I was looking at a tiny pond appple tree at the waters edge, photographing citrus fruit-piercer moth caterpillars, and I saw one being eaten by a spider like this one. The spider, prey in hand, or mouth, or chelicerae, jumped off the leaf and vanished into the thick tangle of waterside plants. I spent quite a while looking for it, but gave up and went for a photo of another spider I found nearby that looked just like it. That spider was extremely shy too; it jumped off the leaf and scurried off after I disturbed it. I kept looking, and found another:

I was more careful to get a photo from a distance, which was much easier since the black and white fuzzy spider was on a very tall blade of some sort of marsh grass. Of course, it was on the other side of the blade...

The spider turned to peek at me, and as usual for these spiders, departed immediately. At least this time, it walked instead of leaping away.

These fuzzy black and white spiders might be Phidippus regius. If I ever get brave enough (and quick enough) to grab one, we'll see. Don't count on that happening soon.

Update: I didn't get brave enough to grab it, but I did go back out and search that baby pond apple tree again. The spider was there, and I got a few more pictures, enough to say that now I really do think it's a Regal Jumping Spider, Phidippus regius.

I didn't get brave enough to grab it, but I did hold my hand out with my thumb around the tiny tree trunk hoping to keep the spider up where I had a chance of keeping it in sight. I snapped a few pictures, and it jumped right onto my fingertip, then immediately off into the thick plants again.

Now that I've found my regal jumpers, and I know where they live, I'll check on them from time to time to see if I can sneak up on one for better pictures.