Here she is, a beautiful dark velvet.







Brian Nielsen

Beautiful spider. Nice perspective in your shots. What kind of camera do you use? I'd like to get into taking pictures of my own spiders or ones I find, but I don't have the right camera at this point. Suggestions?

Excellent pics.

The colour looks incredible. Does it fade after a few days or not?

Thanks for the comments.

R.S. Elliott, I use a Sony DSC-F828. It is capable of much better pictures. And people who know how to take pictures could do much more with much less. I use a technique that I call the lottery technique lol. That is take a lot of pictures and hope 1 or 2 turn out. Prior to this I had an Olympus compact that I really liked. It took better pictures than my friends Kodak which had similar specifications. Check out this website http://www.dpreview.com/ for some great information. If you are taking closeups, than you are going to be concerned with the macro function. It usually list a value which represents how close you can get and still be able to focus. The smaller the value the closer you can get. I wouldn't be as concerned with megapixels as long as it is 3 or better. The main benefit of more megapixels is that it can be like having more zoom. The more megapixels the more that you can crop or zoom into the picture and it still remains clear. My best recomendation would be to get information from a real photographer, but hopefully I have helped some.

Arietans, nearly 48 hours after taking the photos she is just as dark. I have noticed that the females that I have seen (only 4 ever) have been quite a bit darker and less distictive of a pattern as the males (more than 25). However, she is the darkest that I have seen and I am wondering if it is a result of cooler temperatures than she would be having in the wild. I should probably provide her with above room temperature conditions.

Why not test your theory? Leave her as is, and give another one above room temperatures (if you can)

Thanks for the information and the advise, Brian. I have a lot to learn about photography. I'll talk to someone in a local shop and see what they have. Thanks again.

What are the temperaments of wolf spiders as pets? I have no desire to own one really, just curious.

I try not to handle them. They are very fast. I have had them rear up on me. When I took the photos I coaxed her out of the enclosure and onto the floor in an area open enough to stop her before she could get lost.

When I do hold them I try to act as much like the ground as I can lol.

I think it is cool that you are confronting your phobia by keeping a tarantula. Congratulations on being brave enough to touch it.

Yes do that!!! I have been trying to identify a spider and I just did thanks to this picture! But I would never have guessed it to be this species!!!

So this is great and you should try out your idea!!!

Thanks Brian! Don't worry, I have no intentions of handling a wolf spider any time soon. Those jumping spiders are different story.....they're kinda cute.