Opening Soon

I spent quite a bit of time out at Iona yesterday, photographing birds. Haven't got any of those shots ready yet (they may never be ready) so I thought I'd throw this one up instead, taken at the end of many pleasant hours in the hot sun

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Common Spider

One of the things about letting a long time go by between posts is that when I finally get back to take another look at shots from a week or two back, I usually decide that I don't want to post them after all.

Which means no more Cement Plant pictures. Or at least not for now.

In the meantime, it's been a while since I posted a bug/insect, and I like this one. It was captured early this morning and was a fair bit easier than most of the bugs I've posted here as it was huge, so I didn't have to get quite as close in order to fill up the frame (and consequently, achieved a much better depth of field).

The entomologists out there will point out that arachnids aren't actually insects, but we'll ignore them and count this as a bug photo.

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Winged Green Bug

Another day, another bug.

I have no idea what kind of bug this is. Well, that's not true. It's the green bodied, blue-orange eyed kind, though you might not be able to see the orange in the eyes at this resolution.

More importantly, it's the kind that stayed still while I got close with the camera (which is why it's such a sharp shot).

If it had landed on a green branch instead of this dead scotch broom twig I'd have never even seen it.

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Thistle and Wasp

I'm starting to get a bit of a back-log of bee/wasp shots, the beginnings of a catalog of the local varieties I suppose. Not intentionally, I'm just amazed at the varieties.

This one was taken today and falls into my "green-eyed, white striped (with a faint blue tint), yellow legged, waspy" category. It's not a great shot of the wasp but is acceptable. I do, however, really like the composition of this one.

Normally when I go out to shoot bugs I wear long pants and other items which have the property of providing additional body coverage, usually without thinking about it. With the return of the sun it didn't occur to me to not wear shorts today - we've had so little sun to enjoy and I wanted to make the most of it. Not really a good idea as it turned out; I was besieged by monstrously ravenous mosquitoes and had to pick my way very carefully through ever-encroaching blackberry bramble. I swear that you can almost watch that stuff grow!

Any time I'm out shooting bugs I find I start to feel a little buggy; it's inevitable that some of the beasties will find you and crawl/land on you, and just the thought that you're standing motionless for long periods in places where there are lots of bugs that crawl over everything can get the mind playing tricks.... ugh. Today was much worse.

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Darth Vader Wasp?

Ever since I got my macro lens I've spent a lot more time actually seeing all the little bugs that fly, crawl and hop around our world. One of the things that's surprised me the most is the almost staggering variety of bees. Mostly I think that we think of wasps, bumble bees and maybe honey bees and leave it at that. I suppose that most bees can be slotted into one of these categories, but the actual number of species is bewildering.

Take this one, for example. I have no idea what type of bee it is. Maybe it's not even a bee (or wasp), but it looks like it probably belongs in that general category of bug. Nasty looking little beastie - that's a mighty long stinger coming out from its aft end. And the other end is pretty deadly too, as evidenced by the smaller black bug it's chewing on.

This shot was taken from about 8 inches away. The brown out-of-focus portion in the forground is a dead blackberry vine (for sense of scale).

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Grasshopper Greyscale

As promised/threatened, here's the second grasshopper shot. I worked on this one for quite a while, and I suppose that I'm fairly happy with the result.

I got out with the camera again today, and actually had a good day - with at least five candidates for posting, three of which are bugs, and, thankfully, two of which are not. Not all of these images will be posted, but it's nice to have something a little better to pick from for a change.

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Smile for the Camera

You'd think that being on holidays for the last three weeks that I'd have posted more than just one picture so far. You'd think.

It's not that I haven't shot anything, by any means, though not as much as I'd have expected. The poor weather in the first week is partly to blame there. I've had some vision issues to deal with as well, which is also to blame.

Much of what I've shot is of insufficient quality to post; bugs are hard to catch at close range. Either they're moving, or it's windy, or I've had too much caffeine or whatever. Even the smallest movement at the distance these pictures are taken can spoil the shot. Compensating by bumping up the ISO to get a faster shutter speed results in grain that does the same. Tough to find the bright, non-windy day, with lazy bugs, and me using the tripod (without scaring the bug away).

I did do some portraits [people!] about a week ago, but I don't think I'm going to share those here. Got a couple of nice shots, and it was a very welcome opportunity to photograph people instead of bugs, but no, I won't be posting those ones.

So, it seems, you're stuck with this guy. And probably another shot, tomorrow (or whenever I get around to posting it) of the same grasshopper, though processed in a very different way.

Sorry to say, but at the moment bugs are pretty much all that I've got on tap, so there'll likely be a few more of these to come...

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Green Bug

It rained heavily while I drove to work this morning, and it's raining again as I post this. In between, in the late afternoon, we had a couple of thoroughly satisfying hours of sunshine - the type where you say "yeah, this is what summer is supposed to be". I made use of the opportunity and spent some time down at the park, looking for bugs.

Of course I'm hoping for a lot more weather like that, as I'm only one day away from my annual 6-week vacation.

I'm not sure just exactly what type of bug this is; I was rather suprised when I spotted it as it just about blended perfectly with the surrounding vegetation. But it's a cool bug. Unlike Kermit, I suspect it finds it easy to be green

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Starring Down The Dragon

This was not taken at the same time as the last dragonfly shot. Rather, it was taken this evening at Fraser River Park where the sun was out (unlike much of the rest of Vancouver - very dark clouds were visible over the city) and the dragonfly was taking it easy lapping up the sunshine while being very tolerant of me.
I was able to ease the camera to minimum focusing distance (about 7 inches), to get this shot while making use of a handrail to steady the camera. Still not what I consider the optimum image (though it's close), but another good step on the way.

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Hairy Dragon Fly

Man, oh man, it's sure muggy today... and I thought yesterday was bad! Gonna rain tonight, give us some relief, seems odd to be hoping for rain, but hey, it's night, so it's a good time to rain. Tomorrow... well that's another matter!

Yesterday, in a bid to get a bit of a break from the muggy, I spent some time in the evening at Iona regional park, thinking that the breeze off the water would be cooling. There was no breeze, of course. At least I got some exercise, and a few pictures to boot. Not much worth posting, but it's all part of the learning experience, right?

I'd originally planned to see what birds I could capture in the sanctuary, but found my patience for that a little short, and instead spent most of my time practicing with my macro lens. It's a lot harder than you'd think... you're usually squatting or leaning in a pretty unstable position, trying not to get bit or stung, you're in shade from nearby plants as you get closer to the ground requiring longer shutter times, and there's almost no depth of field regardless of what aperture you set, and the smaller apertures are prohibited by the lack of light. I tried some shots with the flash, but the results there were disappointing - they just don't look right. At the moment I don't know if anything else from yesterday will make it here, I've still got a couple of shots to work on but it's not looking promising at the moment.

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