Place your orders for prints, posters, cups, etc. etc. now, before any one else has the chance! You’ll be one of the first ones with a poster over your bed like this!
I’d never seen a pink grasshopper before, so I googled it and there’s a stack of results coming up saying this is a rare thing. I remain sceptical until the orders come in

Ok, all jokes aside… When out with the Better Half (I guess I won’t disclose the location to prevent news teams showing up at the place ) I took a stroll through the garden when my eye caught a glimps of an out-of-place color. At least for the part where I was looking. I checked in closer and saw the cutest little creature sitting on a leaf.
Needless to say I went for the camera to shoot a couple of pictures. I did have the macro lens on, but that didn’t really turn out too good, so I went back to the car to get my bag and the extension tubes, expecting the little bugger to be gone by the time I came back. But lo and behold: it was patient, and and apparently experienced in modeling, because it had turned around, head up, facing right up in to the light (if you lean in closely you might even catch a catch light or 500 ). So I set up the tripod, which I also brought, put the extension tube on, stuck it in the face of the grasshopper and even then it didn’t move.

D700, ISO200, 1/250 sec @ f/4.8, Tamron 90mm macro + 24mm extension tube

A little break from the Canaries…
Now that summer’s come to an end, and fall has been disappointingly short, and before I go out and change the tires on my car to studded ones, I thought I’d give a last little reminder of this year’s summer…. *sighs*

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/4.2, Tamron 90mm macro, Sigma EM-140 DG ring flash

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 90mm macro, Sigma EM-140 DG ring flash

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/16, Tamron 90mm macro, Sigma EM-140 DG ring flash

D200, ISO100, 1/250sec @ f/16, Tamron 90mm macro, Sigma EM-140 DG ring flash

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 90mm macro, Sigma EM-140 DG ring flash

D200, ISO100, 1/500 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm

We had it coming already for a couple of days, and after 3 weeks of pretty much non-stop rain I was really looking forward to it. SNOW!
Some slush to begin with, but last night it started seriously snowing. Now I only hope that it’ll get more and that it’ll stay until next year. Last year’s winter sucked moosepeckers. We “celebrated” my first snowless Christmas since moving to Finland.

There was a little bug on the window looking out, probably content with itself being on the inside of the window, not on the outside. It IS quite important, if you’re a one-day fly that the quality of your life is good and snowless.
Unfortunately the quality of its life wasn’t catless and Cassandra did have a protein rich breakfast… And the fly turned out to be not-quite-a-complete-one-day fly.

Enjoy the snow while you still can...

Last weekend we went out to my better half’s family’s (I could’ve made that sound a lot more difficult, but it’s only Tuesday, so… ) summer house on the point of an island about 20 minutes out in the archipelago between Finland and Sweden. It’s a little pearl. I hadn’t been there since last year and it was great being back there again, especially now in fall. Last year the fall sucked moosepeckers (yeah, I know, I keep on saying that, but it’s all Wayne’s fault ), but this year’s it’s just been beautiful.
They forecast rain for pretty much the whole weekend, but instead we got a good storm on Sunday. Saturday was a gorgeous day. Sunny with a bit of clouds. Not seriously warm, but pleasant. Shame that we only had such a short time. This week the boat will be taken out of the water and prepared for winter. Maybe we get to drive to the summer house during winter… If we get some sort of winter this year… because last year the winter………..

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/5.6, Sigma 10-20mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/5.6, Sigma 10-20mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/4, Sigma 10-20mm

D200, ISO100, 1/350 sec @ f/4

I also tried some panning. Really! It’s not as easy as it seams! Those… Heck, how am I going to say that in a decent way? I was going to say “those fucking dragonflies are so damn fast”… But really, they are. And they were fucking! So… Owwell… Just excuse me my french this time, I usually don’t express myself like this…

D200, ISO100, 1/180 sec @ f/9.5, Tamron 28-75mm

After 10 days of continuous rain (it’s actually been 6 weeks like this I’ve heard, but I’ve been here only for the past week and a half to witness it) it actually stopped raining! And not only that…. there’s actually some blue in the sky! Maybe we’ll get some sort of, well, not summer, but, well… you know what I mean…

D200, ISO100, 1/500sec @ f/4, Sigma 10-20mm, circular polarizer

Nature hasn’t really decided what it’s going to be. Some extended summer, fall, or winter. At this particular moment the sun is shining behind the clouds, but it’s cold for the time of year.

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/2.8,Tamron 28-75mm, off-camera flash SB-800

D200, ISO100, 1/180 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, 36mm Kenko extension tube

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/3.3, Tamron 28-75mm, 36mm Kenko extension tube, off-camera flash SB800