I'm a Christian and hobbyist macro-photographer with a keen interest in the super-diverse and super-fascinating order Araneae (spiders)! I love anything and everything about these fascinatingly unique and astonishing arachnids, but my primary focus lies in understanding and admiring their intricate and intriguing spinneret and spigot morphology, topography, and diversity, as well as the taxonomy of Araneae and reclassification of spiders. I am also working on a comprehensive field guide with straightforward identification tips and tricks for all 138 spider families from around the globe, and also on a guide to the spiders in Ohio, USA. Both are far from finished, though!

I mostly monitor observations of Ohio, Japanese, and central African spiders and some of the less-appreciated or lesser-well-known spider families (like the Mygalomorphae, Marronoid Clade, Palpimanoidea, etc.), so if you're receiving a considerable number of notifications for those... well, that's why! But I try not to limit my identifications to only those groups, and I can usually identify spiders to family or below by sight, so don't hesitate to "@" or message me if you are in need of assistance. If you already have and I haven't responded and it has been at least 24 hours, please "@" or message me again. I visit this platform every day, so I'll usually be able to respond to notifications relatively quickly. Here is a heatmap for my identifications (note Ohio).

My photographs are captured using the Canon EOS Rebel T7 with the kit lens and a 14-65mm macro extension tube, with a cheap flash and DIY diffuser. I also sometimes use an umbrella to block out the sun (or just for shade!), and background cards to rid of ugly backgrounds! Feel free to use any of my photographs as long as you credit me. For this reason, I try to include useful photographs of many different positions and features of organisms. I do others sometimes for the fun, though! If you use any of my photographs for any reason, it would be greatly appreciated if you could inform me! I can also be found on Flickr.

My profile image is of the oxyopid species Oxyopes aglossus, the "Halloween" lynx spider, my favorite spider aside from Huttonia palpimanoides.

"Wherever there is faith as slender as one strand of the spider's web, there the fullness of redeeming grace is active." ~ John Murray

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