The Cormorant, the Dragonfly, and the Bee: insects

Showing posts with label insects. Show all posts

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Creatures Among Us

Here's a small sampling of creatures seen in our yard. While we go about our daily business, so do they.

I wonder if this creature likes crocosmia as much as I do?

Explorer

When reviewing my shots I found four that were similar but had slightly different areas of this next insect that were in focus, so I decided to try a focus stack, even though that wasn't the original intent of the series. Near 1:1 macro shots always have an extremely narrow depth of field. Focus stacking, when successful, manages to get more of the subject in focus.

King of the Hill

I spotted this next long legged friend while eating my lunch outdoors. After taking only this one photo, it jumped away.

Railing Jumper

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Warning: Sci-Fi Dragonfly

Seriously, if you are currently eating or just finished eating, *do not* look at these images. They are extremely graphic:) They look like frames you might see in a Science Fiction movie, except that they are the real deal.

I used my macro lens exclusively today which allows up to true 1:1 magnification. That has a very technical meaning in the photography world: it means the size of the object is the same size on the camera's sensor.

This dragonfly didn't mind me pushing a lens near his face at all. I think he kind of liked it. He sat quietly on a deck railing, and either didn't move much or briefly flew, then returned to almost the exact same spot.

All these shots are handheld. Remember, the macro lens at close focus has an extremely narrow depth of field: much less than 1 mm. To keep things in perspective, the dragonfly in all the photos below is only about an inch long.

Note the same single spot of orangey color on the front tip of each of his four wings:

The Whole Dragonfly

Check Out Those Full Lips

Showing a bit of five o'clock shadow, but in any case, he was looking *right at me*; I'm sure of it.

Two Eyes Plus a Third Eye

Looking from behind him, his head and eyes appear like a helmet, with a special hairy fringe:

Do You Think He Washes Behind His Ears?

Oh The Burden of These Heavy Wings

Hungry Dragonfly

Sorry this next shot wasn't fully in focus. But maybe that's a good thing, because really you don't want to look at it for too long...

Bug Delicacy Going Down

Just Finishing Up a Yummy Bug; and Showing Off His Muscular Abdomen

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

A Summer Day

Today's post contains all pictures taken today, a typical summer day for me. I began with a walk around the reservoir, capturing some Queen Anne's Lace, yet again, this time with some wonderfully colored insects visiting, followed by several shots in the garden and other photos taken during our walk around the neighborhood later in the day. This was an overcast day, without bright sun.

This is a photo of water only!

Branch Reflections

Colorful Visitor and Tiny Friend

Black and White Stripes With Reddish Brown Translucent Wings

One of my favorites:

Pure Queen Anne's Lace

Masterful Design

The next three photos are of our Crocosmia in our front yard. Very tropical!

Depth of Field Demonstration

Fine Color and Stucture

Lollipops

Busy Center

Here's a tighter crop on the same photo:

Central Nervous System

Athletic Neighbor Having Fun

I once heard a news story that black dogs are less likely to be selected from shelters because they don't photograph well! Absurd, wouldn't you agree?

Well Behaved Friend

Late day light was still good enough to show us this local color.

Delicate Display

A closer crop:

Little Skis in the Air

Sunsets don't have to be red to be enjoyable.

Evening Sky to End the Day

Monday, July 6, 2015

Before and After

Generally speaking, I usually keep my post processing to a minimum, and share images little changed from their "out of the camera" version. Mostly I'll adjust a few Lightroom sliders to improve the dynamic range and/or contrast of an image to give a little more punch, but I try not to go too crazy.

Just for fun, here's an image I took in a skateboard park, before I decided to modify it in Photoshop. I rarely use Photoshop, and I did only a mediocre job with it here, but it is amusing what I was able to do.

Skilled Skateboarder Performing a Trick

I wasn't happy with the way the bicycle rider's head was directly behind the skateboarder's hand. And this was after I defocused the bicyclist's upper torso and head slightly in Lightroom. So I round tripped from Lightroom into Photoshop and back and here's what I came up with:

A "Cleaner" Trick; The Cyclist Has Vanished

Here's an instance where I liked the "Before" shot composition just fine, but wanted to create another perspective with a different emphasis for variation:

Beetle and Flower

Here's the second version, created in Lightroom by simply rotating and cropping closer. This version is more about the beetle than the flower.

Beetle Displaying its Colors and Texture

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Blog Title Theme Revisited

How about some more cormorants, dragonflies, and bees?

For cormorants, we have this capture:

Daily Neck Exercises

For dragonflies, here are a few new specimens:

Not your Regular House Fly

Silvery Wings with Shadows

I have *lots* of bee pictures. It was a challenge to select just a few to show here. These are three of my recent favorites:

Bee Nestling In

Defying Gravity

The Orange Butterfly Plant Attracts Many Bees

While not officially part of the blog theme title, a cicada paid us a visit today, and since cicadas have incredible detail when viewed through a macro lens, I thought I'd share what I saw:

Front Portion of Cicada

Rear Portion of Cicada

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Afternoon Variety

After walking around the Res. and frustratingly taking no pictures because nothing seemed photo worthy, I returned home and took all these pictures from afternoon through late late afternoon.

All pictures in this post taken with my Olympus 75-300mm lens. For non-photographers, this is a telephoto zoom lens, not a macro lens; so I had to stand a short distance away to take the closeups. All handheld. All pictures are uploaded with a max dimension of 1000px.