“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)

Festival goers kiss in the “Silent Disco” at the “Music in the Park” stage during the 50th Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, July 9, 2016. (Photo by Anthony Anex/EPA)

2016 Rio Olympics, Weightlifting, Final, Women's 63kg, Riocentro, Pavilion 2, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 9, 2016. Marina Rodriguez (CUB) of Cuba competes. (Photo by Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)

2017 Paraguay-Bolivia-Argentina Dakar rally, 39th Dakar Edition, Seventh stage from Oruro to Uyuni, Bolivia on January 9, 2017. Juan Salvatierra of Bolivia rides his KTM. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

Members of a comparsa, a Uruguayan carnival group, dance during the Llamadas parade, a street fiesta with traditional Afro-Uruguayan roots in Montevideo February 9, 2017. (Photo by Andres Stapff/Reuters)

Girls play in the water during the Balaton Sound music festival held on the shore of lake Balaton in Zamardi, west Hungary, on July 9, 2017. (Photo by Sandor Csudai/Rockstar Photographers)

Performer from the Mangueira samba school parades during carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, February 9, 2016. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

A boy works on a car in Babi Kouakou's car repair garage in Bouake, Ivory Coast February 9, 2016. Babi specialises in restoring old cars. (Photo by Thierry Gouegnon/Reuters)