Story behind the image: To fear or not to fear spiders

I wouldn't necessarily say I am afraid of spiders, I just don't like them, especially in my house or anywhere indoors really, so I avoid them. Spiders definitely have a creepy, crawly stigma about them due to their association to scary movies and Halloween. The fact that they have eight legs instead of six like other bugs does not help their case.

When I came across this particular spider I knew I did not want to get too close. I did not know what kind of spider it was. I did not know whether or not it was poisonous. I did not know how far it could jump. Unknown is a greater fear than the spider itself. At the start of my venture through Acadia National Park I made a stop at the welcome center to get my park pass, look at a map for places to go and go to the bathroom. But before I could get there, right at the entrance of the welcome center, off to the side of the door was a web and this spider. My first reaction was to jump back, but then I was intrigued. This was the biggest spider I had ever seen (that was not a tarantula)! And what do I do when something catches my eye? I photograph it.

So I pulled up my camera, a Canon R8, with my large telephoto lens on and found my position. A good ten plus feet away, I crouched down to eye level with the spider sat in its web, raised my camera and zoomed in. Just like that I had this picture.

As I was taking the picture other people going in and out of the welcome center would look over to see what was so interesting that I was taking a picture of. I feel that is part of my job as a photographer: to draw the attention of something to others whether they are looking at the final image or see me in a somewhat peculiar position to get the shot. But with that said, as soon as I had the shot I backed up far away from that spider.

Location: Acadia National Park, Maine, USA2

Date taken: October 2024

Camera: Canon EOS R8

Aperture: 400mm

f stop: f/9

Shutter speed: 1/800

ISO: 25600