Spiders Really Do Live Under Toilet Seats

If you've ever heard anything about Australia it may be that you've been told to look under the toilet seat for Redback spiders before stealing some uninterrupted time in the quietest and darkest room of the house - the Aussie outback toilet. Australia is home to some of the most-deadly insects and arachnids in the world - all of which, despite their fearsome reputation, are extremely photographic.

Macro photography is generally recognized as the art of capturing images of small objects at a scale larger than life. Insects and spiders fit perfectly into the serious macro photographer's psyche as they pose in unpredictable positions and are always on the move. Depending on the insect - this can make it extremely difficult to capture them clearly-enough for the photograph to be of high-enough quality for presentation value.

The Australian Redback spider is a very timid creature. It lives in warm dark places such as wood piles, under the eaves of homes, along timber fences and yes - even under the famed outback Aussie toilet seat! They've even started to make their presence known in the steel cities of Japan - courtesy of shipments of Australian iron ore.

Finding a Redback can sometimes be the easy part of the shoot - they're everywhere in summer. Getting the little creature to keep still and pose in the right position and light can be the difficult part.

Shooting macro photography images usually means getting as close as only a couple of inches away from the subject. This can sometimes be a disturbing experience when photographing the Redback. They're mostly shy and sometimes move fast.

I've never read anywhere that Redback spiders can jump; however I've had a couple of experiences where I've witnessed this. It's usually the smaller ones that will leap from the leaf of a shrub and swing on a fine thread to the ground in an attempt to escape. So when you've spent the last five minutes setting up the shot only to see the highly magnified spider disappear from the eyepiece of the camera in an instant - you'll find yourself spending the next fifteen minutes looking for the damn thing up the leg of your trousers!

The silky smooth blackness of the Redback in sunlight lends itself to a set of gleaming macro photographs you'll be proud to show to your friends.

If you go searching for a Redback to photograph, be warned; around 200 Australians are bitten each year!

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