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.

These are called Polydesmus millipedes and are originally from Europe, having not long ago been imported here.  They are also called flat backed millipedes and feed on decaying matter – often in moist environments – which corresponds well with the locations where I have found them.

These millipedes are quite small and require a lens like the MP-E 65 to get a good shot.

They are nevertheless quite easy to photograph as they don’t mind being uncovered.  It can be a bit tricky to get all of it in focus though.  In the shots above, you can clearly see how it has two sets of legs per segment and thus is not a centipede.

In future posts, I’ll likely revisit some other little critters whose identification I messed up on my first attempt, but for now I’m glad that I finally figured this one out.

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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.

I had thought for sure that insects would be going crazy that day.  After all, it was the first somewhat warm day after a long cold spell.  Alas, I couldn’t find much of anything short of a few pill bugs and harvestmen that didn’t stay still.

The end result was I wound up with this millipede.  I kind of liked how it rolled up so I did a crop without much of the background.

I’m not sure if the crop really helps here though.  What do you think?

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This isn’t a particularly interesting picture of a millipede.  I have much better millipede shots and it was one of a handful of shots I got that day.  This particular millipede is quite small and I had placed it on some moss nearby for a more interesting shot.

However, the story behind the shot is a bit more interesting.

After noticing some birds at the site the last time I went out, I decided to show up armed with my 100-400.  I approached the nearest lake quietly and took out my 100-400 along with my tripod and stood there checking out what was around.

The birds did not disappoint.  Within moments a gorgeous great heron flew over the pond a few feet from me.  The moment was too brief and I did not have my camera turned on at the time.  However, I followed the bird with my eyes and noticed that it landed at the next pond over.

Eager to get a good shot of the heron, I took off for the pond.  However, once I got there I did not see the heron and only found a few ducks on the opposite side of the pond.  I took a few shots of the ducks, which I deleted when I came home as they were truly awful.  The thought then occurred to me – perhaps the heron was at the third pond?

Between the two ponds was a thicket of thorns that did not look too appealing, but I was eager to get the shot.  After navigating a number of thorns it looked like the only thing between me and the second lake was a large clearing.  I started through the clearing and quickly noticed that the whole area was flooded.

While carefully trying to navigate the flooded area through brush that had fallen on top of it, my feet got stuck deep in the mud.  Had I been in normal clothes I probably wouldn’t have minded it.  However this was the middle of the work day and I had on dress casual clothes and my best shoes!

I managed to get myself unstuck and while trying to get back to the place I started at I got stuck in the thorns.  They scraped me neck and ripped my hands quite well – such that I had scratches and blood all over them.  Pissed off, I gave up on the lakes and the birds and went back to the first lake (which is accessible via a path).  There I took out my macro lens and got a handful of shots – including this millipede.  I wanted to at least get something out of the shoot.

I then packed up my camera and went back to work.  Immediately after getting back to my office, I went to the first aid kit and cleaned up my hands – then applied band aids all over.  I proceeded to show up at my next meeting with my shoes completely covered with mud, my white socks brown, mud all over my pants, and my hands full of band aids.  Of course, we’re all engineers so no one said anything…

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The experience was more of a learning experience than getting great shots.  The main lesson that I learned was that the flash needs to be compensated for the paper.  As the light meter in the camera strives to expose the image gray, I need to compensate with the flash exposure.  The next time I will try putting it at +1.  Luckily, I take every shot in RAW so I was able to easily adjust the exposure without losing too much of the quality of the shots.  My first attempt was with a millipede that I found.

I would have liked to remove the dirt in the middle of the millipede, but I was worried about hurting it.  While picking the millipede out, I found another little critter that I still need to look up.  Unfortunately none of my shots came out well of it, but this is the best one I could find.  Whatever it was, it was tiny as I needed to take this shot at 5x.

My next victim was a slug.  Here I think for the next time I need to come up with a better background.  Ideally it would be nice to find something that can expose the slime trail. Also, I need to figure out a way to remove the dirt without damaging the slug.

Of course, pill bugs are the easiest to experiment with because they are so plentiful.  I haven’t photographed one in awhile because I have grown rather bored of them, but I decided to get a closeup of this one.

My final experiment of the day was a centipede.  This little bugger was quite tough as they move very quickly and it didn’t like the exposed state of the paper at all.  After convincing it for awhile that it wasn’t about to get off the paper without a few shots it stood still enough for me to get some shots.

Altogether I feel it was a worthwhile experiment.  I will likely try submitting a few of these to the microstock sites- you never know.  The next time though I may try to find some more natural backgrounds like leaves.

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