A day of ducks and bugs
Last week I decided to spend some time photographing the ducks by building 30. I felt a bit strange, as the last time I took the time to photograph ducks, I had just bought my camera. I find it rather humorous how every photographer seems to start with ducks. They are easy to find, pretty, and don’t mind us getting close.
We watched the ducks for about a half hour. I didn’t get any shots that I am particularly crazy about, but it was interesting watching them.
From watching them I learned that each pair of ducks seems to have a territory. Generally the territory is defined by some natural obstacles - such as a fallen tree or some branches. When another duck (particularly a male) enters this territory the other male will slowly glide towards it. Most of the time, the intruder responds by backing off and leaving the duck’s territory. However, once in awhile they start fighting.
In this shot, I tried playing with the reflection of the bird. I did this in a number of shots, but none of them came out as well as I hoped, which is OK. After watching the ducks for awhile and failing to get a shot whenever they took off or started fighting, I took out the macro lens and looked around for what I could find.
I found this harvestman on a leaf and discussed it in an earlier post. Harvestmen are always great to photograph as they sit still for the camera. What many people do not know about them is they are not spiders. While they are arachnids, they are in a different order than spiders - kind of like scorpions.
While finding things for another macro photographer to shoot, I came across this woodlouse and couldn’t resist taking a few shots of it. They are one of the easiest subjects to find and many of them are also very patient for the camera. Other names for the woodlouse include roly-poly, pillbug, and sowbug. This is actually a sowbug I believe, as it did not roll into a ball as pillbugs do.
One of my favorite subjects by far to photograph is the springtail. Tey are so tiny that few people know what they look like up close and they are often very interesting insects to look at. I recently found a used book at the bookstore with a first chapter on springtails. I hope to have time to read it soon so I can blog more about the collembola family soon.
Related posts:
- Pill bugs, sowbugs and woodlice, oh my! For any macro photographer, one of your first subjects is likely to be a pill bug. They are the ducks of the macro world - so ridiculously easy to find that they draw the beginning photographer like a magnet. They were one of my first subjects and from time to...
- Some days are better than others As many of you know, every Friday I make an attempt to photograph for an hour by several ponds that are next to the building where I work. In the past I have gotten some nice shots there, but not every day is the same… I took this shot with...
- The hidden world out there As I mentioned yesterday, I took some time to photograph under one of my large camellia bushes, while the weather here is still cold. I walked around for awhile to see if I could find something on a leaf, but I had no luck. Therefore I decided to try the...
- The amazing jumping spider As many of you have probably figured out by now, spiders are one of my favorite subjects to photograph. Besides the fact that they are really cool looking, most species are usually easy to photograph. Once in awhile a particular spider gives me problems, but usually they pose very nicely. ...
- Time for some ducklings! I have the great fortune that right next to the building where I work in, there are some interesting ponds with a great number of things to photograph. In particular, ducks are very common there. I have learned quite a bit about ducks just from watching them each week. Several...
Tags: duck, harvestman, macro, photography, pond, springtail, woodlouse
What is the title of the book?
I honestly can’t remember the name of it, but it is something like “Life on another planet”.