Bug hunting is one of my favorite photographic endeavors. Armed with my D600 and trusty 105mm macro lens, I head out into our front field to  bag my quarry. You have to be slow and quick at the same time, moving slowly and patiently to see what’s around you, then moving in quick to get the shot. I never really know what I’ve got until I get back home and dump the images onto my computer. In this particular round, the crab spider with the fly in its mouth was a complete surprise. Even through the lens, I thought the black bit was the spider’s eyes. When I blew it up, I discovered that I wasn’t the only one hunting bugs!

Most of these shots were taken at ISO 800 with apertures between f/8 and f/13 and shutter speeds of 1/800″-1/2000″.

A northern crab spider bags a small fly. This was an unexpected surprise!
I was shooting the yellow crab spider on the buttercup when the elongated flower fly zipped into the frame. A lucky shot!
A soldier fly (?) perches on a lesser stitchwort blossom.
A tiny jumping spider hunts on a milkweed leaf.
A leaf-footed bug crawls up a grass stem.
A tawny-edged Skipper on a milkweed leaf.
An unidentified beetle perches on a black-eyed Susan.