Bugs

Wikipedia claims this spider is harmless to humans, but I certainly wouldn't want to find something like this crawling in my hair. It's definitely a neat spider, though, and one that I've been hoping to photograph for a long time.

We've had an especially large number of butterflies around our house this year and I was able to snap this photo one day while on my way to the pool. Getting shots like this without a DSLR (and thus without manual focus) is pretty special.

Sunday afternoon I grabbed my camera and tripod, headed for our swimming pool, and began searching for a tree frog that's recently made his home there. A couple minutes passed and I couldn't seem to find him and so, for whatever reason, decided to walk towards our shed despite the blazing heat telling me to go back inside and enjoy the A/C. As I approached the shed I noticed something large moving on a nearby tree and, as I got even closer, I discovered a couple large Eastern Hercules Beetles. It was the first time I'd ever spotted one in the wild, but apparently they can grow up to 2" in length, making them the largest beetles in North America. Pretty cool, huh?

I never saw as many cicadas at one time as I did this year. According to our conservation department, every 13 or 17 years an extremely large swarm of them will hatch and, apparently, this was that year. This particular cicada was only one of at least 30 on this same plant.

Having read that scorpions were supposed to be in the area, I had long hoped for the day that I would have the opportunity to photograph one on our bi-annual camping trip to the highest point in our state. It wasn't until I saw one, though, that I realized how fast these little guys can move! Thankfully he held still long enough for me to get a few decent shots, of which this one is my favorite.

I was sitting around the campfire eating a cheeseburger when, all of a sudden, I noticed a fight going on between a very large ant and an inchworm. I quickly put my burger down and rushed for my camera, thankfully being able to get a few decent shots before the battle was over (note: the ant won). Even though this may be a bit gruesome, it's honestly about as nature as you can get.

You can't really tell by looking at the picture, but the place where I was standing was literally surrounded by these little trees and the locusts apparently loved them because they were all over the place. Though I didn't include it in this particular shot, right below the cicada was the shell from which it had emerged. It seemed to be a perfect illustration of 2 Corinthians 5:17,

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new."

Sitting in the middle of a beautiful glade with my family, I decided to walk around a bit and see what nature around was worth photographing. I came across this small tree and noticed that, every few seconds, ants were scurrying across its branches in either one direction or the other. It took me a while to figure out where they were all going, but I was finally able to get this cool shot of them all gathered together on a couple of the leaves. Can you see the tiny eggs near the main stem?

About a week ago I came across a cocoon while doing some stuff outside and decided it would be fun to take it indoors and watch the butterfly emerge. Though it took about 5 or 6 days for it to complete its metamorphosis, seeing this beautiful butterfly made it a worthwhile wait in the end.



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Is it just me, or does this moth look a little intimidating?

A Lazy November Day

With it being such a beautiful day, all the bugs are coming out and trying to find a warm place to stay for the winter. It doesn’t look like this poor guy is having much luck.

       Knowing my love for photography, my mom immediately let me know about this katydid she’d spotted outside. I took about a dozen pictures, but after seeing them blown up on my PC I was dissatisfied. Determined to get a good shot, I grabbed my camera and headed back outside – and I’m glad I did. This photo was one of the first shots I took when I went back out, and I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

       I was lucky enough to get this shot of a Daddy Long Leg killing a Walking Stick Bug. While it isn’t exactly pleasant, it’s about as nature as you can get.



      One of the most beautiful subjects ever in front of my lens, this spicebush swallowtail caterpillar was simply begging me to photograph it. I can’t recall ever seeing anything like it.

       The extremely venemous black widow spider.

    I thought this was a really cool picture.

Praying Mantis