insect

The 5-legged spider

Posted by Arno on October 15, 2013
Posted in: color, insect, lightroom, macro, nature, photography, Photoshop, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

The other day I had an Arachnophobia moment. Remember that movie from the 90s with the spiders in it?
I got to the toilet, lifted the seat and found a big, fat spider on it. It scurried away too fast for me to actually consciously register what had just happened.

Today, however, I can say with 100% probability that I most certainly have discovered a new species of spiders, I think.
It looks very much like a brown huntsman, so I would assume that it’s a subspecies. I will call it the 5-legged brown arnoman.
It’s very docile, doesn’t move much, and is very photogenic. It comes over as very natural in front of the camera and is not afraid to wink with one of its 8 eyes when given the opportunity.
It frequents in locations with humid (occasionally smelly) air and laughs in one of its 5 fists when it scares (maybe literally) the crap out of you when you lift the toilet seat.

Brown Huntsman

D800, ISO100, 1/320 sec @ f/22, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Brown Huntsman

D800, ISO100, 1/320 sec @ f/22, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

 

Another night, another bug… or…

Posted by Arno on October 11, 2013
Posted in: color, insect, lightroom, macro, nature, photography, Photoshop, wildlife. Leave a Comment

Slight feeling of déjà-vu…

It was another night, but I’m not sure if it was another bug.
I get the impression that this might’ve been the same bug as the one from a few nights ago. After it’s been banging its head in the window, since it’s got a massive dent in its head 😀

And probably still slightly (or severely) concussed, since it wasn’t moving at all.

It was gone this morning. Not sure if Mr L had another midnight snack or if it got away.
I guess I’ll find out in the coming nights 😀

Beetle

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Beetle

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Another night, another bug…

Posted by Arno on October 10, 2013
Posted in: color, insect, lightroom, macro, nature, pets, photography, Photoshop, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Before the bug I re-acquainted myself with another old friend.

Tokay

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

I must say that these “little” loudmouths have been surprisingly quiet since I’ve arrived here. I haven’t heard them much, and not at all during the night. That may change with the weather, though, let’s wait and see/hear…

Normally speaking I don’t wake up during the night for a toilet break. It may be that the crashing of the waves on the beach has some influence on that. It’s been very windy here and the ocean’s been quite rough.
Anyway… The other night I almost tripped over a big beetle, last night it was another beetle. Slightly smaller, and normally crawling, but still of respectable size. This one was slow, though, unlike the one from the other night.

Beetle

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Beetle

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

It would’ve been better for the “little” critter if it HAD been a bit faster. Not long after I shot these pictures, my buddy Mr L (proudly named after the L-shape of his tail) came to look what I was doing lying flat on the floor and decided that his evening snack was way beyond due.
So after playing with his food a bit (I told him not to, but he didn’t listen), he scooped it up and crunched the proteins away (I save you THAT much cruelty, but the playing was fun 😀 ).

Mr L playing with his evening snack

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Mr L playing with his evening snack

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Mr L playing with his evening snack

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

A(nother) sleepless night

Posted by Arno on October 9, 2013
Posted in: color, insect, lightroom, nature, photography, Photoshop, wildlife. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

Think you’re doing the good thing, and as a thank you, you get….

I’m back in the Philippines. I love this place, I really do. And I don’t mind the bugs, I really don’t. I don’t mind the sounds that come from between the walls. And I don’t mind that the holes in the mosquito net are too big to stop the tiny ants. I really don’t.
What I can’t appreciate, though, is lack of gratitude.

At some point during the early hours I woke up. Had to go to the… “comfort room”, as they so eloquently call it here.
I was in a semi-snooze when I ventured out and toward the loo (as I so ineloquently call it when I’m half asleep and need to take a leak). I was slightly more woken up on my way back to my room and I almost tripped over a beetle, lying on its back on the floor waving with its legs in the air. Tripped, yes. It was the size of a toad (kinda).
I went back to my room, got the camera and shot a few pictures of it.

Beetle

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Then I turned it back on its feet and went back to my room, and asleep. Or at least that was the plan.

Now… I’m not sure if it was out of spite (because I prevented a suicide) or out of gratitude, but the bug -sounding like a Corvette with a V12- started flying around and against my window on and off for the next 2,5 hours.

Obviously next time I will reconsider before putting anything back on its feet like that. At least at that hour of the night…

Day 14…

Posted by Arno on June 15, 2013
Posted in: color, insect, lightroom, macro, nature, photography, Photoshop, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

I think I’m just tapping into the top layer of the wildlife in this place, but so far what I’ve seen it’s mostly the furry, fluffy stuff. In a variety of sizes. Mostly big…

 

Swallowtail moth

D800, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/3.5, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Swallowtail moth

D800, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/3.5, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Orb spider

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/4, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Orb spider

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/4.5, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Orb spider

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/4.8, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

 

Day 11…

Posted by Arno on June 12, 2013
Posted in: color, flower, insect, lightroom, macro, nature, photography, Photoshop, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

When you’re in a country where the rainy season has just started, chances are good you’ll find yourself sitting on the open patio (or if you’re in luck, somewhere outside without any cover 😀 ) watching the rain come down.
Over here it’s like the sound of static noise on the radio. But during and after you could get some nice pictures…

Rain drops falling on leaves

D800, ISO6400, 1/2000 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm, burst series

Drop on a leaf

D800, ISO6400, 1/8000 sec @ f/3.5, Tamron 90mm

Flower

D800, ISO6400, 1/2000 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm

 

And of course, it may happen so, that in this kind of weather (or any kind of weather, for that matter) other *little* critters may come out to have a look as well…

Spider

D800, ISO100, 1/320 sec @ f/4, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Spider

D800, ISO100, 1/320 sec @ f/5, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

 

 

 

Fascinating…

Posted by Arno on May 10, 2013
Posted in: color, insect, lightroom, macro, nature, photography. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

Come spring all the little bugs and critters come out again.
This year is no different.
Ants are a great example of with showing (over)active, ADHD-like behavior.
If it weren’t so uncomfortable, I would just sit down next to a hill and shoot pictures the whole day.

Red ant

D800, ISO400, 1/250 sec @ f/8, Tamron 90mm

Red ant

D800, ISO400, 1/500 sec @ f/8, Tamron 90mm, off-camera SB800

Red ant

D800, ISO400, 1/500 sec @ f/8, Tamron 90mm, off-camera SB800

Red ant

D800, ISO400, 1/250 sec @ f/8, Tamron 90mm

And… call me masochist, but I find it extremely fascinating to watch a (red) ant trying to chew on my hand, especially while looking at it through a macro lens 😀

 

Red ant

D800, ISO400, 1/250 sec @ f/8, Tamron 90mm

 

Happy Spring, everyone. It’s finally here!

The beauties of cultural differences

Posted by Arno on September 13, 2012
Posted in: color, flower, insect, macro, nature, photography, shapes, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Last week I spent a few days in my other home country. I had planned to go out at least one day, even just for an hour, just me and my camera, to shoot some pictures. A little bit of me-time. There was that one day, and I took camera and tripod and took off into the fields. I was mainly looking to dive into some more (and other than bumblebees this time) bugs, and maybe some nice flowers. I think it was too warm with 28°C, because there wasn’t much activity.
Save for all of a sudden a dog that came running at me and jumping against and around me. Its owner came walking towards me with a second dog, apologizing for the first dog’s behavior (“It usually never does that!”), but I didn’t mind at all.
I guess in the end I’m more Dutch than I am Finnish. This wouldn’t usually happen in Finland, where people are typically so private towards strangers that they wouldn’t even greet you when you bump into them. We kind of fell in chit-chat mode and I walked up with the lady, who -coincidentally- appeared to be an amateur photographer and member of the local camera club. We spoke about photography in general, about the places she had been, where I had been, what I’d done (“actually just published an article in a Dutch magazine about HDR and cross-processing”, “oh, really? Are you here still next week? Our camera club has a meeting and sometimes we have guest speakers. This would be a subject a lot of our members would be interested in!”), and so on and so forth. We walked and talked together for probably 45 minutes, when I noticed I had to take a different turn, back to where I came from. Time had passed in the blink of an eye, and I kind of had forgotten how much more open people really are, especially in the part of the country that I’m originally from.
I didn’t get to shoot too much pictures, and I didn’t get too much me-time, but I really enjoyed my walk and talk with this lady. I hope (going back into Finnish mode now) she wasn’t offended by me accompanying her on her walk with her dogs. I hope she enjoyed our talk as much as I did…

Ladybug

D800, ISO100, 1/320 sec @ f/8, Tamron 90mm, on-camera flash

Leaf

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/8, Tamron 90mm
(loooooove the intricacy of this one 🙂 )

And finally, my favorite

Posted by Arno on September 7, 2012
Posted in: color, flower, insect, lightroom, macro, nature, photography, Photoshop, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

This was a bit of a surprise, I must say.
I seem to have been slightly lucky with flies in the past, and this time there was another one that was very willing to model.
Typically this wouldn’t be a fly I would warmly welcome. In Dutch it has the very unflattering name “strontvlieg”, literally translated “shit fly”. The golden dung fly (a slightly more becoming name), named after – exactly – the location where it can commonly be found.
Only I didn’t find it on a pile of dung. Where I did find it, was on one of the late blooming colorful flowers in the garden. The combination of colorful flowers and equally colorful fly made for – I think – a few fantastic images.

And oh my… Do I love my D800. Check out the 100% crops. Is that great or what? Not only the hairs on the fly, but also my reflection on its back. Wow! 🙂 🙂

Golden dung fly

D800, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/5.6, Tamron 90mm

Golden dung fly

D800, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/4.8, Tamron 90mm

Golden dung fly

100% crop of the image

Golden dung fly

D800, ISO100, 1/500 sec @ f/4.8, Tamron 90mm

Golden dung fly

D800, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/5, Tamron 90mm

Golden dung fly

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Tamron 90mm

Golden dung fly

100% crop of the image

And then these…

Posted by Arno on September 4, 2012
Posted in: color, flower, insect, lightroom, macro, nature, photography, Photoshop, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

I’ve missed them before. Used to see them way earlier in the year, at least the Admirals. But now there were a lot of them (and thus I shot a lot of them, to make up for the lack of pictures in early summer 😀 ). They were a little skittish at first, but after I introduced myself and we got more acquainted…

Peacock Butterfly

D800, ISO400, 1/125 sec @ f/11, Tamron 90mm

Peacock Butterfly and bumblebee

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/4, Nikon 70-200mm

Peacock Butterfly

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Nikkor 70-200mm

Peacock Butterfly

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Nikkor 70-200mm

Peacock Butterfly

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Nikkor 70-200mm

Peacock Butterfly

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/4, Tamron 90mm

Peacock Butterfly

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Nikkor 70-200mm

Peacock Butterfly

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/4.2, Tamron 90mm

Peacock Butterfly

D800, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, Nikkor 70-200mm