CHALLENGE: bugs

[Katelynn Scott]

I know that there is already an old challenge thread on this forum for "insects that bite you" - but that seems violent and yucky. :basic03 Let's see what "nice" bugs we can catch! (on our cameras of course)

We had a butterfly land on our deck tonight and I got some interesting pictures of it. I would have preferred to get a picture of the wings open, but it would not cooperate.
I also added two bug pictures I took LAST summer - one of a blue colored dragonfly and one monarch (?) butterfly.

[Debi Peck]

You're in luck! Norm just sent me these pictures from Kunsan AFB in Korea. We think the first one looks like the dragonfly is wearing a cheesy grin.

[Debi Peck]

Here are a couple more. The first one is my very favorite.

[Dave McClung]

I know that there is already an old challenge thread on this forum for "insects that bite you" - but that seems violent and yucky. :basic03 Let's see what "nice" bugs we can catch! (on our cameras of course)

We had a butterfly land on our deck tonight and I got some interesting pictures of it. I would have preferred to get a picture of the wings open, but it would not cooperate.
I also added two bug pictures I took LAST summer - one of a blue colored dragonfly and one monarch (?) butterfly.

Here are some pictures I took of bees.

[Carsten Schermuly]

a grasshopper on finger

[Carsten Schermuly]

the plague - a locust large like a bird

second - head at left
third - wings, belly and parts of jumping legs, last pair of legs

[Dave McClung]

This isn't exactly a "bug" but it has similar characteristics. All of my grandchildren except John David (the youngest) use gloves to catch the crabs. John David insists on catching them with his bare hands.

[Carsten Schermuly]

a bottle fly

[Carsten Schermuly]

a bug without wings and without legs
two mouthes, one in front to eat,
one on shoulder (or as you like to identify that neck area) to breath

[Carsten Schermuly]

a hoverfly and a honey bee

[Carsten Schermuly]

this kind of butterflies we germans call spinner (I am not sure)
I do not know what spinner it is, a cherry spinner, an apple spinner, a spruce spinner ...
normally closed wings while resting and then coloured grey - silver shining and not transparent like here, the little bird looks then threecornered, maybe here wings spread to dry it, it was a rainy day once it sat inside kitchen window

--- correcture

we name it Wickler, sorry, it means the same, - to spin
please see WikiPedia english
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortricidae

photos of relatives (or of the same? I am unsure) lat. aethes williana
http://www.lepiforum.de/cgi-bin/lepiwiki.pl?Aethes_Williana

[Carsten Schermuly]

Some insects do have not four, they do have two wings and a pair of pendulas where the other pair of wings could be. See this pendula on one of my powerspider photos - pointing to left.

http://ebiz-mlm.biz/cs/fuji1300/03isep18/dscf0015a.jpg

some Naznetters might know this story already - my powerspider
http://ebiz-mlm.biz/cs/fuji1300/pauaspin.php

the last photo does show a woolf spider, the only one european spider that can be under special foresigns (e. g. a weak immune system) dangerous for humen - but - spiders are in general harmless, they like to meet their food animals and not to be confronted with a much stronger enemy and do always flee and do bite only once there is no other way than defence

http://ebiz-mlm.biz/cs/fuji1300/03joct12/dscf0009a.jpg

[Carsten Schermuly]

a ladybug

http://haufenzeug.de/cs/fuji1300/80berlin/ladybg01.jpg

[Katelynn Scott]

Carsten - where did you get all of these bug pictures? Wow!

[Carsten Schermuly]

Carsten - where did you get all of these bug pictures? Wow!Sorry - I only own a small handfull of animal photos.

Once I leave my home, I take my digicamera with me. A photo does cost nearby nothing (except a bit electric power from akku). I am interested in healing plants and while photographing plants, I get the animals like "buy one, get two". Regularily I can find on one square meter up to fourty different plants, about one third are known as healing plants.

http://haufenzeug.de/cs/fuji1300/04fjun13/dscf0043a.jpg



http://haufenzeug.de/cs/fuji1300/04fjun13/dscf0067a.jpg



The big locust took my son Johannes in the Republic of South Africa in December 2007.

"My powerspider" did live on my desktop from August or September to November 2003 and has built its - pardon, her - nets between screen and desk lamp. The woolf spider did live for an unknown time in my families living room.

The lady bug was taken by a roll film camera, it is scanned from an album.

Alot of digi photos I lost because a virus in may 2003 - around tenthousand. But I saved the damaged harddrives, maybe I can get their contents on a pretty day back.

at present for me my best butterfly photo, August 2003
http://haufenzeug.de/cs/fuji1300/03haug03/dscf0029c.jpg - 1280 x 960

I will get this year a better camera.

[Carsten Schermuly]

this is an object for the Museum of Modern Art MoMa New York, New York

its perfect symmetry is absolutely fascinating

http://www.naznet.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=18367&stc=1&d=1213495630

the front pair of legs is while resting folded (elbow on elbow) and here hidden by the butterflies head

Yesterday I watched a dragon fly by looking down to earth from a higher building. As long the dragon fly did fly over light ground, only the wings are seen, it looked irritating, a thin string 90 degrees to flight directions. Once the dragon fly did overfly shadows of bushes, its body was visible because contrast - and the irritation disappeared.


--- later added

"perfect symmetry" does not mean "correct geometric", it means "totally balanced" - light, colours, forms - all details are in harmony.

[Carsten Schermuly]

May I copy your butterfly photo?
Only for showing around inside my family.

[Dale Cozby]

Been awhile since I saw one of these fellows.

[Dale Cozby]

here is another one I took recently.

[Jonathan Long]

It took me awhile to get to this challenge...

I shot these today, under terrible lighting conditions - wickedly bright sky with no cloud cover...

Jon

[Katelynn Scott]

May I copy your butterfly photo?
Only for showing around inside my family.

Sure!

[Tami Martin]

Caught this little guy at an arboretum I visited yesterday. He was the only bug that didn't fly away as soon as I pointed my lens at him!

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd85/tamimartin87/c.jpg

[Terri Knoll]

I call him busy bee...could have watched him for hours as he flitted from flower to flower. so peaceful

[Dana Grant]

I never thought I'd be participating in a BUG challenge, but alas, I did manage to get a few pictures of insects while we were out on Saturday!! Here they are!!!

19443

19444

19445

[Dana Grant]

I managed to capture a couple of pretty butterflies this weekend -- in pictures, that is......

19990

19991

19992

[Hans Deventer]

I managed to capture a couple of pretty butterflies this weekend -- in pictures, that is......

Gorgeous!

[Katelynn Scott]

Ryan took this one this weekend at an arboretum not too too far from our house. ;o )

[Jonathan Long]

Dana & Katelynn,

Did either of you adjust your contrast to post your images? The contast seem really high. I love the picture content, but the amount of contrast is too much (for me).

Jon

[Dana Grant]

Dana & Katelynn,

Did either of you adjust your contrast to post your images? The contast seem really high. I love the picture content, but the amount of contrast is too much (for me).

Jon

No, I did not do anything other than crop the images just a little bit and resize them to fit on NazNet. This is right out of the camera. Personally, I like the high contrast, but I do wish the foreground area was a little SHARPER-- I didn't have a tripod or anything with me, and I was squatting down -- and swaying, I'm sure....LOL I have a hard time staying very still when I am kneeling......but other than that, I do like the bright colors..but like you said, it is a matter of taste, which I'm finding that a LOT of photography is, isn't it.......

This trip was different for me. For most of the pictures I took this time, I used the manual settings (M, A, S, P modes), rather than the auto settings. Since I really wasn't all that worried about getting perfect pictures, I did a lot of experimenting this time! And a LOT of bracketing!!! and I mean a LOT! LOL I tried to remember to reset the white balance for different lighting and all of that. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of trial and error -- mostly error!! There were several ALL BLACK pictures and several ALL WHITE pictures that I had to delete!!

Now, Jon, if it does not take that much time, is it too late for YOU to take one of our pictures and "fix" the contrast to your taste so that I may see the difference? There is so much that I need to learn about lighting and such, maybe if I saw the pictures in a different way, I could see where you're coming from when you talk about the contrast like this. I just don't know if it is possible to do that once the pictures are resized and all. Yes? No?

Also, you mentioned working on a catalog -- is there a catalog that we can see that shows your work? Seems like you were working on jewelry photographs a while back -- is that a catalog? I'd love to see the final product of one of your projects, Jon......very interesting!!

OK, back to bugs.......sorry to take this thread on a detour.......

Dana

[Jonathan Long]

Dana,

When things slow down I'll post some of my work. I usually only post what I've taken for fun...

Jon

[Debi Peck]

Norm just sent me this picture he took a few days ago. I have to laugh every time I see it.

[Katelynn Scott]

Dana & Katelynn,

Did either of you adjust your contrast to post your images? The contast seem really high. I love the picture content, but the amount of contrast is too much (for me).

Jon

Jon,
Ryan actually took that picture and I just posted it for him. I didn't change anything before I posted it and I'm not sure what he did to take the picture. I couldn't even tell you which "setting" he was on. I noticed the same before posting, but I stuck it up anyway just because as you said, I liked the content.

[Ryan Scott]

Jon,
Ryan actually took that picture and I just posted it for him. I didn't change anything before I posted it and I'm not sure what he did to take the picture. I couldn't even tell you which "setting" he was on. I noticed the same before posting, but I stuck it up anyway just because as you said, I liked the content.


I know I took two pictures of that flower and one with the flash on; this could be the one with the flash.

[Jonathan Long]

Ryan,

The contrast is so high that the petals seem to meld together. I doubt the flash fired, I think it was just too bright for the ISO you were using.

Jon

[Ryan Scott]

Ryan,

The contrast is so high that the petals seem to meld together. I doubt the flash fired, I think it was just too bright for the ISO you were using.

Jon

No, the flash went off for the second picture - I don't know whether this is the flash picture or not, though. We were in the shade; the only reason I even took one with the flash was because the camera advised me to do so with the little blinking light in the corner of the viewfinder. Again, I didn't even look at these pictures, so I'm not sure which one this is.

[Brian Hammons]

Yes, it is a nice bug, doesn't bite, and tolerates being handled quite well. I hear they are scrumptious w/ lots of butter and garlic. :basic02 It is a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.

[Andrew Crawford]

This is definitely a bug. Specifically, it's a Canadian bug of some kind that you don't get in Scotland... so I'll guess it's a dragonfly but I really have no idea. Taken on my friend's deck this summer on a bakingly hot day. It snowed outside today...

http://laetabilis.com/dragon1.jpg

[Joel Merrill]

I love to photograph bugs. Here are just a few.

Joel

[Andrew Crawford]

Dana & Katelynn,

Did either of you adjust your contrast to post your images? The contast seem really high. I love the picture content, but the amount of contrast is too much (for me).

Jon

Looks more like a saturation issue than a contrast one. Many cameras have a default saturation level that is just a little too high, giving you colours that are just on the wrong side of "natural looking". It's usually not too hard to adjust.

[Robyn Harper]

http://www.naznet.com/community/album.php?albumid=18&pictureid=130I am NOT an insect person. Personally, it really bugs me. I will post this picture of an actual insect here in the Arizona area called the Mexican General Grasshopper. I did not take this picture, my pastor's wife did and it has not been enhanced by photoshop. That is their actual coloring. Even tho its yukky, I thought I would post it anyways. http://www.naznet.com/community/album.php?albumid=18&pictureid=130

So much for hiding in the desert, eh?