Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged bee, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, green spring gardens, honey bee, purple flower on September 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The weather is getting cooler and it’s getting darker earlier, but it’s nice to see that there are still lots of insects around to photograph. Here’s a recent shot of a bee, still busily at work in mid-September.
Bee in mid-September
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, tagged bird, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, impressionist background on September 16, 2012| 2 Comments »
Do you ever take a photo and like the way the background turns out so much that the primary subject becomes of secondary importance?
I mentioned in an earlier post the difficulty I have in photographing birds. This was a shot from the same day I photographed the cardinal. I’m not really sure what kind of bird this is, but I like the fact that I got a relatively clear shot of the bird. More than that, though, I like the impressionist look of the background.
Can anyone identify this bird?
Unidentified bird
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged beauty, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, intricate, simple, spider, spider webs on September 16, 2012| 9 Comments »
I’ve already posted some photos of spider webs from last Friday morning when I visited Huntley Meadows Park. When I looked over the photos again today, however, I realized I have some more pretty good ones. Once again I am struck by the complexity and the diversity of the webs. Some have primarily straight lines and others have mostly curves. Some are large and intricate, others are smaller and simpler.
All of them are breathtakingly beautiful to me.
A view from a jail cell (not really, but it almost looks like that)
An unusually-shaped spider web
An incomplete spider web
Scallop-curved web
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife, tagged beautiful, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, complex, Huntley Meadows Park, spider webs, webs on September 15, 2012| 8 Comments »
Yesterday morning I was out early with my camera and managed to capture photos of some amazing spider webs at Huntley Meadows Park. There was moisture in the air, so some of them have beautiful droplets of water. All of them, though, are incredible in their geometric complexity, in the skill of the craftsmanship, and in their individuality.
Spiders webs are incredible.
Circular spider web
Spider web between two railings
Spider web with dew
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cardinal, Northern cardinal on September 14, 2012| 5 Comments »
I have even greater respect for photographers who can capture clear images of birds after my experiences today. Previously I had shot a few photos of birds, but primarily in a garden setting. Today I tried to photograph some bright red birds that I think are Northern Cardinals in a meadow with lots of vegetation. Even though these birds are much bigger than the insects that I often photograph, they seemed to spook a lot easier and rarely placed themselves within the limits of my lenses. I think that I understand now why dedicated bird photographer need those huge lenses that I see them carrying. It also proved impossible for me to isolate the background (and foreground), which was often cluttered and blocked a clear view of the bird.
This is the best image I managed of the cardinal. The focus is not perfect and I had to do a mega-crop, but I like the overall look of the image and there is a clear view of the face.
Cardinal
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Argiope aurantia, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, spider, Yellow Garden Orbweaver, yellow garden spider on September 14, 2012| 8 Comments »
As I was going through some photos this morning I realized that I have a lot of photos of the Yellow Garden Orbweaver spider (Argiope aurantia). I have posted quite a few photos, but most have shown the spider with a prey. I came across an image of the spider by herself and started playing with it in Photoshop Elements. This first image is the result of my experimentation—it is cropped and rotated and focuses on only part of the subject. I think it is a little more dramatic thank the original image. (You can get a higher resolution view of all of the images if you click on them.)
Creeping spider
You can see below the original image after a minor crop. I remember when I took the shot that I had to twist my body around to get the desired angle of view of the spider in the center of her web, waiting patiently for prey. This morning I initially liked the image a lot and was going to post it, but then decided to rotate it 90 degrees to see what it looked like.
Side view of spider
After the rotation, it looked like the image below. It seems to me that by simply shifting the plane of view, the spider appears like more of a predator, like she is more aggressively stalking her prey rather than waiting for it to arrive. I keep going back and forth in trying to decided if I like this image more than the cropped image that I started with. What do you think? Which of the three images do you like most?
Creeping spider (full body)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, damselfly, Lestes australis, lestidae, spreadwing damselfly on September 14, 2012| 2 Comments »
Why does this damselfly have its wings in an open position? That was the question that popped into my mind when I first spotted this pretty little damselfly. As far as I knew, damselflies folded their wings together when they were at rest. A little research on the internet showed that there is a family of damselflies called Lestidae (more commonly known as Spreadwings) that hold their wings at an angle from their body when they are at rest.
I decided to show the same photo in two different ways. The first image is a cropped close-up and it lets you seem the facial expression and some additional details of the body, including the drops of water on the chest and legs. As you can see, one of the disadvantages of wings that are spread is that depth of field is a problem. The second view is the image more or less as I composed it in the view finder. It shows how really long and skinny the tails are for this type of damselfly. I think that this may be a Southern Spreadwing (Lestes australis), but I am not certain of the identification because there are other varieties that look similar.
Close-up shot of spreadwing damselfly
Full-body shot of spreadwing damselfly
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Argiope aurantia, bee, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, spider, Yellow Garden Orbweaver, yellow garden spider on September 13, 2012| 7 Comments »
I’m amazed at the size and intricacy of the webs of the Yellow Garden Orbweaver spiders (Argiope aurantia) whenever I see them at Huntley Meadows Park here in Alexandria, VA. This past weekend I had a chance to see how effective these webs are when a bee flew into the web of a spider that I was observing.
Previously I posted some photos of these spider with prey (a grasshopper and a cicada) that had been captured earlier and wrapped up in silk, but I didn’t really understand how the spider accomplished this. In this case, as soon as the bee touched the web, the spider moved quickly from the center of the web and in a few seconds had wrapped up its newest victim. I was so fascinated by what was happening in front of my eyes that my reaction time was delayed and I missed photographing those initial actions. However, I stayed and observed (and photographed) the spider’s subsequent actions.
The first photo below shows the spider as she is wrapping up the wrapping up of the bee. It’s a little hard to believe that the long package is just a bee, but I’m pretty sure that’s all that there is inside. (With all three photos, you can click on them and get a somewhat higher resolution view.) After the bee had finished, she left the package at the periphery of the web and returned to the center of the web, where she usually resides, probably hoping for another victim.
After several minutes wait, she returned to the bee and and began to transport it to the center of the web. In the photo below, you can see how she held the wrapped-up bee with some of her legs as she crawled along the strands of the web. The zigzag portion of the web is part of the path that leads to the center.
Once she was back in the center, it looks like she was preparing to eat her newly captured meal. I really like the varied positions of her legs in this photo as she holds on to her prey.
You may have noticed the blurry contours of another, smaller spider in the upper portion of the final photo. There were two small spiders hanging around the web and they seemed to be fighting with one another. I tried to capture that dynamic and will post a photo if I find one that is clear enough. I suspect that one of them may have been the mate of the female spider. Bugguide notes that the male of this species is considerably smaller than the female. Not counting legs, the male is usually 5-6 mm in size and the female is 14-25mm. I am not sure who the “other guy” was. Maybe he’s another male competing for the affections of this “lovely” lady. Any ideas?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, climbing, grasshopper, Huntley Meadows Park on September 12, 2012| 2 Comments »
I have become hyper-attentive now when I walk through gardens, woods, and marshes. I have started to slow down and am more aware of my surroundings. A few months ago, for example, I would not have noticed this grasshopper climbing up the stalk of a plant. Now I can look with wonder at yet another fascinating creature, and my life is enriched by the experience.
Climbing Grasshopper
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Language, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, blue skies, boardwalk, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, canon rebel, clouds, Huntley Meadows Park, landscape, marsh on September 12, 2012| 3 Comments »
Huntley Meadows Park is made up of 1,425 acres of forests, meadows, and fresh-waters wetlands and has become one of my favorite places to take photos of a wide variety of wildlife. What is most remarkable for me, though, is the fact that it is located in the midst of a heavily populated suburban area of Washington, D.C., only a few miles from where I live. I am clearly not the only one who enjoys being there. On any given day I am likely to be greeted by groups of giggling boys and girls or smaller, more sedate groups of adults, many with binoculars or cameras with very long telephoto lenses. The park’s website notes that it is a favorite location for bird spotting, with over 200 species having been identified there.
Monday was an especially beautiful day. The coolness of the fall mornings has definitely arrived and we were treated to brilliant blue skies, a relative rarity here. While at Huntley Meadows, I decided to try to capture a view of some of the elements of the park, including part of the half-mile long boardwalk that zigzags through the marshland.
Huntley Meadows Park in early September
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher dragonfly, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dragonfly, growing old, Huntley Meadows Park, John Kelly, Pachydiplax longipennis, tattered, Washington Post on September 11, 2012| 6 Comments »
I don’t know if this Blue Dasher dragonfly is long in the tooth (do dragonflies have teeth?) or has simply had a tough life. How do you tell the age of a dragonfly? In any case, his wings are tattered and torn to such a degree that it is surprising that he can still fly. Yet I seem to detect a smile on his face, a reflection of contentment. (Yes, I know, I am guilty of anthropomorphism.)
Tattered wings,but still able to fly
I have been thinking about aging ever since Sunday when I read a wonderful column in the Washington Post by John Kelly entitled “You can learn a lot about growing old from a dog.” Kelly describes how the accelerated aging process of his dog has made him more conscious of the fact that he too is growing old. I recommend the article to all, but want to highlight the final paragraph of the column. Kelly concludes:
“Aging is unknown territory for each of us, despite the fact that humans have been doing it forever. I think there are worse ways to spend your final years than napping next to someone you love, dreaming of what was and what still might be.”
I doubt that this dragonfly will end his final days in peace and contentment like Kelly’s dog, but it is my fervent hope that we can accept the infirmities of growing old with grace and patience, and can focus—as this dragonfly appears to be doing—on the things that we are still able to do, on contributions that can make this world a better place.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, caterpillar, Danaus plexippus, monarch butterfly, Monarch caterpillar on September 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I love examining milkweed plants, because I always find interesting insects there to photograph. Yesterday I spotted a tiny caterpillar on a milkweed leaf that I was pretty sure was a Monarch butterfly-to-be (Danaus plexippus). The colored stripes were very similar to the one whose photo I previously posted, but this one was significantly smaller.
I decided to do some research on the life cycle of the Monarch to try to find out why this caterpillar was so small. The website butterflybushes.com has a wonderful article on the development of the Monarch. I learned that the larva is so small when it hatches that it can barely be seen, but it then consumes its body weight in milkweed leaves daily (Don’t try that at home!). During the 9-14 day larval stage, the caterpillar sheds its skin five times. Obviously this little guy is in a much earlier stage of development than the previous one, who was probably about ready to move to the pupal stage.
Here are a couple of shots of the little Monarch caterpillar that I took with my Canon 100mm macro lens.
Tiny Monarch caterpillar at rest
Tiny Monarch caterpillar eating milkweed
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Humor, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged bubble, bullfrog, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, frog, Huntley Meadows Park, reflection on September 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »
This morning I captured this photo of a bullfrog. I was able—with gyrations that would have been hilarious to a spectator—to get almost low enough to look him eye-to-eye. I was happy also to get a reflection of the frog with a considerable amount of detail. As I was reviewing the images on my computer, I noticed the bubbles under his chin (do frogs have chins?), a delightful detail that adds a sense of whimsy to the frog. Blowing bubbles is something that I always associate with being a child, and I remember how much fun it was to blow bubbles in my drink with a straw or to blow soap bubbles with one of those little wands.
Perhaps this bullfrog was blowing bubbles in the water, remembering too when he was little, presumably in a post-tadpole phase.
Bullfrog with bubble (click for higher resolution)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged assassin bug, bug, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, Leptoglossus clypealis, macro photography, patterns, unidentified insect, unknown, western leaf-footed bug on September 10, 2012| 7 Comments »
I was getting ready to wrap up my brief photo shoot at a local garden this afternoon when I happened to spot this interesting looking insect. Fortunately I had my macro lens on my camera and I had my tripod as well. I maneuvered as well as I could to frame the first shot and this is how I composed the image in the camera. I did a few tweaks in Photoshop Elements but did not crop at all. I cropped the second image slightly as I tried to move in a little closer. The eyes are in better focus, but I lost the sharper focus on the body.
I hope to figure out eventually what kind of insect he is, but for the moment I like the way the photos turned out.
UPDATE: Thanks to Jeremy Sell’s identification skills, I am pretty confident this is a Western Leaf-Footed Bug (Leptoglossus clypealis). Check out his blog at thelifeofyourtime.wordpress.com.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged butterfly, butterfly shadow, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, green spring gardens, shadow on September 10, 2012| 2 Comments »
The sunlight was pretty bright late this afternoon, casting dark shadows everywhere, and I was not at all confident that I would get any decent shots. A butterfly flew into view in a partially shaded area, where he perched on a leaf. He was pretty cooperative as he kept his wings open as I made a few adjustments to my camera.
I like the interplay of light and shadows in the image below, even if the colors are somewhat muted and some of the highlights are a little blown out. I probably should admit that I love shadows almost all of the time—me and my shadows.
Butterfly shadow (click for higher resolution)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, green spring gardens, happy, ladybug on September 9, 2012| 3 Comments »
There is something about a ladybug that makes me smile. I don’t know if ladybugs trigger happy memories of my childhood, or if the bold patterns and bright colors simply appeal to my aesthetic sensibility. All I know is that I am happy when I encounter them and I am thrilled when I manage to capture their beauty in an image.
My photography mentor, Cindy Dyer, used to comment that a photo expedition was not a success for me if it did not include ladybug shots. By that modest standard, my photo shoot on Friday afternoon—just hours after a 8-hour transatlantic flight—was a definite success.
Sunday Lady
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, grasshoppers, Huntley Meadows Park, mating on September 8, 2012| 2 Comments »
This morning as I was walking through the marsh area of Huntley Meadows Park, I happened to catch sight of this pair of grasshoppers. With any other kind of vegetation the grasshoppers would have been camouflaged, but that was certainly not the case against the backdrop of a cattail.
I was struck by the differentiation in color between the male and the female—it reminded me of my time in the Army, when there were different camouflage patterns for woodlands and for the desert.
Mating grasshoppers
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, grasshopper, Handsome Meadow Katydid, Huntley Meadows Park, neon-coloredgrasshopper, Orchelimum pulchellum on September 8, 2012| 8 Comments »
Early this morning I went out with my camera and I was happy to spot again the very colorful grasshoppers known as Handsome Meadow Katydids (Orchelimum pulchellum). As was the case the first time I spotted these neon-colored insects, I was at Huntley Meadows Parks in Alexandria, VA. I had a little trouble getting clear shots of the entire bodies of the katydids, but I managed to capture some good close-up shots of their faces. I especially like the first shot, taken looking down at him as he was munching on a leaf.
I continue to be amazed at the katydid’s vivid colors and blue eyes. Wow!
Handsome Meadow Katydid Munching on a Leaf
Close-up Shot of Handsome Meadow Katydid
Body Shot of Handsome Meadow Katydid
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, orange, orange flower, simple, simplicity on September 8, 2012| 1 Comment »
A solitary orange flower caught my eye. Its vivid color and asymmetrically arranged petals drew me in closer. Sometimes beauty is that simple.
Simply orange
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, defying gravity, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, swallowtail on September 8, 2012| 1 Comment »
It felt good to have my Canon DSLR back in my hands after a week-long trip with only a point-and-shoot camera. After I arrived home from the airport this afternoon, I grabbed my camera and headed off to Green Spring Gardens, a local garden that is one of my favorite places to shoot.
There were only some diehard flowers blooming, but there were quite a number of Eastern Swallowtail butterflies. I watched (and chased) several of them, but the one you see below was my favorite. He attacked this flower from below repeatedly, seemingly defying gravity. It just was not clear to me how he was able to suspend himself in mid-air like that. He must have been hanging on with his feet, though he seemed to be moving them constantly.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly defying gravity
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged aphid, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, milkweed, monarch butterfly, Monarch caterpillar on September 8, 2012| 1 Comment »
The day before I left for my recent trip I managed to get some photos of Monarch caterpillars with my macro lens. It was the first time that I had seen them live. Not surprisingly they were on milkweed plants and seemed to be chomping away with great appetite. I noted too that some of the milkweed plants were full of aphids (and some of them had lots of ladybugs too). I checked a number of sources on-line and they all suggest that the aphids are not directly harmful to the Monarch caterpillars during the two-week stage when they are caterpillars. I looked around today to see if I could see any chrysalis, the next stage of development, or more caterpillars, but found neither. I’ll keep looking!
Monarch caterpillar (click to see more details)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Humor, Photography, Travel, tagged belgium, brussels, Canon A620, mannekin pis, mustache, prank on September 7, 2012| 2 Comments »
I know that periodically the statue of mannekin pis in Brussels is dressed in a variety of different outfits throughout the year. However, yesterday he seemed to be wearing an unauthorized additional item—a mustache. 
Close-up of Mannekin Pis with Mustache
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Photography, Travel, tagged brussels, Canon A620, Grand-Place, St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, stained glass, travel on September 7, 2012| 3 Comments »
I had a chance to walk around Brussels a little more yesterday and wanted to post a few more photos before I head back to Virginia today. Most of the photos are from the Grand-Place, the central square of the city and I have tried to capture some of the wonderful details of the buildings there. The last two shots are of the Saint Michael and Saint Gudula Cathedral, a really beautiful church that I was able to visit.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Photography, Travel, tagged blue skies, brussels, Canon PowerShot A620, city hall, gold, Grand-Place, shadows on September 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The light was dropping lower in the sky as I stepped onto the cobblestones of the Grand-Place in Brussels, causing the gold decorations on the buildings to glow and adding interesting shadows. The sky too was beautiful, a brilliant blue with a few puffy clouds. It is a little overwhelming when you’re in the square surrounded by the guild halls and the spires of city hall—everywhere you look there are interesting details (and that’s not even counting the people passing by).
My time is a bit limited this morning for this posting, so I’m including just a few photos that I especially like from last evening. (I may have the chance to post some more photos tonight.) I also would note that I am using a Canon A620 point-and-shoot camera with relatively modest capabilities, rather than my normal DSLR. There were definitely times when I would have welcomed having the ability to zoom in a bit closer, but some of the results are pretty good and it does force me to move around to try to frame the photo better.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Photography, Travel, tagged brussels, Canon A620, city hall, city scenes, mannekin pis on September 5, 2012| 7 Comments »
I’m in Brussels, Belgium for a few days for work and have been “encouraged” by Sandra of Another Perspective Photography to post some photos of the city. So I stood up my co-workers for dinner tonight and went off on my own to shoot a few photos of the sights of the city in walking distance of my hotel. This first batch is an assortment of photos of various subjects. I plan to do a second batch with photos of the Grand-Place.
No trip to Brussels is complete without seeing the statue of Mannekin Pis, the little boy peeing into a fountain (or what some might call the “wee lad”). There seems to be a great deal of uncertainty about what exactly the statue commemorates. Wikipedia lists five different legends and there are almost certainly more. I’ve enclosed two photos, one of which is a close-up. The latter photo is specifically for Sandra, who specializes in taking photos of babies, often in an unclothed state.
The other photos show a few views of the city. The tall steeple in several of them is the city hall building.
I realize these are touristy type shots, but thought some others might enjoy some scenes from Brussels.
Mannekin Pis
Mannekin Pis Close-up
View of Brussels
View of Brussels through a fountain
Interesting clock in Brussels
Unidentified church steeple in Brussels
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Landscape, Photography, Travel, tagged beauty, brussels, building, Canon PowerShot A620, Grand-Place on September 5, 2012| 5 Comments »
The Grand-Place in Brussels, the central square of the city, is a wonderful location, full of ornate buildings and teeming with people at almost all hours of the day. UNESCO considers it a World Heritage Site and it was voted the most beautiful square in Europe in one survey, according to Wikipedia.
I find the buildings in the Grand-Place, though, to be a little too ornate and overly decorated. As I stood in the center of the square and looked diagonally toward one of the side streets, though, I caught a glimpse of this building. It is simple and elegant and much more to my taste.
Building in Brussels
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged bee, Canon PowerShot A620, pink, pink flower, romantic, soft on September 4, 2012| 4 Comments »
This bee is not as perfectly sharp as some that I have shot, but the softness of the image and the pink flower give this photo more of a romantic mood (if that is at all possible with a bee as the primary subject). I also like the beautiful colors in the bee’s fuzzy hair. Sometimes I feel like I would be content to photograph different kinds of bees every day, focusing at times on their hard work, at other times on their beauty, and at other times on their ferocity. It would take a long time for my fascination with bees to wear off.
Bee on a pink flower
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon PowerShot A620, city park, experiment, landscape, point-and-shoot, reflection on September 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I am still away from home with my point-and-shoot camera and decided to play a little with reflections. Usually I end up trying to show both the object and its reflection, which makes for an image that is centered in the frame. This, of course, violates the usual photographic best practice of not having center of attention in the center. Feeling exceptionally bold, I decided to show just the reflection and only a minimum of the scene itself in a city park. I like the effect that I achieved, although it is probably too busy. Nonetheless, I hope to experiment some more with landscapes (or cityscapes) and other subjects that draw me out of my normal focus on small objects and their details. Sometimes it is undoubtedly good to see the literal “big picture.”
Reflections of a city park
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Humor, Insects, Photography, Travel, tagged Canon PowerShot A620, coincidence, grasshopper, Handsome Meadow Katydid on September 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Just a few days after posting a photo of a neon-colored grasshopper (who turned out to a Handsome Meadow Katydid), I saw another one. Well, actually I encountered a giant sign for a toy store featuring a cool grasshopper that looked a lot like “my” grasshopper.
How many passers-by realize that there is an actual grasshopper with colors as bright (or even brighter) than the one on the sign?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged bee, bees, Canon PowerShot A620, macro on September 2, 2012| 2 Comments »
I am out of town at the moment and took along my Canon PowerShot A620, a somewhat glorified point-and-shoot camera. I had used this before for travel photos, but had never tried out the macro features of the camera. The manual claims that in macro mode you can get as close as 1 cm (.4 inches).
I decided to play around with macro on this camera by taking some shots of bees, one of my favorite subjects. The first photo is one of a bee taken straight on and I am surprised that I got the detail that I did. The other shots are pretty good as well. I would note that I had to get really close to the bees to get these shots. I also am feeling a little hamstrung, because I am producing these images on a netbook computer with somewhat limited capabilities and I am using Paint.Net to manipulate the images rather than PhotoShop or PhotoShop Elements.
Eye-to-eye with a bee
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, wildlife, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Dolomedes triton, fishing spider, Huntley Meadows Park, spider, water spider on September 1, 2012| 3 Comments »
This morning as I was walking along the boardwalk that runs through the marsh in Huntley Meadows Park, I happened to glance down into the muddy water and was surprised to see something that looked like a cross between a starfish and a spider. I always though that spiders lived in trees and on other types of vegetation, but today I learned that there are also spiders that hunt for their prey in the water.
This spider is from the Dolomedes family, probably a six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes triton). According to the Wikipedia article, they are often seen with their legs sprawled out by the water while they are waiting for prey (which is what this one seems to be doing). They eat other invertebrates, tadpoles and occasionally small fish (and the female may also eat male fishing spiders if she has already mated). According to fcps.edu, these spiders can walk on the surface water and can stay underwater for 30 minutes. Not surprisingly, they don’t make webs.
This has been quite the day for unusual insects, beginning with a neon-colored grasshopper and ending with a fishing spider. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Fishing Spider Waiting for Prey (click for higher resolution)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 