Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

Long-jawed orb weavers (Tetragnatha sp.) used to scare the hell out of me as a kid. These gangly spiders hang out in large numbers along river banks, and there they are frequent drop-ins to anyone passing near the shore in a canoe or inner-tube on a lazy summer day. Their freakishly big fangs will trigger Arachnophobia in just about anyone, and that summarizes my first encounters with them.
But now I understand they are as benign as ladybugs. They get their large jaws because that is what they use as claspers during mating. They have 0 inclination to bite.
This spider was retrieved from a nearby river, and photographed in a staged session on the dining room table. They are quite flighty in two senses. First, they want to run away from everything, so it takes time to let one settle down. Second, they are extraordinarily skilled at flying away by ballooning out a dragline from on top of a perch, and letting the webbing float away by the slightest of breezes. When the invisible web latches onto a perch several feet away, they immediately plant down the other end at their feet, and off they will fly, moving with surprising speed thru the air along the dragline. One must them sweep them up and plant them back on the perch to try try again for more pictures. Patience and a sense of humor are necessary when working with these interesting spiders.
This picture is a result of focus stacking by hand with the Venus/Laowa 2.5-5x lens, Zerene Stacker, and many many hours to clean up all manner of artifacts in Gimp. Layer masks from different pictures, cutting and pasting, cloning, healing, and several other tools had to be used. Pretty much my whole bag of tricks. But you can zoom in quite a bit, and it holds up well, I think.

Long-jawed orb weaver by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Excellent.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

When growng up in Grand Blanc the fields were many and houses few; not like the multi housing subdivisions of today. When running thru a path with tall weeds on both sides [tall because i was a young child] I hit one of the big yellow/black spider web and spider was trapped aginst my summer-time-bare chest... I was terrified!! Quickly swept it away. In contrast we played with snakes, none were poisonous, useful for chasing girls.

Your history of this spider creature is quite interesting and the labor you put into creating what you show us represents many hours of exacting work well done.

The lens and some of the photos it is capable of producing are discribed in:
https://www.venuslens.net/product/laowa-25mm-f-2-8-2-5-5x-ultra-macro-2/

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

Yes Mark, it holds up very well when enlarged. Your editing skills are very clever ones.

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

Excellent results. Your patience paid off.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Mark, this is another stellar job, and thanks for sharing it for I have yet to find one here.

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

WOW! Imagine living at the same size scale as that thing!!! Great shot.

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

FANTASTIC!!

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Wonderful Mark, your PP skills equal your photographic skills and the results are always a pleasure to look at. Spiders are hard to come by here in the desert so I really enjoy yours.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

Looks like your work was well worth it. 👍👍👍

Pysanka Artist Loc: Rochester, NY

Great shot! I used to be fearful of spiders too until I learned about them. Now I run to them instead of away from them!