CalevPhoto

A successful day at the ponds

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.

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A lesson in identifying snails

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.

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A different rove beetle?

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.

1. Why did I find this beetle just now?  They are not common during other parts of the year.  Are they common during just a small part of the year?
2. This specimen looks a bit different than the other one.  It is slightly reddish while the other one is more pitch black.
3. It also did not raise its tail as a threat, but instead ran away quickly.  There were also several of them instead of just a single one as I found before.  It certainly seemed more docile than the other one.

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.

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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 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.

1. Pill bugs are insects.
2. Pill bugs and roly polies are the same thing.
3. Pill bugs and sow bugs are the same.
4. Pill bugs and sow bugs are both called woodlice.

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What are those little millipedes?

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.

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It’s a beetle. Hard how could it be to identify?

Last weekend while looking under logs and stones in my backyard, I found this cute little beetle.

I found a number of these scurrying after I picked up a bag of gravel.  They clearly did not like to be in the open as they tried to hide under whatever they could find.  Although not evident from the shot, the back reflected a greenish color.

According to modern estimates, there are about 350,000 beetle species identified so far.  Scientists believe that the total amount of beetle species on the planet is somewhere from around three to eight million.  The end result, the chances I’ll be able to identify this beetle are not great.

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Our friend the garden centipede

One of the easiest bugs to find in our gardens is the garden centipede.  These centipedes are among the more brightly colored denizens under rocks and logs but can be quite tricky to photograph as they do not stay still.

While some tropical centipedes possess very potent venom, the centipedes in our gardens are harmless and of no danger.  Instead, they are very beneficial for the garden as they are great predators – taking care of many bugs we would prefer to not have around.  You can find more information about them here.

I find them among the more fascinating things in the garden and I can find them nearly 100% of the time.  Only pill bugs are easier to find. Continue Reading…

Are carpenter ants really dangerous?

As some of you know, I have a decent sized carpenter ant (Camponotus modoc) colony in the backyard of my house.  Someday I’ll probably have to get rid of it when we want to sell the place, but for now it has provided some interesting photographs.

Over the weekend I found them active as usual once I picked up a few pieces of wood.  Under one piece I found some that were quite large – probably among the largest ones I have seen.  This got me to thinking, how dangerous are these guys (or in truth – ‘gals’) really?

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A slug and a surprise

Over the weekend, I decided to see what I could find outside.  It was a bit cold, so nothing was obvious in the open so I turned to the standard process of turning over different logs and rocks to see what I could find.

On turning over a piece of wood, I was delighted to find a leopard slug.  These slugs are native to Europe, but have become common in gardens on the West Coast of the United States.  According to Wikipedia, they mostly eat rotting plant matter and fungi but another site mentions that they eat other slugs so I’m not sure.

The slug was actually too big to fit in the view finder with my MP-E 65 so I settled with taking some pictures of the texture of the slug – which I found rather interesting.

However, there was more than meets the eye with this slug, as I was about to find out when I turned it over.

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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 my 180mm macro while I was trying to get close enough to the ducks.  They were very friendly, but I was asking too much to get that close to them.  I’m sure if I was patient and sat there for awhile one of them would have come close, but this is the only shot of the bunch I didn’t delete. Continue Reading…