El Alacran was easy for me to shoot.  But not with a price!  All of these Loteria images I am producing have a price of one sort of another.  My friend Warren Savary and fellow photographer has given me great insight into the world of scorpions.  For years I have watched in wonder at the images he can produce of scorpions.  I purchased this scorpion at the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, California.  I paid about $25 for this Arizona Desert Hair Scorpion (Hadrurus arizonae).  My kids were thrilled at having this animal as a pet after I was done with it.  

The shot was done in my studio using an Alien Bees ring flash on white paper and three Alien Bees 800s to get rid of any shadows.  I used the Canon 5D MKII and a Canon 50 mm Macro lens for this image.  However, in the process of getting the scorpion in the position like the original Loteria image, I was stung.  And the true price I paid for this image, which felt like a bee sting.  After I kept it for about 5 months and it ate nothing, gave birth to its young and then ate them, soon thereafter it died.