Opportunities

I practically fell out of the car with my camera and got on the ground to get the best angle when we saw this in the middle of the road.

My partner and I were driving to Gold Country in the foothills of the Sierras for a short weekend away and were just turning up the street to our rental.

I had never seen a tarantula in the wild before and was so excited to have the opportunity to just stop the car in the middle of an infrequently-trafficked road just to take this picture.

If I were to do this over again, I'd probably use a slightly more closed aperture to get the entire spider in focus. At that time, I was very enamored with wide open apertures and hadn't figured out the nuances of that tool yet. I'm still learning. But I will always look back on this photo fondly along with the memories it carries with it.