Insects

Apr132016

Mile High Dragons

Howdy everyone!  Seems like it has been ages since my last post, but that is likely due to the extra high output over the last couple of months leading up to the last post.  One of the reasons for the delay was taking some time to work up another non-birding post – kind of a theme this month and figured I would keep it going at least one more post.  Not sure how much longer I can hold out on the birds though, developing a horrible twitch from the withdrawal hehehe.

Dragonfly at Denver Botanical Gardens May 2015

The good news is my brother and I were able to bird last Saturday up at Chain O’ Lakes State Park.  We took a 6 hour hike starting at 9am and then caught an hour or so after catching a bite to eat.  Unfortunately, it was pretty damn cold out with the temps dropping down to 23 the night before with a healthy dose of snow and sleet to accompany us on the drive up.  On the positive side, we had a dry day with plenty of sunshine that brought out a lot of birds for us to shoot.  I’ll catch you up on the day’s tin loading at another time but it is highly likely there was at least a +1 for each of us that day – Yeah!

Dragonfly at Denver Botanical Gardens May 2015

Hit the jump to read the rest of the post!

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Nov222014

Bugging Out

And now for something complete different.  Thought it was time to switch it up a little on the Blog and probably more of a driver to finally get a collection from the small world out of my queue.  This is one of those posts that makes me cringe through the entire process.  First, taking the actual picture puts you waaaay to close to these creatures.  Second, processing them forces you to zoom even closer into the shots to check crispiness and worst of all, researching what it is we are staring out gives me a serious case of the heebee jeebees.  Taking that lead.. here’s a bee
Small World

An immediate confession is needed here.  I suck at identifying insects and arachnids so be forewarned, I’m going to leave you hanging on some of these but most of the time I should be able to get you close.  In this particular situation close means I can identify the subject as a member of the bee family, but much more than that would be a stretch.  If threatened with waterboarding I’d take a guess that it is a Common Eastern Bubble Bee based on numerous reference shots.  On the learning side, that beige blob on the hind leg of the bee is called a Pollen Basket where the Bee places pollen grains (who’d a thought) in for the trip back to the hive.

Next up one I probably owe a HUGE apology to.   I believe this is a Big Dipper Firefly or more commonly referred to in my neck of the woods, the Lightening Bug.

Small World

The Insect Identification website (link here) makes a point to mention how harmless these creatures are and how you should never put them in a jar because it stresses them.  The good news I didn’t STRESS them by putting them in a jar.  Nope I basically slaughtered them by the thousands when I was growing with a yellow wiffleball bat.  Literally thousands if not millions.  Midwest kids are generally damn good baseball hitters for what I believe is due to the bioluminescence of these bugs — err more correctly “beetles” posses.  Every Summer night we were out in the dark smacking the hell out of them with our bats (or tennis racquets if that happens to be your sport) in order to watch the chemical light show splatter into the darkness from a well place swing.  If you can nail a lightening bug in the dark you can hit a giant baseball with ease.

Small World

I can still remember putting the bat away at the end of the night and it still glowing brightly from the night’s home runs.  It may not have been eco-friendly but it kept us from planning more devious activities.

Hit the jump to see bunch more insects collected since my last bug post.

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Oct182014

Project: The Rise of Thanatos

I’m back with another new addition to the Halloween Haunted Trail!  Surprised I can still function after writing the last post on a Killer Clown shudder (link here).  While I was on the subject of Halloween decorations figured it made sense to go ahead and post about the other decoration that consumed all my spare time leading up to our party.  I have to give Pinterest a little bit of credit on this one since someone had pinned a picture of a Grim Reaper decoration.  There wasn’t any instructions with it and it really appeared to be more of a professional prop than a DIY.  That picture sparked an idea of creating something similarly themed.

2014 Halloween Decoration - Grim Reaper

What do you think?  I basically leveraged some of the clown structure ideas but the bulk of the frame was a lot simpler.  Linda slipped a bit on standards for her decoration night shots and ended up clipping the right eye on although it does look pretty sinister – just know that it does indeed have two glowing eyes.  It is also pretty tall – forgot to measure it before I put it away, but it is up there!

2014 Halloween Decoration - Grim Reaper

Like last time, hit the jump if you want to see how this was designed and constructed

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Aug102014

That's No Bat

Today was a momentous occasion of sorts.  On the morning schedule was a long run as I’m in the final month of training for the upcoming IVS Half Marathon.  There was a little bit of apprehension  due to the planned distance – 11 miles.  Normally that wouldn’t be too daunting, but this distance holds new meaning for me now – this is the distance covered the day I received a cold trip to the emergency room (link here).  Since that day, the most I’ve subjected myself to was 9 miles.  Based on the weeks left before raceday, it was now time to pass that hurdle.  As you can tell by the creation of this post, that distance is once again MINE.  Truth be told it was pretty cool at the start (but it definitely warmed up at the end) and the last two miles were a bit of a struggle, but none the less, it’s 11 miles in the book.  Only two more miles to go to the required distance and barring any unforeseen issues that should not be a problem!  To celebrate, thought I’d crank out a quick post.  The good news is I’ve now completed processing all the shoots up to January ’13 so there is plenty of fodder for the blog – the bad news is I’ve now ONLY completed all the shoots up to January ’13.  You just might be getting some bonus entries in the coming months and thinking at the moment I’ll be jumping ahead to some recent shoots because I really want to show you some of those as soon as possible.  Until then I give you this!

This was actually a print submitted for the UB competition (link here) and ended up taking a blue ribbon in the insect category.  Surprisingly, I didn’t find any Butterflies in a quick search of this blog. I could have sworn I’ve featured these beautiful creatures before, especially since these are my third go-to subjects when out in the field – first birds, then dragonflies and then off to find some flowers in hopes of capturing some colorful prints to hang on the wall.  I may have to go back and search again – still can’t believe there hasn’t been in previous postings .. sigh.

These particular shots were taken at Jubilee Park while testing out a borrowed 70-200 2.8 VR glass.  We were trying to decide if we wanted to upgrade from our older model workhorse.  Based on the results from this set we ended up doing just that!

Hit the jump to find out what kind of Butterfly this is (maybe) and see some additional shots

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Jun302014

A Date with Eight

Now this is what I call cutting in close.  The last day of the month and I officially have one post to go.  If you recall from the last post there wasn’t much concern about hitting the monthly quota being it dog show weekend with plenty of down time to crank the required two out.  When Sunday came I figured it would be easier to just post one from home rather than drag the hotspot and computer out again.  In hindsight that was probably not the best decision of the day .. although I can DEFINITELY say that was not the WORST decision of the day.  There was also a long run on the agenda but still left plenty of time for a post … well, there was suppose to be enough time but there was an “incident” after the run that preempted any further activities that night.  The details might come out in a future post, but for now let’s just say that this kid was able to meet a number of under appreciated individuals in the emergency medical arena.

Which brings us to today scrambling to get a post out to end the month.  Based on a quick review of the upcoming blog topics it was clear that you are about to get hit with a crap load of birds from our many birding shoots we’ve been on over the past year or so.  As a relief from that barrage, figured it would be a good time to get a new set of our eight legged friends out.  The pictures have been processed for awhile now, but often creeps me out enough to opt for another topic.  As punishment for what may have been a bad decision yesterday, we bring you these:

A few of my friends are deathly afraid of spiders so a warning was probably in order.  The odd thing is they have no problem with clowns which is clearly something fundamentally wrong with their mental state.  I’ll lay down with tarantulas before letting a clown get within 50 feet of me.  This particular set of arachnids came from a day out with the Macro glass.  If you want to get out and be personal with the miniature wildlife, there is nothing better than heading out in the woods with a camera and tight focus glass.  Warning, you might not be comfortable with what you find!

When out exploring the wild the focus is on capturing unique inhabitants without impacting the subjects day to day life.  That philosophy cost me a front shot of this particular spider since the only way to do that would be to jeopardize the webbing.  It was also feeding and didn’t want it to lose a meal (granted, this might have been frowned upon by the victim).  From a coolness perspective, this spidey is near the tops.  Not only does it have a stunning color palette, but has unique features like the horns and the web funnel.  Based on some quick searches of the web, it was decided that this specimen is a Micrathena Sagittata or more commonly referred to as an Arrowshaped Micrathena.  According to Spiders.US (link here) this is a mature female.  They have eight eyes and each of the legs end with three claws.  If you didn’t already figure it out, Sagittata is Latin for Arrowed which accurately describes the shape of the body (Micrathena is for the Greek small Athena – who wore armor) .  True to where this spider was found it builds the web close to the ground (less than two feet off the ground – clearly effective based on the creature it was chomping on.  They have about a year lifespan and the site indicated they die at the first hard frost.

Hit the jump to read about some other spiders that were captured that day

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Apr092014

It's a Darner but Darned if I Know Which

Thanks to hurting my foot yesterday, I’m trying to stay off of it as much as I can.  Bad for me, but good for my blog fans because this means a few more opportunities to get some posts out.  Yesterday’s entry focused on one of the many inhabitants in/around our local ponds.  Keeping with that theme, figured I’d go ahead and throw out another member of the pond community – the Dragonfly.

I have been amassing quite the dragonfly collection and a number of them have been featured in various posts (link here, here, here and here).  I know for a fact there are a few more I was able to get in the tin while out in the Nevada mountains.   I’ve stated this in about every single post on these insects but it is ALWAYS a given – identifying these often colorful winged creatures is damn near impossible.  I firmly believe this is more of an issue with the reference tools available on the web (and iPad) than it is a general comment about identification.  Every site that could be located by Google was scoured for any identifying features that would properly classify this dragonfly.   Clearly it has light blue markings on a deep purple base.  A very nice palette by the way if you are looking for a team color scheme.  It also has the unique club/tendril end to the abdomen that one would think is sufficient to track it down.  Of course, that would be just too easy now wouldn’t it.  About the only thing that could really be said with some certainty is you are likely staring at a Darner.  That is all fine and dandy, but WHICH ONE!

It did help to be able to focus on the Darner group but the web kept offering up conflicting images or bad descriptions and or photos.

The Bug Guide offered up this example of a Variable Darner (link here).  The color match is pretty close at least on the turquoise side, but doesn’t really have the deep purple look in the base.   The Dragonfly Whisperer actually provided a nice comparison of two potential dragonflies – particularly one he calls the Happy Face Darner (Paddle Tailed Darner) and the other being a Shadow Darner (link here).  Based on that information the best candidate appears to be the Shadow Darner.    Not to be outdone, the Land that Ugly Forgot (link here) which simply refers to it as a blue dragonfly – not exactly the most helpful reference but some nice pictures none the less (note, I have that red one in the tin as well).  Steve Rottenborn (link here) had a sample of Variable Darners but again it looks like the Happy Face ones from above as well as the previous Variable reference – see, I told you it was hard.    Next up the New Jersey Dragonfly site (link here) which offers up a Canada Darner that doesn’t look that far off from the Variables.  Ugh.  Not to be out done, the Sonic site (link here) refer to a similar looking examples as .. wait for it … California Darners – looks like a Variable to me!  Since we are on a role, how about some more Variables at the Utah site (link here).

Let’s take another look at mine.

Personally, the Shadow Darner seems to be the closest match.  Not emotionally tied to that decision in any way beyond having spent a heck of a lot of time trying to track it down.  Does look like the all red one I have is going to be easier to identify once those get processed in .. say about 6 to 8 months.  That’s all for now folks – getting warm out now so see you at the pond!

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Mar062014

That Ain't No Fish

Having just committed myself to another Half Marathon thought it would be good to get a post out before training takes over ALL my free time.  This will be the earliest in the race season I’ve run this distance.  Usually I build over the course of the season starting with the 5Ker’s moving to the 15K, back to the 7mi and THEN prepare for the final two halfs of the year.  Decided to short change that process a little and simply start with the 13.1.  No, I didn’t go crazy – umm, that may be up for debate.  Regardless, there is a reason and we’ll leave it at that.  The downside is it means there wasn’t really an off season this year as I continued to run through the winter months (yes, even outside when the temps actually got about 20).  Hoping the body holds together!

Oops, enough about my self-inflicted torture, let’s get to the post shall we.

I almost titled this post as Live and Let Die but that will make more sense later in the post.  Thought it would be fun to fall back on the memories when Globull Warming allowed me to go outside and spend time on the porch for more than 3 minutes at a time.  Take a look at this find

Creeeeepy.  I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve seen such a creature.  Definite concerns as to whether it could inflict harm on me or not.  It was definitely scary looking with the wings folded, but when I saw it with the wings spread I took an extra step back and got my wits before going in with the Macro again – looking through that glass puts you right up close and personal.

Hit the jump unless you don’t want to see the up close shots (but at least you’ll learn what it is!)

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Feb112014

12 Spots Check – That Was Easy … Ugh

Since I am a glutton for pain, figured I might as well make it two dragons in a row.  If you recall from the last post (link here), the pain part comes during the identification process.  In truth, they are such fun to photograph that the effort to identify them is a small price to pay.  If you can get them to stand still long enough you can usually pull of pretty impressive shots.

These dragonflies were also taken at the Jubilee State Park pond on one of those days when the birds decided to stay indoors in the cool air conditioning.  Never want to waste a day out in the field so anything with wings will due.  Case in point the two dragons featured here.  This particular shot .. which you will notice produced the two following shots .. came out nice from a texture perspective.  You kind of lose it from the base shot, but when you zoom in a bit it really produces a nice overall effect – not to mention the color palette with the dragon coordinated quite well.

So this is where it became interesting.  The obvious characteristic is the wing spots.  The body is a common brown and the eyes are not as unique as the previous Dragonhunter.  However, the fact that both of these have exactly 12 spots on their transparent wings was enough to go hunting on the web.  That hunt produced results immediately.  Turns out there is a Dragonfly named Twelve-Spotted Skimmer.  Taking you way back, a Widow Skimmer had made its presence known on the blog before (link here).  The first reference link was the Montana Field Guide (link here).  Their reference image was a little troubling in that it had white spots on the wings along with the darker spots.  As you can see, my specimen had nothing of the sort – just black spots.  That just means another validation with or friends over at Wikipedia (link here).  That produced a similar image labeled the male, however, they had another reference shot of the female and NO WHITE SPOTS!

Hit the jump to see some pics of the male .. and just maybe a correction.

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Feb102014

Fly Dragonhunter Fly

Thought I’d go with a Dragonfly post for today since I’m still trying to give you a break from the barrage of birds you had to put up with last month.  Trust me, there are plenty more to come from our feathered friends but in due time.  Until then, let’s take a look at a subject that has a tendency to drive me completely bonkers when trying to identify them.

You would think that a creature with so many unique colors and distinct features would be a breeze when it comes to determining what it is.   Instead, I liken it to trying to trying to identify a specific type of Sparrow.  Countless hours are spent interrogating the web for any clear cut way to label them.   Too bad I can’t show you the number of tabs I have open on my browser right now – there must be close to thirty of them in all each providing  a close reference shot or pointing to a guided ID site.  Pretty sure this is the same troubles I had with identifying the previous set of Dragonflies (link here).  Guessing I gave up then since there was no identification there.  It was a different Dragonfly for sure so that would not have helped me much. My consensus at this time from all the references is this creature is a Dragonhunter.  Greg Lasley’s site (link here) had a sample which comes pretty close.  The coloring in his showed definite yellow on the bottom – hoping it is just the angle that makes mine look a little darker.

Then there is the problem with apparently everyone making up their own names for them.  I first found the Insect Identification site which referred to them as Western Flying Adder (link here).  Based on that I was searching high and low for a Western Flying Addr which just produced a bunch of snakes until I found a reference on What’s That Bug site where the moderator calls into question the name (link here).  Then we have the Illinois Butterfly site (link here) that has a similar picture that is labeled as an Arrowhead Spiketail.  This prompted an hour of tracking down that name until I took a close look at the yellow markings on the top of the body near the head and decided that was different.  Oh and of course on the same website they have a picture of a Lancet Clubtail (link here) which looks damn close as well.  Sigh, why is this so hard?  Decided to spend some more time there and did find their specimen for a Dragonhunter (link here). which again looks like the best reference.  A quick check of our friends over at Wikipedia list the Dragonhunter and then state is is sometime called a Black Clubtail or a Black Dragon.  Unbelievable.  I will say the region map at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (link here) was pretty sparse in our area, but unless someone has other opinions I’m going with the Dragonhunter Dragonfly.  A pretty cool name actually.

Talk about work.  If they weren’t so cool to photograph I’d probably just throw in the towel and focus on the frogs at the pond instead.

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Nov102012

The Good and the Bad of Big Glass Depth of Field

Greetings all! I am finally getting back on my feet after the month from hell. Once all the adrenaline and excitement wore off from the race and party I started realizing what a toll it all took on my body. Even with my customary week off relaxing (yep, no running, and no work on Project Auuunoold) I still couldn’t shake the aches and pains. The next week started and I was beginning to get concerned. Figured I’d start the rebuilding process this week … back on the core to get the body fixed up and stretched and a little biking for cardio is starting to work their magic. Still not ready to run yet but due time, due time. In the meantime, thought I’d toss out a quick post.

Tonight’s topic is that very tricky subject of Depth of Field (DoF). To be honest, this is one of those photography topics I am trying to get a better understanding of – primarily because I’m constantly fighting it out in the field especially with the Beast. My quick and dirty definition of DoF is the measurement of how much distance will be in focus (sharp) for a given set of exposure, glass and camera specs. I still have a lot of learning to do on this subject so there will not be any expert advice here – I’ll certainly come back on this subject once I get read up on it some more. The good, or the bad depending on your point of view, is that you can see the effect pretty easily.

Take a look at some shots from a shoot Linda and I took back in July. We were out at Jubilee and due to lack of birds was spending my time on anything else I could find that had wings.

So there I was with my standard birding setup which consists of the Beast (200-400mm) coupled with the 1.4 Tele on the D7000 (1.5 crop sensor).  These shots were taken at around the 3.6 to 3.8 m range hand held… and people wonder why I continually workout.  These dragonflies were all over the place darting to and fro so I decided to get a little small subject focusing practice in.  When the subject is smaller than the central focus region, the glass tends to walk a lot, especially the long glass.  So there I stood happily shooting away.  That happiness lasted until I got home and started assessing the output.  Notice anything glaring wrong with the first shot?

The right wings are nice and crispy, but what the hell is up with the left side?  Was that particular wing moving at the time … doubtful, they tend to move both sets of wings in unison from what I have experienced and the 16oo ISO would have compensated for that anyway.  The problem is in the focus parameters.   My depth of field is not encompassing the full thickness of the subject.

I was fighting the glass to keep it on target and firing away on fast multi-shot so there were plenty of other examples to explore.  Hit the jump to see more examples of DoF.

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