Hunting jumping spiders after rain

It rained the whole morning on Saturday, which normally means no macro. But around two o'clock the sun came out, and I remembered something I'd read: after rain, spiders move to warm, sunny spots to dry off. Our fence gets full sun in the afternoon. So I grabbed the camera.

I didn't even have to search. The first zebra jumping spider was sitting right at eye height on the second fence post, and within an hour I'd found five different jumping spiders on maybe ten metres of fence. That never happens on a dry day — usually I find one if I'm lucky.

The trick with jumping spiders is to move slow and low. If you come from above they bolt, because that's what birds do. I got the lens level with the spider and slid closer a few centimetres at a time. Zebra spiders are curious — this one turned to face the camera on its own, which is exactly the shot you want: all four front eyes looking at you.

Settings-wise I stayed at f/11 and 1/200s with the flash at 1/16 power the whole time. The diffuser matters more than anything here — the fence wood is pale and reflective, and without diffusion every shot had a blown-out white stripe across it.

What I learned: rain is not the end of a macro day, it's the start of one. Next time it rains I'm checking the fence again — and the brick wall behind the shed, which gets sun even earlier.