Giant Spider

Today I visited the North Wood County park near Richfield Wisconsin. My focus was set on the autumn colors around the Yellow River. After photographing a small creek within the park I began the hike back to my truck. As I tucked away my equipment I noticed a large clump of leaves slowly descending onto the surface of the forest floor. The scene was quit odd and of course worth a second look. I knew for certain that the size of the spider that could hoist a clump of leaves with the limb still attached to be large. Following the web I found this giant. The base of this spiders back was larger than my thumb, and leg to leg, all of three inches. Though I didn't have my macro equipment on hand I decided to work the scene with with my 135mm lens.