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A Steindachner's Ebony Tarantula at Crystal Cove

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I crossed paths with this fellow on a hike at Crystal Cove State Park this morning, along the Fenceline trail. I posted it to iNaturalist as soon as I got home, and within a few hours had it confirmed by several people: a male Steindachner's ebony tarantula (Aphonopelma steindachneri).

Turns out the timing wasn't a fluke. Males of this species leave their burrows specifically to search for mates between July and October, so this was a textbook-timed encounter rather than an unusual one — good to actually check that before assuming, since my first instinct was that a July sighting seemed early. After his photo session, I gently nudged him with a stick and he scurried off the trail into the chaparral, safe from being run over by a mountain biker or stomped by an arachnophobic hiker. 

Aphonopelma steindachneri is native to the coastal ranges of Southern California and northern Baja California, and it's one of the tarantulas you're genuinely most likely to run into if you spend time hiking the hills around LA or San Diego. Docile, slow-moving, velvet-black or deep brown in color, and considerably more interested in finding a burrow than bothering a hiker. Up till now I have only seen dead tarantulas on the trails. They are harmless despite their size and appearance. If you encounter one, please DO NOT kill it! 

Photograph of a Steindachner's ebony tarantula, Aphonopelma steindachneri, on a transparent background
Steindachner's Ebony Tarantula — Wild California Spider Photography

I shot this on my Pixel 10 XL, ran it through Topaz Gigapixel to enlarge it, and removed the background in Photoshop so the spider stands entirely on its own — real specimen photography rather than another cartoon Halloween spider.

For the tarantula keepers and naturalists among you who like a proper species ID, I also put together a second version labeled in the style of an old field guide plate — common name and scientific name, presented the way any properly identified specimen ought to be.

Photograph of a Steindachner's ebony tarantula labeled with common and scientific names on a specimen card, in the style of a field guide plate, transparent background
Steindachner's Ebony Tarantula — Scientific Specimen Photography

Available on Redbubble

Both versions are available at my Redbubble shop across the full product range — t-shirts, stickers, art prints, mugs, tote bags, and more.

Wild Photography Version on Redbubble

Specimen Card Version on Redbubble

You can find all my work at my Redbubble shop, KornKob Art. Or search Redbubble for kornkobart (one word).

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Samoan Youth

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This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year. Samoan Youth Canon EOS 20D 1/30sec at f/20 ISO 200 Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm More photographs from the same Pasifika Festival day can be found in my new post, Faces of Pasifika 2007 — A Day at Auckland's Pacific Festival .
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Faces of Pasifika 2007 — A Day at Auckland's Pacific Festival

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The 15th anniversary Pasifika Festival poster — a collage of the Pacific cultures the festival celebrates. On Saturday 10 March 2007, I spent the day at the Pasifika Festival at Western Springs Park in Auckland. It was the festival's 15th year — an annual celebration of Pacific Island cultures that has been part of Auckland's calendar since 1993, and which typically draws crowds of well over 100,000 across the day. Nine Pacific villages are traditionally represented — Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Kiribati and Tahiti — with music, dance, food, arts, and craft from each community sharing the same park for the day. I usually visit New Zealand earlier in February, but in 2007 I was there in March and it was the first — and, to date, only — time I've been able to attend Pasifika. I hope to make it back one of these years. But I came away from that single visit with the str...
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The Watchman and Virgin River — Painterly Winter Landscape

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The Watchman and Virgin River, Zion National Park — Painterly Winter Landscape — © John Corney The Watchman is one of Zion National Park's most recognizable formations — the peak that rises up just past the south entrance, often photographed reflected in or framed by the Virgin River as it winds through the valley floor. I photographed this view on the same January 2006 trip as the other winter Zion piece in this collection, with the river running low and the cottonwoods and willows along the bank stripped bare for the season. I worked this one up with AI assistance into a full painterly interpretation, the same way I've approached the rest of this Zion series — directing the process the way a film director works with a cinematographer, choosing what to carry forward from the original photograph and what to push harder. Here that meant leaning into the warmth of the low winter light against the cool snow on the upper ridgeline, and letting th...
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