Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

[pandora]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Cracker shots all.

I come late to the conversation with a Blue Damsel.


E-3 + SWD 50-200mm

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

[CENTER]Cracker shots all.

I come late to the conversation with a Blue Damsel.

Nice shots.

Maybe a slip of the keyboard: A dragonfly, probably a Blue Skimmer.

Harold

[alfbranch]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Latest Baby Speckled Bush Cricket Images:

These insects grow rapidly so, if this is the same as one of the previous two, it might be distinctly larger. As a guide, the antennae are about 8mm long.

This one, after roaming around quite a lot, finally remained still at, or near, the tip of a leaf. Even so, with a brick wall behind me, twisting my body into the right position was difficult, mostly because the eye detection software in the viewfinder closes the image if my eye moves slightly away.

EM-1, Kiron 105mm, f16, twin flash, hand-held.

Harold.

The joys of Macro photography Harold the subject rarely takes direction
Nice shots.

Cracker shots all.

I come late to the conversation with a Blue Damsel.


E-3 + SWD 50-200mm

Better late than never Mark

[alfbranch]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Here are some from Tuesday morning when we had a heavy dew

I finnaly managed to get a shot of female wolf spider with egg sac.

Female wolf spider with eggs by Alf Branch, on Flickr

An orb weaver at home waiting for a meal to be deliver by air This is a three shot handheld stack done in photoshop

Orb weaver at home by Alf Branch, on Flickr

A dung fly waiting for an opportunity This is a three shot handheld stack done in photoshop

Dung Fly by Alf Branch, on Flickr

[brian1208]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

I've been a bit distracted from posting recently but thought it may be fun to post a few random images from the garden, all shot with the EM-1 + 60mm macro with metz macro flash at 90 degrees, only the top tube lit

The first cricket I've spotted in our garden, a tiny little thing with enormous antenna

spotted cricket 001 by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

a little garden orb spider that has taken up guard on the approach to our tool shed, eating her damaged web (I have the series, up to the point where she started spinning again, something I've read about but never seen)

spider eating web 005 by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

honey bee approaching our Bowles Mauve perennial wallflower

honey bee approaching Bowles Mauve, tongue out by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

a tiny little orb spider making a meal of a common gnat (gives an idea of its size)

orb spider with gnat about 8mm 001 by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

a flesh fly bubble blowing, having deposited another on the leaf behind it (not see this before although I have plenty of "bubbling" images

flesh fly Sarcophagidae bubbling by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

A fly species I can't ID, looks like a variant of a flesh fly

flesh fly long legs face detail by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

this ant shot is not good for detail but reminded me of my time in Sarawak (except there were a lot more, they were bigger and they bit like you wouldn't believe! )

ant in bamboo - rainforest by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

and so on

(I'm still waiting on getting my cataracts fixed so all these were shot using my "50 shades of blur" technique )

[Olybirder]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

What a cracking series of macro shots Brian. I love the honey bee and cricket.

Ron

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Cracker shots all.

I come late to the conversation with a Blue Damsel.


E-3 + SWD 50-200mm

Mark it is great to think you are going to post...and hope you can share some of the huge variety of insects. (You can keep the spiders for yourselves though )

I understand Australia has more than 400 species of butterfly, 320 of dragon and damselflies, and 200 of stick insects so I hope you can show us what you have in your garden!

As a teenager I procured some eggs of a giant stick insect from Aus. It was meant to eventually grow to 10 inches long, but, mine did not live long enough. We didn't have the heat it needed. Eurycnema goliath - should anyone wish to look it up. I understand it is pretty common.

So thanks for joining in.

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Here are some from Tuesday morning when we had a heavy dew

I finnaly managed to get a shot of female wolf spider with egg sac.

Female wolf spider with eggs by Alf Branch, on Flickr

An orb weaver at home waiting for a meal to be deliver by air This is a three shot handheld stack done in photoshop

Orb weaver at home by Alf Branch, on Flickr

A dung fly waiting for an opportunity This is a three shot handheld stack done in photoshop

Dung Fly by Alf Branch, on Flickr

I've been away for a couple of days but kept seeing flies on my ipad. Now spiders.

But they have all been wonderful technical pictures. Just make me want to have a good wash

My imagination is intrigued by your line "A dung fly waiting for an opportunity". Was there a cow nearby with constipation?

Now I do need a wash!

But excellent pictures and stacking technique.

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

I've been a bit distracted from posting recently but thought it may be fun to post a few random images from the garden, all shot with the EM-1 + 60mm macro with metz macro flash at 90 degrees, only the top tube lit

The first cricket I've spotted in our garden, a tiny little thing with enormous antenna

spotted cricket 001 by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

honey bee approaching our Bowles Mauve perennial wallflower

honey bee approaching Bowles Mauve, tongue out by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

Brian these two in particular are excellent. I really like bees in flight. Great shot.

I must get out and enjoy the sunshine this evening.

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Brian,

Your cricket is a very young Speckled Bush Cricket.

An excellent image.

Harold

[brian1208]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Thanks Harold, not a species I am familiar with so its nice to have an ID (it was tiny, so do they get bigger as they get older? )

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Thanks Harold, not a species I am familiar with so its nice to have an ID (it was tiny, so do they get bigger as they get older? )

It is the commonest species.They reach 9-18mm and the spots become less prominent. They are quite easy to photograph, for an insect. The adult male has a brownish saddle-like dorsal structure.

Harols

[alfbranch]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

I've been away for a couple of days but kept seeing flies on my ipad. Now spiders.

But they have all been wonderful technical pictures. Just make me want to have a good wash

My imagination is intrigued by your line "A dung fly waiting for an opportunity". Was there a cow nearby with constipation?

Now I do need a wash!

But excellent pictures and stacking technique.

Peter
Dung flies do not eat dung but they hang around on it or near it waiting for dinner

Here are some eating I prepared earlier

Fly-with-lunch by Alf Branch, on Flickr

The quality is not the best on this but I remember it was disapearing from the viewfinder it was so windy

Yellow-dung-fly-with-prey by Alf Branch, on Flickr

[alfbranch]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

I've been a bit distracted from posting recently but thought it may be fun to post a few random images from the garden, all shot with the EM-1 + 60mm macro with metz macro flash at 90 degrees, only the top tube lit

The first cricket I've spotted in our garden, a tiny little thing with enormous antenna

spotted cricket 001 by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

a little garden orb spider that has taken up guard on the approach to our tool shed, eating her damaged web (I have the series, up to the point where she started spinning again, something I've read about but never seen)


honey bee approaching our Bowles Mauve perennial wallflower

honey bee approaching Bowles Mauve, tongue out by Brian Wadie Photographer, on Flickr

a tiny little orb spider making a meal of a common gnat (gives an idea of its size)

and so on

(I'm still waiting on getting my cataracts fixed so all these were shot using my "50 shades of blur" technique )

That cricket is a great shot Brian
I am not convinced that is a honey bee maybe a mason bee

[brian1208]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

thanks Alf, we have a wide variety of solitary bees but it didn't look like any of those that have been showing so far. We have honey bees beginning to show and as I understood it the fresh hatched bees were more hairy than the mature ones, hence my guess

As I am nothing like an expert I am probably wrong, I'll ask those who know on the BWARS site and see if they can shed light on it