Flowers & Bugs

Cosmoses, rudbeckia (below), and coneflowers are probably the flowers I photograph most often.

 

I don’t remember for sure how I got this separation of the flower from everything else, but I like it.

 

When photographing this insect I at first thought it was a milkweed bug, but it looked a little different.  He was perched on that leaf like he was looking for something or somebody.

 

“Hey guys where are you?”  “We’re ready to get started up here!”

 

Well, with this photo I knew it wasn’t a milkweed bug, but what.  Thank goodness for the internet and the Google machine.  Turns out this is a cocklebur weevil, my first one … that I remember.

And by the way, if you are like me and went through grade school, junior high, high school, and four or more years of college without the internet to research your projects and papers, then you truly know what I mean by “thank goodness for the internet and the Google machine.”

 

Strange looking isn’t it.  I’ve encountered it before:  lacewing larva.

 

I had moved a little for a different angle when all of a sudden there was a commotion that caught me by surprise.  I think the ant and the insect at the bottom startled the lacewing larva.  She and the other insect seemed to be jumping around and I snapped the shutter in surprise.  Otherwise everything would have been in perfect focus, really.  That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

This is one of those photos that I should have deleted because of the poor quality but I can’t, at least not just yet.  Where else am I going to get a photo of an ant, a lacewing larva, and a leafhopper all within an inch of each other.  It didn’t last long enough to get a good picture.

 

As much as I love that cosmos photo near the top of this post with the blossom’s isolation from the background, I think these next two rank in the top ten of my most favorite flower photos.  Of course I’ve probably said this at least two dozen times about some of my other flower photos.

 

 

Thank you for stopping by.

David

All photos taken with a Nikon D7100 and a Sigma 105mm macro lens.