June 2021 Favourite Uploads

[Marianne]

1 minute ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

I was really pleased on how well the dragonflies came out since they were shot at 400mm.  But when you are standing on a deck in a wetland, very few shots are close.  And dragonflies tend to stay put for long periods, not like the birds that take off as soon as you manage to get them in focus.  I was frustrated that I could hear tons of frogs but couldn't see one anywhere. Maybe next time.  Went to a wetland near me a few days ago, but not a critter in site.  Possibly because there were quite a few people fishing.  Going to be a film crew in there this weekend, so won't be able to go till next week sometime.

 

Jill

 

In our neighborhood we can here peepers - tiny frogs - croaking away at night during the warm weather, but in 23 years I have yet to see one. 

 

I've given up on birds. Butterflies and dragonflies are much better at posing. 

[Ed Rooney]

2 hours ago, Marianne said:

 

In our neighborhood we can here peepers - tiny frogs - croaking away at night during the warm weather, but in 23 years I have yet to see one. 

 

Marianne, are you sure you don't have tinnitus? 

[Marianne]

On 25/06/2021 at 23:43, Sally R said:

 

One thing I have found helps to increase the keeper rate with macro Marianne is shooting in manual focus rather than autofocus. You may be doing this already, but if not it may be worth a try. Instead of trying to get the focus points right with autofocus, which can be very difficult with macro subjects of small creatures like insects, you slightly move your body back and forth in manual focus. Once you get the hang of it, you are able to click the shutter at the exact right spot - specifically getting the eyes in focus which can easily be missed. I often up my ISO as well to increase the depth of field to get as much of the insect in focus as possible at a shutter speed that is also fast enough to get a sharp image.

 

I've also found that if I stay in the same spot long enough, only making micro adjustments to my position by moving very slightly forward or backwards with the camera, at least some insects stop noticing you as you've become part of the furniture and so you are less likely to scare them off. Last year during a lockdown period during which I was also studying and spending long periods at a computer, I would go into the backyard for a 10 minute break with my macro lens. One particular grevillea bush was full of more insect species than I could count, along with a spiny-tailed gecko. I would just stay mostly in the same spot where there was insect activity, which was on the side of the plant receiving sunlight, and just meditatively hover there in manual focus making micro adjustments when an insect was in good view at close range.

 

Having said that, I think telephoto lenses can indeed take good photos of larger insects such as dragonflies, as Jill's beautiful images demonstrate!

 

Thanks, Yes, I shoot in manual mode and have done the rocking back and forth thing as well as sometimes doing continuous shooting - I end up with a few hundred images in a short time. Even then, very few keepers and lots of image stacking which is time consuming. I've been trying to shoot at the lens' closest point which is harder. If I shoot from around a foot away, the number of keepers goes up exponentially. 

 

I got a few good shots of a katydid yesterday, one that's now in QC which I hope to share here next week. Thinking to make my insect shots RM here with the hope of some textbook sales as I don't see much other use for them (unless they are pretty butterflies and dragon/damselflies or bees on a pretty flower).  Creepy insects are fun to shoot - I like the challenge of macro and these days pushing myself to master new skills helps keep backyard shooting interesting. Macro shooting also makes me see just how many garden pests I have. 

 

No cicadas, though. 

 

One insect we've had fewer of each year are ladybugs. When we had a mosquito issues some years back the county sprayed and killed of most of the ladybug population. Too bad as they are wonderful macro subjects and so good for the garden.

[Marianne]

On 25/06/2021 at 23:52, Sally R said:

 

I've heard of a number of people who developed tinnitus and thought they were hearing insects or frogs. I developed tinnitus 20 years ago after an accident involving audio equipment and my electric guitar when I had a monitor level too high with earphones on. It also caused another condition called hyperacusis which is fortunately much improved now. My ears still ring though and I actually like it when there are crickets chirping or frogs croaking as they help to mask the tinnitus. I have the sound of radio static in both ears plus a specific frequency on top of that in the left ear. While those are permanent I sometimes have other frequencies drop in as well. You do get used to it though and the brain learns to tune it out much of the time.

 

On 25/06/2021 at 15:41, Ed Rooney said:

 

Marianne, are you sure you don't have tinnitus? 

 

They are peepers and not tinnitus. Only at night.

 

The sound of crickets is actually distorted for me as a virus injured the cochlea in one of my ears about 30 years ago, distorting certain sounds. If I put an earplug in the bad ear, which is mostly but not totally deaf, they sound normal. I can't imagine how awful it would be to have tinnitus. So sorry about your accident Sally. 

[Dave Richards]

On 23/06/2021 at 15:49, Betty LaRue said:

I’ll give the “no PU” a try and see if I notice anything different. If like Gen, they become Presentation instead, I’ll rethink it.

I too will be interested to see what happens now that I've excluded all my images from PU.

[Colblimp]

Some from the weekend:

2G5G3CH

 

 

2G5DG1J

 

 

2G5DCE8

[AlbertSnapper]

1 hour ago, Dave Richards said:

I too will be interested to see what happens now that I've excluded all my images from PU.

 

Alamy state that if restricting from PU, then you may miss out on distro sales.

 

I restricted from PU uses, and yes, had about one Distributor sale in a year.

[Marianne]

@Sally R Interesting that although we are on opposite sides of the globe, we are discovering the same types of insects in our backyards. My katydid image passed QC but not searchable in the database yet. 

[Allan Bell]

Sorry for the number of images but it is near the end of the month.

 

Yellow rape seed crop in Lincolnshire fen field

 

 

View along The Strait to Steep Hill with Lincoln cathedral centre tower behind

 

 

Three men on a roof

 

 

Lincoln Cathedral from Castle wall lincoln

 

Ellis' Mill Mill Road Lincoln

 

 

Allan

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Allan Bell

[Dave Richards]

4 hours ago, AlbertSnapper said:

 

Alamy state that if restricting from PU, then you may miss out on distro sales.

 

I restricted from PU uses, and yes, had about one Distributor sale in a year.

Thanks Philip, but I'd already ditched the distributor option. I don't know who those distributors are and I couldn't help feeling that I would be handing over control of my pictures to an unknown quantity. 

Anyway, this is going 'off piste' from the topic of this thread so I'd better shut up now.

Edited June 28, 2021 by Dave Richards
added text.

[Marianne]

[Betty LaRue]

Milkweed I planted last spring to help Monarch butterflies. They only lay eggs on milkweed. I have three varieties.  This one is called “Hello Yellow”.

[Betty LaRue]

On 29/06/2021 at 23:23, Sally R said:

 

I like your katydid Marianne. It looks very similar to the one I photographed. It's amazing we have very similar creatures across the world. Some of the ones I saw seemed to have telescopic antennae. Sometimes one would be much longer than the other. I imagine this is some kind of sensory apparatus.

Katydids can bite quite sharply. I caught one once and it bit me. My fault but I had caught many grasshoppers without getting bitten, so I was caught unawares and it gave me a fright for a moment because of surprise and shock. I had caught them before without being bitten.

When I was around 11 years old, I had a cat named Divinity. The house next door was empty, and the lawn had grown so high with weeds I could walk unseen in them. Grasshoppers & Katydids we’re thick. I caught them to feed them to my cat! 😂 Until her belly bulged and her eyes were at half mast. Quite the delicacy, I guess, and their consumption seemed to agree with her. I still remember the crunching. 🤮

[Betty LaRue]

8 hours ago, Sally R said:

 

Your story about the katydids in the overgrown yard is interesting Betty. This time last year the backyard had become a bit overgrown and was just brimming with insect life including plenty of katydids and my favourite peacock spiders. I was reluctant for the grass to be cut as there was a thriving ecosystem out there, but eventually it was done. After that the insect life dwindled massively including no more katydids in the backyard. It made me realise how much our human activities impact little creatures all the time.

 

A couple of weeks ago my brother did some pruning in the front yard. He shoved the cut branches into the green bin (that is collected by the green waste truck once a fortnight). I discovered that all manner of creatures were on those cut branches, including katydids, gum tree shield bugs and cute little native cockroaches we get here (quite pretty and different to the big ones that invade your kitchen). I rescued as many as I could and then propped the bin open with a stick so any remaining ones trapped in there could get out. I'm sure I was a Buddhist in a previous life as I try to save everything.

 

The story about your cat was funny 😂 It sounds like she was drunk on katydids. I was watching a TV program last week of a baby wombat being fed who was milk drunk - very funny 😂 

I don’t save 🕷. One of the scariest bites I ever had, lol. No, not the flesh-eating kind. Just painful and the bite bled. Grown up, now, I don’t feed insects to cats, either! 

[Betty LaRue]

I find nothing cute about spiders. If one gets on me, it makes me hurt myself = that spider hurt me. That said, you’ve piqued my interest about a cute dance, so my mind is open a teensy crack.

[Michael Ventura]

2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I find nothing cute about spiders. If one gets on me, it makes me hurt myself = that spider hurt me. That said, you’ve piqued my interest about a cute dance, so my mind is open a teensy crack.

 

I first learned about the peacock spider from a BBC nature program.  They are amazing!

 

 

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

I first learned about the peacock spider from a BBC nature program.  They are amazing!

 

 

Wow, and I thought female black widows were vicious. Fascinating, though.

[Bryan]

 

I'm more a veg man than a flower gardener, but this lovely Bishop's Children dahlia pops up every year in a south facing border adjacent to the house. Sowed from seed some time ago and subsequently largely ignored. Neighbouring pelargoniums killed by frost. 

[Allan Bell]

Last few from June.

 

New Museum building Flaxengate Lincoln City

 

 

 

Jews house and Jews Court stone built properties from Danes Terrace Lincoln city

 

 

 

Angler sat on platform in lake at Hartsholme Country Park Lincoln

 

 

Allan

 

Edited July 8, 2021 by Allan Bell