Photographs by Frank

16 August 2011

Around the Yard on Sunday Morning

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 12:05 PM

I spent a bit of time on Sunday morning roaming the yard with my macro lens (a 90 mm Tamron) attached to the camera. It was a nice mostly cloudy day so the light was perfectly soft.

My intent was to photograph details of the many flowers (both domestic and wild) in and around the yard. As you can see from the resulting photos, the insects seem to be following me around!!!

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The meadowhawk landed on an over the hill black-eyed susan next to the more photogenic one I had the camera aimed towards. I tried to ignore it, but it kept coming back to the same spot so I had to photograph it.

It let me get to within the close-focus distance of the macro lens and the detail (especially in the eyes) is quite amazing. I’m not sure that the detail will show in the small web sized version though.

14 August 2011

One More Turn in the Swamp / Close Encounters of the Ursine Kind

Filed under: Mammals,Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs,Wildlife — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 3:00 PM

Yesterday afternoon, I headed back down to the beaver swamp at the back of our property just to see what was around.

Meadowhawks, including one mating pair, were present but in lower numbers than previously seen. The darners were ever present patrolling their territories and there were many spreadwings (all the same species) present.

At one point, while I was stalking a spreadwing, I heard the loud flapping of  wings (the sign of a nearby darner) and was quite surprised when a female landed nearby intent on laying eggs (see the third photo). She was only present a short time (about a minute) as another darner (male maybe?) appeared and harassed the first. Much to my surprise they both fell into the water but then both we gone in a matter of a few seconds.

The male whitetail was the only one (of either sex) that I saw, twice while I had it in my viewfinder it flew off only to land on my shirt!

The highlight of the afternoon was a “writing spider” (Argiope aurantia) eating a damselfly. I did not see the initial capture of the damselfly but I did spend twenty minutes (according to the exif data) watching and photographing the meal.

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On my way back up the hill to the house I heard the noise of a large animal off to my right, I stopped and turned to locate the source and was quite surprised to see a good sized (four or five feet long) black bear coming toward me less than a hundred feet away! She/he stopped maybe 75 feet away when they spotted me.

My first thought was to get the extension tube off the lens so I could get a photograph! Instead, I acted on my second thought… I headed off at an angle away from the bear and towards the house leaving the bear standing its ground.

Pitcher Mountain

Filed under: Amphibians,Odontates,Other Insects,Wildlife — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Friday was one of those quintessential summer days in New Hampshire… low humidity, temperature in the mid-70’s and sunny. Thus, we packed a lunch and headed to Pitcher Mountain in Stoddard. The plan was for Joan to pick blueberries and me to photograph.

Things worked out well. Joan got about three quarts and I got these:

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6 August 2011

A “Stolen” Hour at Bass Farm

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,Wildlife — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Yesterday, I “stole” an hour a midst the wedding preparations to wander the meadow and pond at the Bass Farm.

There were many male common white-tails patrolling territories along the shore of the pond and, although I spent quite some time stalking them, I did not get even a single shot of them. I also saw a small number of spreadwings along the pond.

There where large numbers of a small very nondescript brown dragonfly (which I have not had time to identify)  in the meadow grasses. There were also many pollinators (mostly bees but also some butterflies) among the wild flowers in the meadow. These were much easier to photograph!

The last two photos are of blossoms in the flower beads around the house

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Another Romp in the Swamp

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , , — Frank @ 1:00 PM

I had not been down to the beaver swamp behind our house for a few weeks so, a couple of days ago I donned “swamp gear” (long sleeve shirt, green “wellies” and a heavy coat of insect repellent) and headed off for a few hours.

As expected there were many meadowhawks (the exact species I can not say), lots of small damselflies along the edge of the open water and lots of large darners cruising over both the water and the wet meadow.

On the way down to the swamp I noticed a bee of some sort on a daisy-like flower and got a couple of shots of them while experimenting with a stack of two extension tubes. I went quickly back to my usual single (36 mm) tube as the stack make for very difficult focusing… the zone is very narrow, probably too narrow for hand holding.

When I got to the swamp I finally got a photo of a darner (they are some of the largest, showiest dragonflies) perched on a tree. These critters have been a great source of frustration as I see them often cruising their territories, but they rarely perch and when they do they are in poor locations for photography. This time, I got a number of shots as I closed the distance between “him” and I but, as always happens the critter flies off eventually.

As I looked up from the viewfinder to see if I could locate him again, I was greatly surprised to find that he had landed on the right side chest pocket of my shirt! Of course, he was way too close to get a shot of there but I watched him for a minute or two before brushing him off.

The other “big finds” for the day were two mating pairs of meadowhawks (within about a dozen feet of each other) deep in the grasses of the meadow. Getting an unobstructed shot was a challenge. I also  a pair of  spreadwings flying in tandem (whether pre- or post-mating, I do not know).

The meadowhawks all seemed to be the same species (to my un-expert eye); there are two or three species that the books say are difficult/impossible to distingush without having caught them. The darner will need a bit of work to identify as I an not, at all, familiar with this group. Finally, I think that the spreadwings were spotted spreadwings but again, that is my un-expert opinion.

Anyway, here are the images:

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31 July 2011

Around the Yard

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Yesterday morning, I spent a couple of hours roaming the yard with camera (rigged for odes)  in hand.

I was amazed at the variety of odes (and other insects) to be found. I captured images of ten different species including a twelve-spotted skimmer, a dragonfly that I had not seen before.

All-in-all a successful morning!

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2 June 2011

Memorial Day Weekend Odonates – Part Two

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects — Tags: , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Sunday morning found us doing chores around the house. But after I finished mowing the lawn and erecting posts for the pea fence in the garden, I spent some time hunting dragonflies around the yard. There were at least four different species present.

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In the afternoon, we put the canoe in the lake and headed down to camp. I lucked in to a swallowtail nectaring on some flowers right at our beach and it stayed put long enough for me to get the camera ready and take about half-dozen shots before it disappeared.

As for dragonflies, there were numerous individuals of the frustrating kind (a small clubtail of some sort, I think) cruising the lake… I call them frustrating since they never seem to land and thus are next to impossible to photograph.

A brief walk in the woods along the lake shore yielded another (as yet unidentified) dragonfly and a small green moth that was perfectly camouflaged sitting on the frond of a fern. I only noticed it because it flapped its wings exactly once.

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Monday afternoon we headed back to camp for another jaunt. The frustrating species was present in good numbers over the lake and I discovered a dragonfly carcass entangled in a spider web in the bushes at the edge of the lake.

Most of my photographic time was spent in a small clearing just off the the lake which has been very productive in years past. The productivity was also good this day. The number of individuals was small but there were three or four species present. I’m still working on the identifications… this is not my strong point!

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12 June 2010

Ants Herding Aphids

Filed under: Other Insects,The Yard,Wildlife — Tags: , , — Frank @ 9:11 AM

Yesterday after work Joan went out to inspect her vast flower beds. At one point she stuck her head back in the door to say “There are ants herding aphids out here.”

I have learned over the years that when your wife spotter announces a find I am required go get the camera and investigate.

For those of you who have not heard about or seen ants herding aphids, it is an example of biological mutualism. You can read more about it here.

As you know, ants are very small (these were about one quarter of an inch long) and (most commonly) black. This makes for a difficult photographic subject. Thus,  I had some experimenting to do.

To get high magnifications, I used my extension tubes… this was the first time I had a need for all three at once.  The camera was mounted on the tripod… no hand holding at this magnification.

Light was provided by an off camera flash diffused with a soft-box. This was lying on the ground off to one side or hand held off to the side more-or-less at the level of the subject.

This  photo was taken using my 70-300 mm lens with three extension tubes (36 + 20 + 12 = 68 mm):

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For this photo, I switched to the 90 mm macro lens and ended up using just the two larger extension tubes… all three tubes gave too much magnification:

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