Wolf Spider - Macro Portrait!

This lovely wolf spider stopped for a portrait!
Thanks to some advice and encouragement from other photographers on Steemit, such as Hive account@condra, I've taken to carrying an off camera flash when out looking for subjects for macro photography. These pictures (CLICK to ENLARGE BTW) would not have been possible without additional light as it was just starting to rain and near dusk, very low light; but with a portable sun in hand, I was able to get a sharp picture of this beautiful wolf spider!
Maybe my best yet of this species!

A wider crop of the same photo as the first. I like the intensity of the first picture more but wanted to show how much more depth of field is possible when using additional light. When focusing on something very close to the camera, the DOF is usually quite narrow, in low light you need to open the lens aperture wider, further reducing the DOF, literally less than 1mm. With the flash, I can close down the aperture and get more DOF, still only 1.5mm or so here, but the face and a good amount of the legs are nice and crisp!

Bonus: Ichneumon wasp! (Ammophila sabulosa solowiyofkae)

Jewel like black eyes, slender waist, instinctual drive to paralyse caterpillars and lay eggs on their inert, still living, bodies for their young to eat after hatching.
It was having trouble flying after getting wet in the rain.
Hang in there!

Nature is rather metal.

Previous posts with additional pictures:
Little Monsters Part 1- Wolf Spider
Little Monsters Part 26 - Ammophila

Written with StackEdit.