For some it’s creepy, for some it’s beautiful, for others, maybe it’s a mix of both.
Gaithersburg photographer Ben Salb’s close-up shot of a mother spider has earned him first-place in the Insects and Arachnids category in the Nature Conservancy annual contest.
“It’s a super zoomed in photo of a wolf spider mom with dozens or maybe a hundred or so spiderlings, her babies, on her back,” Salb said.
According to a news release from the Nature Conservancy, 80,000 photographers submitted over 189,000 entries for the prestigious worldwide contest. Salb took his winning photo in a neighborhood park in Gaithersburg.
He calls it “Wolf Spider Mama.” Salb used a technique called focus stacking to get the final image.
“It’s actually 129 photos that were taken individually from the closest point to the lens, to the hairs on the baby’s legs,” he said.
The camera Salb uses takes the shots automatically, but afterward, he uses software in a painstaking process to get a final, perfect image.
Salb’s prize for winning the contest? A $1,000 Amazon gift card.
“Not too bad, got some Christmas shopping money.”
Photography is not Salb’s full time job, but he said he started honing the craft during the pandemic.
“There was kind of an international wave of people who started the bug photography and macro photography at the same time,” Salb said.
You can see more of his work on his Instagram page @bens_small_world.
“I don’t know if the internet or world is just more interested in bugs, or if we’ve kind of helped people see bugs in a different way.”
