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... and then the speckled bush-cricket trudges down.... 😊
Photography on his back ... at the level of the world of insects, the perspectives become different and the world so much bigger... like a flower feels as tall as a tree... 😄 is it perhaps down there that we adults have left behind our childish minds?
Regardless, the childish mind and soul are so much younger than this frail body they shelter in and it is noticeable when this clumsy photographer is about to get up... there is a creaking, creaking and snapping alarmingly in the joints and muscles that the old body seems to have forgotten exist... 😂
Here is a spider that's not a spider. It's Petrophila jaliscalis, a jumping-spider-mimicking moth - see the face-on spider pattern, with orange legs and sparkly dark eyes? I love finding these small moths every year around my house - I think they breed in my small goldfish pond, because the caterpillars are aquatic.
Overcast skies and intermittent light rain setup the perfect conditions to go looking for a lethargic critter to photograph. This semi-active Sweat Bee was a fun subject to shoot. When it stopped moving I'd look for a magic angle that would make the most out of what little depth is in the scene.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/125, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (around 2x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, 0 FEC, second curtain sync). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held.
This caterpillar wasn't sitting still, and I'm trying to get better at tracking moving subjects with the view finder. Kinda surprised my delete key has any text left on it...
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (over 3x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC, second curtain sync). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. I'm holding on to the stem of the plant with my left hand, and resting the lens on that same hand to keep the scene steady.
The collective name for ladybirds is the Coccinellidae, which has its origins in the Latin word coccineus meaning ‘scarlet’. The word ‘Ladybird’ is thought to have been inspired by early images of the Virgin Mary who would appear wearing a red cloak. Other colloquial names include ‘Ladybug’ (particularly common in America) and ‘Ladycow’.
The number of spots on a ladybird indicates what species it belongs to, not, as commonly believed, how old it is. To identify the ladybird species accurately, the colour and number of spots needs to be taken into consideration.
I shot this female Scolia hirta wasp as it was climbing onto a Dandelion. Cool, partly cloudy, weather made for some really good shooting conditions. Image taken in Lago Patria, Italy in November of 2021.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F13, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (set to 2x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT, E-TTL metering, -2/3 FEC. This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Sharpen AI and Clarity in that order.
Common Darter #Dragonfly at #wickenfen in Cambridgeshire 1st October 2022
#commondarter #dragonflies #dragonflyphotography #reddragonfly #cambridgeshire #insectphotography #wildlifephotography #naturephotography #nature #cambridgeshirephotographer #wicken #fen #fenwildlife#fens #fenlife
I'm pretty sure this is a variety of Heliconian butterfly, they do a lot of genetic experiments at Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, Florida.
📷 Camera: Nikon D3200
⚡ Flash: Godox V350n
⛅ Diffuser: #cygnustechdiffuser
🔎 Lens: Pentax 50mm f/2 (reversed)
⚙️ Settings: 1/200s, f/15, ISO 100
🎯 Single shot
In the absence of other water sources Honeybees will collect the dew that builds up between rose petals. Crab Spiders use those same rose petals as hunting blinds while they wait for unsuspecting foragers.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (1x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI and Clarity in that order.
Potato capsid bugs, while not always causing major damage, have a few unusual characteristics. They belong to the largest family of true bugs, Miridae, with over 10,000 known species. Despite their name, they are not restricted to potatoes and can be found on various plants, including nettles, clovers, and even cannabis. Adults can change color from green to reddish-brown as they mature, and they have a distinctive diamond pattern on their backs when their wings are folded.
Have you ever gotten a birthday card full of glitter that got all over everything? That's how this beetle feels. (Buprestid beetle, I think Acmaeodera sp.; Anza-Borrego Desert, California)
Hier habe ich eine Gemeine Becherjungfer gefunden die gerade Ihre Beute verspeist 💯👍👌
Auf dem Bild hat sich noch eine kleine Fliege drauf geschlichen. 😄
Shooting a hyperactive beetle feeding on Poppy pollen is probably the most technically challenging macro photography that I've done to date. Lots of deleted frames.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/125, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (about 2.5x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT with a Kaiser adjustable flash shoe on the "A" head (the key), E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC, second curtain sync). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held.
This hoverfly was sitting on a dandelion at the edge of the path. Because it had previously ‘dived’ completely into the dandelion, it is completely covered in pollen.
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I was photographing at a new place when i saw this beautiful hoverfly on the flower with water droplets. I saw the beautiful attempt, so i took my shots and got this!
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Species: Chequered hoverfly, slanke driehoekszweefvlieg (melanostoma scalare)
Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.
~Dale Carnegie
Normally I try to make the critters that I photograph look cute and cuddly. But I'm not sure that's possible when shooting a portrait of a Mammoth Wasp (Megascolia maculata), the largest wasp in Europe. This female was foraging for nectar in my Sunflowers so I injected Agave nectar into one of them to give her a reason to let me get close. She lays her eggs on European rhinoceros beetle larva, and we have them in my yard.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F14, 1/250, ISO 200) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (over 1x) + a diffused MT-26EX RT (E-TTL metering). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Clarity in that order.
A tiny male crab spider, (Mecaphesa sp.?), who has caught what looks to be a plump little mirid plant bug. Both spider and bug are about 4 mm. long. I liked how the flower structures echoed the spider's bristly legs. (Montana)
Perhaps flowers do speak.
Perhaps they whisper their stories to those who know how to listen.
On a quiet green afternoon, a little butterfly came to rest beside a tiny yellow bloom. There was no urgency in the meeting, no audience, no grand occasion.
Just two delicate lives sharing a moment beneath the shelter of leaves.
The flower spoke of sunlight.
The butterfly answered with the language of wings.
And around them, the green world remained perfectly still—as though every leaf had agreed to keep their conversation a secret.
We often search for beauty in grand landscapes, distant horizons and magnificent places.
Yet sometimes, beauty hides much closer.
In a tiny flower.
In fragile wings.
In a silent conversation that lasts only a few seconds…
and leaves behind a feeling that lasts much longer.
Happy World Bee Day – here is a favorite, the death camas mining bee, Andrena astragali, on its namesake toxic flower, death camas (Toxicoscordion sp.). Only a few generalist insects can tolerate the toxic nectar & pollen from this plant, but this little bee, half the size of a honeybee, specializes it it. Some of us like our food spicy. (Montana)
He is a tiny traveler.
He walks quietly through an enormous green world,
sometimes pausing, sometimes wandering,
and sometimes spreading his little wings
to fly beyond the horizon of his leafy road.
But today, he chooses to walk.
And as he walks,
he listens.
The green world speaks to him in whispers—
through the trembling leaves,
through the fragrance of the earth,
through the coolness of morning,
and through tiny droplets of water
left behind like jewels along his journey.
Sometimes, he discovers a place so beautiful
that he simply refuses to leave.
Perhaps, in those moments,
the droplets become his little lakes,
the leaves become his mountains,
and the green horizon becomes a world without an end.
He is happy here.
Perhaps the green world is happy too.
And perhaps, somewhere beneath that happiness,
there are conversations we cannot hear.
Perhaps the green world tells him
of the forests that disappeared,
of the trees that once stood tall
and now exist only in memory.
Perhaps it tells him of the wounds
left behind by a world that keeps taking
without always remembering to give.
And perhaps the little traveller has something of his own to share.
Perhaps he tells the green world
about the heat rising around him,
about the warming air,
about a changing world
that even the smallest creatures can no longer ignore.
Neither speaks in words.
Yet somehow, they understand each other.
They exchange their joys.
They exchange their grievances.
They exchange their silence.
And then, for a while,
there is no human world,
no machinery,
no concrete,
no boundaries between one life and another.
There is only a tiny traveller,
a green world,
a few sparkling droplets,
and a quiet conversation
between two forms of life
that were never meant to exist apart.
Perhaps this is what nature has always been trying to tell us—
that every journey through the green world is not merely a journey across nature,
but a conversation with it.
And if we learn to listen before the green world falls silent,
perhaps one day we too may discover
that the greatest journey of all
is not the journey through the world—
but the journey back into harmony with it.
Not sure what this Caterpillar will turn into. Seems to like to eat the stamen in my flowers.
Tech Specs: Canon 80D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (2x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT (E-TTL metering, -1/3 FEC). This is a single, uncropped, frame taken hand held.
The European Wool Carder Bees are back. I found this male sleeping in my Lavender last night and photographed him this morning. It's too warm, even at 5:30 AM, so he only gave me a minute or two before he woke up.
Tech Specs: Canon 90D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (set to 2x) + a diffused MT-26EX-RT, E-TTL metering, -1 FEC). This is a single frame taken hand held. In post I used Topaz Denoise AI and Clarity in that order.