Insects

This morning, after photographing the rabbit, i put on the macro twin-flash attachment designed by Canon to go with their macro lenses. My friend bought this attachment for me three or four years ago and i've used it almost exclusively for table-top macro work. And it has worked very well (thank you Steve!).

I've seen it in videos being used to shoot bugs/insects in the wild -well, around the neighborhood. I was totally amazed at the colors that showed up when using the flash. Oh, i've been doing macro photos of outdoor bugs for years, but, until now, never noticed how poor their color is.

I was, i am, delighted to see and capture such color:

I don't know what this bug is - do you?

Moth ?

Moth, for sure

Roach, i think

See the blue the roach and questionable moth is on? That is the dew on the car that i was about to wipe off when this whole insect-photographing started. I too a few shots of the dew which was pretty trippy:

I love the blueness -the car body is sky blue- and how it comes thru the dew drops

The top shot is at an angle and the middle sharpness is the field of focus. 

This bottom image is shot from directly above the drops and its all pretty much in focus; however, the reddish hue that is running along the bottom i don't know the source of. It is in the original shot, a band of reddish hue running diagonally thru the image. No, there is no red anywhere on the car.

Want to investigate both all those little hair like white thinggies that are sticking up in the top photo and where-in-the-world did that red hue come from?

Clover blooms and a rabbit

I continue to see and photograph the rabbits in the yard in the mornings. Once the sun warms it up it tends to eat the clover blooms that our neighbor has growing in his yard.

 Sniffing the clover bloom to learn if it smells fresh

Ya, it taste pretty good

All gone, yum!

Porch Sights

Turtle Shell Patterns

Two other images showing the shell markings:

In this image it appear that the one turtle is not covered with mud or algae, rather it has a completely different shell design - again, i've no idea what that different shell means; perhaps the difference is just like humans-there are many different possibilities.

Two Turtles

Last week i learned about Beaver Dam Bird Sanctuary but, so far, i've only seen one bird and it flew into a tree never to be seen again. However, there are many many turtles there and i'm fascinated with the color of both the turtle and water.

In the above photo of two turtles -these are Red Eared Slider turtles- the top turtle has a different colored shell. It seemed to be covered with mud or algae ... it only appeared for a minute or two and left 'fore i could get a good shot of it - perhaps it was an older turtle.

Pileated Woodpecker

I have been on the lookout for the Pileated Wood Pecker that occasionally comes thru here. My neighbors say they see them but in the six months here i've not seen any. Today they made up for their absence ... a pair, i think young ones, played in and around a couple of trees allowing me to get a few good shots:

This blog, owned by Google, does not allow me to put images side-by-side nor make them as large as i'd sometimes like. I think i need to create my own photo-blog as i do rent server space that is more then enough to create such a bog.

'Nuff of that ... here are a few more of this wondrous looking bird - the largest wood pecker in North America.

That one WP has a serious contemporary hair look!

Clouds

Almost every evening there is some, and occasionally a lot, of thunder and last night lots of lightening. Usually there is not rain. The cloud formations are to the south and southwest of us and the cloud formation is a delight to see.

Humm, the images are a little dark for my taste ... my monitor keeps telling me it needs recalibrating - guess its time to do that.

Still, the clouds here on the mountain side, 2211 feet at our house, are amazing and i never tire of sitting and watching them. That may be because in the SF bay area there are essential no clouds like there 'cepting for the fall and then only for a short while.