“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 man reacts as health workers help collect a nasal swab sample to test for COVID-19 in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, September 17, 2020. As India’s coronavirus confirmed cases jump by a record 97,894 cases in the past 24 hours, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faced a scathing opposition criticism in Parliament for its handling of the pandemic and a contracting economy leaving millions jobless on Thursday. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

Men from the Kenyan Maasai tribe perform a traditional jumping-ritual among fellow members of a common age-set as they observe a rite of passage to mark the transition of an age-set to cultural junior elder from Moran (Maasai for warrior age-set) at a manyatta or traditional homestead built specifically for the ceremony near Lemek town within the Masai-Mara National Reserve ecosystem in Narok county February 27, 2021. (Photo by Tony Karumba/AFP Photo)

A woman dressed in traditional costumes jumps over a bonfire to commemorate the day of Santa Agueda in Andavias, Spain, on February 6, 2022. In the province of Zamora it is quite a tradition, the women take over the city and the towns to gain control in the province, the councils give them the batons as a sign of authority, they celebrate around 7 days of festivity where they dance, eat, live the festival and honor Santa Agueda. (Photo by Manuel Balles/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Mariam Emad from Parkour Egypt “PKE” practices her parkour skills around buildings on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt on July 20, 2018. A group of Egyptian women gather at an abandoned park in a Cairo suburb once a week, climbing walls and jumping around in the strenuous physical discipline known as Parkour, while also challenging the country's conservative social norms. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

A monkey carrying a puppy are seen around the park in Dhaka, Bangladesh on November 11, 2022. A monkey was spotted carrying a puppy around the park. The monkey also carried the puppy on its lap and was seen jumping from a tree's branches. Even though monkeys and dogs do not necessarily bond, a different animal friendly relationship was seen in Dhaka. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Turkana tribesmen walk with guns in order to protect their cattle from rival Pokot and Sambur tribesmen near Baragoy, Kenya February 14, 2017. Cattle rustling and competition for grazing have long troubled northern Kenya, but severe drought and political rivalries ahead of the elections have exacerbated the situation between ethnic tribes. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Participants perform a dragon dance as they march during a lantern parade marking the start of a month- long “Lotus Lantern Festival” to celebrate the upcoming Buddha' s birthday, in Seoul on April 29, 2017 Buddha' s birthday falls on May 3. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)