The birds, the bees, and Japanese beetles

While hoofing it around Seal Harbor, Maine, I happened upon a compact scene that definitely called for a macro lens. Unfortunately, all I had with me was my 24-105 zoom, so I got as close as I could and cropped later.

At first it was just a pair of Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) mating, but then things got a little more interesting.

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Parade of water lilies and dragonflies

At the Frank Schwartz gardens Saturday, on an outing with the CNPA, I found a good variety of plants and insects to photograph. I'll start this installment with an ultra-wide angle view from just a few inches above a pond.

I was hoping to get some good photo ops with dragonflies, but they didn't become active until later in the morning, so I began by shooting various flowers.

Pac-Man has a lot of freckles.

I did not use a polarizer for this next shot. Rather, at a particular angle the blue sky reflected intensely and other areas of water were clear enough to show the bottom.

Note the effect of the slightly different perspective between the next two images.

Then some bees began to appear. This little one entered a composition I had set up showing two entire flowers, and this is cropped from that shot, so it's not as crisp as I might have liked. I like the colors and the composition though (even if I do say so myself).

At last, a dragonfly actually lit on a colorful flower!

Sometimes two is a crowd. These bees were feeding off the same two flowers, when one bee came in for a landing almost on top of the other.

Coming up are the kinds of twigs and high perches that the dragons seem to favor.

The following image of two flowers in a dark pool of water is my personal favorite of the outing.

Here's another lily in a nice setting.

There was a mass of (frog's?) eggs covering a lily pad and extending into the water. They are held together by a gelatinous matrix that proved to be a dangerous trap for a hapless dragonfly.

A good samaritan tried to rescue the dragonfly, but I fear it was doomed.

To close, a hybrid of two color varieties.

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Close look at a dragonfly face

Saturday morning at Frank Schwartz Water and Garden Creations, there were so many flowers and insects to photograph that I'm still editing them today. Before I get around to choosing some favorite "artsy" flower shots to display, I'm going to post one dragonfly pic that I liked for two reasons. The first version is a cropped rendition, showing lots of detail in the head and thorax. Look at the fuzzy face and the multi-faceted compound eyes!

Below is the full image, with an interesting mix of shapes of the plants and the dragon. I think they "play well together".

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Flower, low water, dragon(fly)

A motley three from wanderings Saturday with only a 70-200 zoom.

Cropped a bit:

Cropped a lot:

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Lacewing Larval Disguise

A ball of pollen-like fluff about 1/8 inch in diameter was moving around on our glass door. It looked like this:
 

If not for the rapid sliding and rotating movement, I would have thought it was just a bit of detritus stuck amongst the inevitable dust. However, the other side looked like this (at high magnification, greater than life size on the camera sensor, cropped to get closer still, and many times life size on your computer monitor):

A little internet searching revealed that it is the larval stage of a common variety of Lacewing. Many of them carry a backpack of fibers like this; my guess is that it's a camouflage against predators. This one was quite systematically scouring the glass surface for tinier things to eat. I will have to make a point of photographing some adult Lacewings this summer.

[Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS macro, 37mm of extension tubes, remote flash]

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Wet Flowers, the all-natural way

A rainy day, overcast sky providing that "giant softbox" look of light from almost all directions, and flowers highlighted by drops of moisture with no effort required on my part - what could be a more perfect invitation to wander about with a macro lens?

And spring is here.

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Hover fly and hornets

As summer winds down in Raleigh, there are still some flower varieties freshly blooming. I wandered out to take a closer look and saw what I thought was a tiny bee. It turned out to be (I think) a hover fly. I didn't get to see its flying behavior, because it took off and vanished while my attention was turned to another visitor.

This hornet, which moved in on the fly's territory, was quite docile, intent on gathering what it could. The first shot includes the nub of a bit of  pine straw, which makes a handy reference for size.

The black markings on the compound eye are quite distinctive. It's natural for us to be wary of potentially stinging insects, but aren't these handsome creatures?

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