Zooming – October 2016

I got a new camera this month and have been doing some experiments with the increase optical zoom (that also translates to increased digital zoom. I’m sharing some of my favorites in the Zooming post for this month. There were two pictures of milkweed bugs from early and late in the month. There are at least 4 instars of the insects in the ‘leaf’ picture and fewer in the second picture. Maybe it is getting late enough in the season that there are not new milkweed bugs hatching from eggs.

I like the zoom for photographing insects because I like not disturbing them. It’s even more important for insects that sting like the bee on the asters

Or the wasp that seems to be looking underneath the milkweed leaf.

Sometimes it just works better because the insect will fly away more quickly if I get too close – like this bumble bee.

Sometimes there are items that catch my eye because they seem to be spotlighted – like this fall leaf stuck in other vegetation that seems to glow in the morning sunlight.

One morning before I was scheduled to hike with first graders I heard a noise high in the tree above me and I finally spotted the noise maker – a squirrel gnawing on a black walnut; it takes a lot of work to get the nut inside.

I don’t photograph my cats very often. They don’t like cameras….but staying further away and using the zoom was effective – once.

Photographs through a Window – August 2016

August has been hot, humid – punctuated with thunderstorms. Photography through the windows of our house has still be good. The doves are still around – coming for water at the bird bath frequently.

There always seems to be a wasp that leans too far into the bird bath and ends up drowning. I watched one for several minutes and saw that even when it maneuvered itself close to the side, the wasp could not get enough leverage from only 2 or 3 of its legs touching the side to lift itself out of the water.

There has been an uptick in gold finch visits. The bird bath is popular with them just like it to the doves.

But the gold finches like the zinnias

And the high narrow perch of the hanger for the bird feeder (empty during the summer) that the doves are too big to enjoy.

There was a molting American Crow on a neighbor’s roof.

We had more butterflies around in August. The zinnias were visited by spicebush swallowtails and

Tiger swallowtails.

The tiger swallowtails are probably our most prolific large butterflies because we have so many large tulip poplar trees in the forest behind our house (tulip poplars are host plants for the tiger swallowtail caterpillars).

August was a good month for through a window photography!