stacked suprise!

I have had a weekend of spring cleaning and the washing machine has been running constantly. Imagine my suprise when I found this fellow in the bottom of the basket of the wet washing! He had been washed with my 'delicates' and had drowned, but he was still intact so I thought I should make the best of the opportunity and photograph him (or her!).
I REALLY don't like spiders though, and shuddered every time I had to look through the viewfinder to focus!
It took 'ages' to find the best angle to shoot a spider's portrait, and no macro flash created another challenge. (positioning an 'uplight' just 1 cm from the surface necessitated all sorts of experiments)
This is a focus stacked shot (composite of 5 images) and I apologise if spiders freak you out!

[carissa telecky]

Im', usually not afraid of spiders but this one is just crazy scary!!!! It is a great shot though, and I give you huge credit for getting that close to it (dead or not)!

[Deb Sulzberger]

This is a fav for me, love how detailed it is, fab shot !!!

[Jacki]

Eeek that's creepy, brilliant shot though!!!!

[genevieve]

ummmm, kind of glad you found him after the washing was done and not before. Fab shot.

[Rebecca Doyle]

Oooh ick.... but great shot.... but ick.......!! (atleast I know it was 'drowned' in this shot!)
Nice one!

[Denise]

Oh...what a cool shot Lyn. It's amazing it survived in one piece from the washing. Awesome detail. It looks quite vicious up close.

[Jennifer C]

oh oh oh yikes

[Claire Fisher]

Brilliant shot! I've heard of money laundering but 'spider laundering'? I love the little eyes!

[Amy Spada]

Omg.... Excellent spider portrait! Did you scream when he fell out of the wash? I would have! Hahaha....

[Nic Taylor]

omg what a fantastic shot perfection

[Brian Baptie]

Brilliant detail. Well done.

[Lyndell]

Eewww awesome shot!

[CK]

Can;t believe I just fav'd that, I will have nightmares tonight and may have to retract that fav tomorrow! Fabulous and extremely brave capture!

[Nicole Campbell]

Great photo Lyn, you are braver than I am! I would have squashed it. :)

[Kim Suzanne Kelley]

I can't believe you found him in your delicates!! Yikes! Great detailed pic (though I hate spiders too!)

[Robert Zurfluh]

Wow impressive. Finding a giant spider like that :) To bad for her what happened, but at least it's a clean spider

[Shanne]

briiliant macro - great shot

[Seth Tan]

Gosh! Awesome catch

[Nat Stuart Perks]

Holy dooley this is so fab!!! Look at his hairy legs!!!!! LOL!!!!

[Anja]

Brilliant detail. Glad we don't have those spiders where I live!

[LenkaMarie]

He does!......but macro is fantastic:-/ :-)

[Michelle]

Oh he is sooo cool.. now thats a briliant shot

[Juanita]

I've been brave and looked (properly) once..........but OMG I can't anymore. Seriously good focus.....what on earth was it? And was it dangerous?
It would have given me a heart attack.........

[Kass]

Wow - great detail! Very interesting angle as well. Sorry to hear it died a watery death though.

[Veronica Brown]

WOW.........amazing shot!

[Sharon]

I would freak out if I saw this thing any place other than a picture!! Great shot!

[Michael Witt]

Superb!

[Hudd]

Great shot, nice close up!

[Kai Island]

gross and great!

[petra]

he looks huge! great shot!

[☯ Sarah ☁]

Cool shot but EUGH! :)
Not sure I'd like to find it in the bottom of my washing even if it was drowned!!!!!

[Cat Whiskers - Nan]

Terrific capture! I probably would have screamed if I had seen him in the bottom of my washing!

[Flipside]

Very Interesting! Great Shot!

[Jenna Richards]

This is seriously creepy. It's an awesome shot though. Your angle makes it look HUGE.

[MaryBeth Dailey]

ARRRGH! I am not scared of spiders...stick my camera in their 8 little eyes all the time, but THIS freaked me out! Haha...but in a good way. I thought he looked odd...so he is drowned. Do not know how that can be a composite of 5 different images....stacked. Never heard of that. Lots to learn! Love this...fav! So scary!

[Lyn Todd]

@espyetta Thanks MaryBeth. I was freaked whenever I had to focus on him - even though I knew he was dead!
I described focus stacking in more detail at http://365project.org/ltodd/365/2011-10-13

[rocket27]

Wow!!! I had to read the story because if you had taken this shot when it was alive I would have been super surprised!! :-) Excellent!

[Cassi Goodman]

Fantastic macro. Bit too close a view to my liking though. :-)

[Cyndi]

Yipes!

Great work!

[georgia delli-benedetti ツ]

ahahahaha (spiders freak me out) but this shot is really cool..... i have goose bumps lol congrats on the pop page :)

[Lyn Todd]

@grdelli @cholbert @cassigoodman @rocket27 Thanks ladies! :) I NEVER would have thought about shooting this if he had been alive!

[Muse]

Oh my, what an amazing picture! It's not very pleasant to see all the details, but from a photographic POV, it's fabulous!

[Emma]

Eugh! What a beasrt!

[Della]

wow---amazing detail

[MikiChelle]

OMG! Scary creepy Yuck!! But Awesome close up!

[Linda Ann]

Almost looks as though it has adjusted itself so you get it's best shot ......Love it! I like spiders....totally misunderstood me thinks! FAV

[joseph levy]

I know this is a macro...but it gives the impression that this guy is HUGE! lol Amazing work!

[Lyn Todd]

@scatcat @emmilou @dmrams @mikichelle @jojo2009 thanks - it was looked even LARGER and CREEPIER viewing it at 10 times this size as I focussed every shot.
@lindilou - oh eek - you are welcome to all the spiders around here!! I actually shuddered thinking about it now!

[Seth Tan]

wow! great shot

[Elin (@lluniau)]

Holey moley. That's a beast. I thought Cyril, my latest resident, was big but that's HUGE! And look at all those eyes! Eurgh. I can step over Cyril to go upstairs to bed, and forget about him a moment later. *That* would give me nightmares.