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Last weekend some friends of ours had us over for a barbecue. Their property is rather wooded and I had my camera with me from a recent real estate shoot. Of course, I was curious, so I took a little stroll to see what I could find.
I noticed that there were quite a few flies that were hanging out on ferns. When I approached them, they did not flinch too much so I knew that I had a good thing going. I ran back and grabbed my camera to get some shots.
While photographing last week, I found a shiny green beetle that was kind enough to let me get some shots of it. I found it curled up and hiding in a plant stem and managed to annoy it enough that it started walking around.
When it came time to identify this beetle, I didn’t have much hope. After all, there are thousands of “shiny green beetles” out there and I didn’t have too much hope of figuring out what this is.
To my surprise, I think I do know what this is. It looks a lot like a flea beetle (family chrysomelidae, subfamily alticinae). I am not 100% sure, but it does look awfully like a flea from the front - doesn’t it?
I’ve always had somewhat of a soft spot for the weevils that are common here around Seattle. Sure, they are pests - but up close they kind of look like little dogs.
I have seen these a number of times around here but interestingly in many of the cases the weevils were dead. This one was alive and moving around - probably having a good meal too.
While taking pictures last week, I came across several ants traveling along the stem of a bush. I tried to get a good shot of one crawling along the thin limbs, but I just couldn’t get a good shot. After some time, I became curious about what they were doing. When I took a closer look, I was even more puzzled.
I have some suspicions about what was going on, but the truth is I don’t really know. There were several of these “bumps” on the bush and the ants were traveling from one to the other. There were perhaps five ants in total that I saw.
This weekend, we were invited over to a barbecue at some of our friends house. I had my camera along, as I had earlier photographed one of my wife’s listings, and their property was a bit wooded. Of course, I could not resist taking out my camera to see what I could find.
While waiting near a fern where I had noticed some fly activity, a small bug caught my eye. I decided to photograph it to see what it was and was quite surprised with the result.
After going almost a month without taking any macro shots, it was time to gather up my MP-E 65 and MT-24EX and see what I could find. The location was the ponds by my building at work, to which I organize a group of us to meet every week.
It took me awhile to find anything truly interesting. I dug around in the soil for a bit but gave up on that as I was more in the mood of catching something on a leaf. While there are quite a few interesting creatures that live in the soil, due to the background it can be difficult to get the artistic edge in shots.
A number of time now while rummaging through leaves and picking up rotting pieces of wood I have noticed a very small snail here around Seattle. The snail is rather pretty - with the body a bright blue and I have had fun taking some shots of it. However, I have often wondered what kind of snail it is.
I do not own any books on snails, so this research had to take place entirely on the Internet. As with all identifications, I’m not sure if I got it right but I think I now know what it is and I learned a bit about how to identify snails.
Some time ago I blogged about a rove beetle that I found in my backyard. It was very peculiar in that it raised its tail like a scorpion and confronted me as I tried to take its picture. Looking at the date, I blogged about this beetle in January of last year.
One of the interesting things about keeping a blog is it has caused me to ask questions that I normally would not ask. The following came up with another similar specimen that I found over the weekend.
After looking at these pictures, I had the following questions.
I’m not sure if I have a perfect answer for these questions, but I did a little bit of research and have some ideas.
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 time I find myself coming back to them because they are so fascinating.
However, as common as they are, few people know much about them. After learning a bit more and looking back at some of my old blogs, I even made several mistakes about them. Try the following trivia questions to see how much you know.
I am not a trained entomologist (or even an untrained one) and therefore I often make mistakes when identifying the little creatures that inhabit our world. This is one of those that I have most often misidentified.
In the past I have misidentified this as a centipede, but it is in fact a millipede. The easiest way to tell the difference between a millipede and a centipede is a millipede has two legs per body segment while a centipede has one.
Millipedes are generally harmless, though there are several varieties that excrete cyanide as a defensive mechanism. Still, to my knowledge there aren’t any millipedes out there that can kill out unless you eat one, which I don’t find very tempting.
There particular ones are very common here around Seattle. I have seen them in a variety of places - from the ponds next to where I work to my backyard. Recently, I finally took the time to figure out what they are.