“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

A female bodybuilder apples oil to another performer backstage before an amateur competition in the Israeli city of Dimona, in this April 3, 2014 file photo. (Photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

A performer from Cirque du Soleil's show “Quidam” practices backstage before a show at the MEO Arena in Lisbon December 18, 2014. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

Ukrainian servicemen sit atop an armored personnel carrier (APC) at a military base in the town of Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, December 24, 2014. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

A man gestures to a robot at a restaurant in Hefei, Anhui province, December 26, 2014. The restaurant, with a space of 1300 square metres and a total of 30 robots to cook meals, deliver dishes and welcome costumers, was reported to be the biggest robot restaurant in China. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Darts fan Nigel Panton in fancy dress ahead Day Eight of the William Hill PDC World Darts Championships at Alexandra Palace on December 28, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)

A boy fires confetti poppers as he participates in a procession to mark Eid-e-Milad-ul-Nabi, the birthday celebration of Prophet Mohammad, in Mumbai January 4, 2015. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

Ana Ivanovic of Serbia plays a backhand return to Maria Sharapova of Russia during their women's singles final match at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, January 10, 2015. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)