To start things off - I have NOT photoshopped any of these features onto the abdomen of this spider - I was very careful to process the photos as naturally and subtly as possible so I wouldn't give a false impression to the viewer. If anything, I've gone a bit light on the processing, the "face-like" appearance was even stronger and more prominent to my eyes - it was hard to capture these subtleties with a camera flash!

This first image here is actually a composite of two stills from a short video I took of the spider. These were taken in natural light and give (in my opinion) the best representation of how the spider actually looked to the naked eye. This is the location where I first spotted the spider - on the side of a railing on my back porch.

Anyone know the species (or at least genus) of this little spider? I am completely stumped - I've seen a few similar orb-weavers, but nothing quite like this!