a slow careful process :)
Just checked the times- above sequence took 8 minutes
Brian V.

[dazzlebea]

Now, what exactly does a highly displeased male spider look like? I think it is important to know...

What a wonderful series! Glad to see you challenged, Brian. You always make macro look sooo easy, which it is not!

[Omri Alon]

Great series :D I love how you managed to get both of them in focus :D Great shots :D

[LordV]

Now, what exactly does a highly displeased male spider look like? I think it is important to know...

What a wonderful series! Glad to see you challenged, Brian. You always make macro look sooo easy, which it is not!

Thanks Bea :)
Have to admit trying to keep two spiders in focus was a bit tricky ;)

He definitely looked ready to stamp his feet up and down :)
Hate to think what passers-by were thinking- I was laying down on the path in my front garden taking these :)
Brian V.

[LordV]

Great series :D I love how you managed to get both of them in focus :D Great shots :D
Thanks Omri :)
That was a bit tricky with the limited approach angles I had.
Brian V.

[Crypto]

incredible shots! I'm surprised you don't try for a little more DOF. Without me downloading, what aperture are you using for these?

[racketman]

incredible shots! I'm surprised you don't try for a little more DOF. Without me downloading, what aperture are you using for these?

I'm reading f11 at 1/200 ISO200.

[Crypto]

I'm reading f11 at 1/200 ISO200.

thanks

[Athena]

Excellent story-telling series.

I bet the regular passers by your house don't even look twice anymore when they see you laying in the garden. ;)

[JDUPhoto]

Excellent work Brian. A story always adds so much to the viewing experience. Maybe your presence ruined their potential intimacy? :lol: I know what you mean about keeping two subjects in focus. I had trouble a week ago with two kookaburras sitting beside each other.

[LordV]

Thanks for the comments all :)
WRT to settings I'm still playing with optimum sharpness vs dof and keeping the flash usage to a minimum level hence F11 and ISO200. Thought this might be useful in this situation where the flash was likely to disturb the spiders. In fact the spider seemed to be so engrossed in what they were doing they took no notice of me :)
Brian V.

[BigAl-SA]

Great series Brian. Interesting that the male seems so much bigger - I always thought it was the other way round.

[LordV]

Great series Brian. Interesting that the male seems so much bigger - I always thought it was the other way round.
Thanks Al,
This did seem to be a small female - I'd say they are normally about the same size as each other from the ones I've seen. Maybe thats why the male failed :)
Brian V.

[dpastern]

Nice shots Brian. Amazing how you manage to keep both of them in the DOF plane. Maybe he didn't have the right pickup lines, I mean "nice legs" just doesn't work for female Wolf spiders ;)

Dave

[LordV]

Nice shots Brian. Amazing how you manage to keep both of them in the DOF plane. Maybe he didn't have the right pickup lines, I mean "nice legs" just doesn't work for female Wolf spiders ;)

Dave
Thanks Dave, Must admit I was going to put a message to go with the semaphoring the male was doing- maybe he just got a letter wrong :)
Brian V.

[chemicalbro]

amazing series brian...... can't beat a nice set of behaviour shots...
although the male is black .maybe he was dancing like a white man and thats why the female left :)