California sea lion Doro (R) nuzzles her two-month-old baby Gina in their enclosure during their official presentation at Berlin Zoo August 17, 2010. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
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California sea lion Doro (R) nuzzles her two-month-old baby Gina in their enclosure during their official presentation at Berlin Zoo August 17, 2010. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
A man feeds a piece of bread to catfish in the Gadisar Lake at Jaisalmer in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan August 20, 2010. The man-made lake was built as a reservoir in the 14th century and is now home to catfish who are fed by tourists and devotees praying at nearby temples. (REUTERS/Krishnendu Halder)
Toronto Star Picture Editor Wanda Goodwin shares these incredible images made available today.
Staring menacingly at the camera these extraordinary looking creatures look like monsters straight out of a horror film. But, despite appearances, these creatures are actually jumping spiders, which measure a tiny six millimetres.
The harmless arachnids, which are capable of jumping up to six times their own height, can be found in grassy meadows and on the walls of houses on sunny days.
Photographer Tomas Rak scours British towns and countryside looking for them to capture on film with macro photography.
The result is an extraordinary picture, which reveals tiny flecks of colour in each spider's eye and every hair on its body.
Pictured: Phidippus Audax
© Tomas Rak/Solent News & Photo AgencyMr Rak, 28, said he'd had a very positive response to his incredible photography.
He added: "People are usually amazed by these jumping spiders, they ask questions like how is it possible to get so close and what I do with spiders to get a shot.
"Macro photography is very interesting. It allows you to see lots of
detail that you would not see with your eyes alone, that's why I love
it."
After finding the tiny creatures, Mr Rak takes them to his home in London to be photographed.
He said: "I usually find them when I am looking carefully on the walls around me during a sunny day when they try to catch a prey.
"It's not easy to them at first find, but when you've see your first jumping spider, what it looks like, their movements, you will be able to find another one easily."
Some photographers put the spiders into a fridge or freezer because it subdues them and makes it easier to take their picture.
But Mr Rak doesn't do this, so getting the perfect shot can take time and patience. One of his favourite spiders, a blue-eyed Saitis barbipes, took an agonising three weeks to get.
"As I do not put insect into fridge or freezer to make it motionless, I was waiting for this shot for three weeks."
After getting the shot Mr Rak releases his subjects back into the wild where he found them.
A donkey, one of the several thousand currently looking to be rehomed by the Donkey Sanctuary stand in the yard at a farm where they are being cared for, near the Donkey Sanctuary on August 16, 2010 near Sidmouth, England. Founded in 1973 and now one of the largest equine charities in the world the Donkey Sanctuary is urgently appealing for new fosterers across the UK to give a home to rescued donkeys. Since 2008 the numbers of donkeys being rescued or relinquished to the Sanctuary has almost doubled and the current global economic problems have had a serious effect on the animal charity. The significantly increased intake figures have seen the charity's seven farms in Devon and Dorset fill to near capacity and the charity is looking to rehome over 2500 donkeys. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Donkeys looking to be adopted stand in the yard at a farm they are being cared for near the Donkey Sanctuary on August 16, 2010 near Sidmouth, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
A donkey, one of the several thousand currently looking to be adopted at the Donkey Sanctuary, rolls in a field at a farm where he is being cared for near the Donkey Sanctuary on August 16, 2010 near Sidmouth, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Donkeys looking to be adopted stand in the yard at a farm they are being cared for near the Donkey Sanctuary on August 16, 2010 near Sidmouth, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
A five-day old male elephant is pictured in Schoenbrunn zoo on August 11, 2010 in Vienna. The Schoenbrunn zoo is part of the imperial summer residence of Schoenbrunn, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the world's oldest zoo, according to its website. (AFP PHOTO/DIETER NAGL)
A ribbon snake is seen on salvinia in a cypress swamp adjacent to marsh that stretches to the Gulf of Mexico in Barataria Preserve, part of Jean Lafitte National Park and Reserve outside Lafitte, La. on August 6, 2010. This bay which was the scene of the first startling images of oil-caked birds, already has shoots of marsh grass and mangroves growing back. The marsh is healing itself. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The Pakistani crisis began in late July, when unusually heavy monsoon rains tore through the country from its mountainous northwest. Hundreds of thousands of homes have been destroyed. Agriculture has been severely hit, with an estimated 1.7 million acres (nearly 700,000 hectares) of farmland wiped out. The floods have killed about 1,500 people and left some 20 million homeless.
Toronto Star Picture Editor Wanda Goodwin highlights some of the images from this week of the devastation in Pakistan.
Floods go on hundreds of kilometers, seen from a Pakistan Army helicopter on an aid mission August 14, 2010 flying over Sindh province, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)
A young flood victim, who was yet to be given a name, slept in a road median after her family evacuated their villages in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district in Punjab province on August 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)
Pakistani rescuers help survivors in a flooded area of Khangarh on August 14, 2010. Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said 20 million people had been affected by the worst floods in the country's history as the UN confirmed the first cholera case. (AFP PHOTO/ Banaras KHAN)
Flood victims run towards the Pakistan Army helicopter to grab aid being dropped August 14, 2010 flying over Sindh province, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)
A Pakistani flood survivor carries belongings in a flooded area of Shah Jamal village on August 13, 2010. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
Pakistan army truck transports flood-affected people to safe areas in Muzaffargarh near Multan, Pakistan on Aug. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/K.M.Chaudary)
Pakistani mother Bushra Humayoun watches over her twins Abdullah Khan (L) and Muhammed Bilal in the field hospital were they were born at a college converted to a camp for flood survivors by the army on the outskirts of Nowshera on August 12, 2010. (AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI)
A man and his cattle are surrounded by water on his farm, as seen from a Pakistan Army helicopter on an aid mission August 12, 2010 flying over Sindh, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
A young Pakistani flood survivor stands outside her makeshift tent, in Charsadda, in Pakistan's northwest, Aug. 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
Residents evacuting through flood waters dodge an army truck carrying relief supplies for flood victims in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district in Punjab province August 11, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif )
Pakistani flood victim Mohammed Nawaz hangs onto a moving raft as he is rescued by the Pakistan Navy August 10, 2010 in Sukkur, Pakistan. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
A man marooned by flood waters, alongside his livestock, waves towards an Army helicopter for relief handouts in the Rajanpur district of Pakistan's Punjab province on August 9, 2010. The Pakistan floods have killed more than 1,600 people and left two million homeless. (REUTERS/Stringer)
Newly born Black Panther twins Baturgai and Ormilia are presented to media at east Berlin's zoological garden "Tierpark" in Berlin, August 13, 2010. AFP PHOTO / ODD ANDERSEN
One of two Black Panther cubs looks at the media during a presentation at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Aug. 13, 2010. The two female cubs named Baturgai and Ormila were born in the Tierpark on July 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Two Black Panther cubs look towards the media during a presentation at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Aug. 13, 2010. The two female cubs were born in the Tierpark on July 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
