July 31st 2020
| Location: Near Kitchener | Weather: Sunny |
With only a limited amount of time I only found a couple of subjects, but they turned out to be quite interesting. The little "fly" on the bottom right I discovered later was a type of Bee Fly, which is off the hover fly family, and was quite large relative to that family. He, or possibly she, was around 5/8" (15mm) long nose to tail. The consensus is that it is a Villa Lateralis, so I felt quite pleased with myself for getting a few decent shots of it.
As always ... click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title
As always ... click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title
July 29th 2020
| Location: Just outside Cambridge | Weather: Sun, sun & yes ..Sun |
I find the bug world totally fascinating - the colours, details and shapes I come across are quite often mind blowing. A great example of that is the Cecropia Moth Caterpillar (the upper two images). Nature has come up with some awesome tricks to fool predators - the defenses on this beautiful caterpillar just scream out the words "don't eat me"
As always ... click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title
As always ... click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title
July 26th, 27th & 28th July 2020
| Location: Kitchener | Weather: Summery weather |
Some of the many bugs I shot over the last couple of days. Click on any image to pop it up full size.
July 25th 2020
| Location: Kitchener | Weather: Dry |
A couple of shots from my home studio setup. Thanks to Helen for a) providing the Cecropia Moth Caterpillar, and b) for participating in the shoot. Thanks to Steve & Helen for dropping by ...
July 23rd 2020
| Location: Carden Alvar | Weather: Cooler (a little), but sunny |
It had been a year or maybe even two since I had made the almost 3 hour trip up into Carden Alvar, and definately the first time I had went there with insects in mind. My good birding friend (Steve) had heard that there was quite a few Hummingbird Moths buzzing around, so Steve Rossi, myself and another fellow nature nut, Helen Lam, headed up early to see what was around.
Within a few hours we had sen and photographed several Hummingbird Clearwing Moths, and a few other interesting species including a Northern Crescent Butterfly, a Great Spangled Friillary Butterfly and a Common Wood-Nymph Butterfly.
Although it was a long drive, the good company and the super environment that Carden is known for, made it a very enjoyable day out. BTW because of the current virus, we all drove independently ... oh well ?!
Within a few hours we had sen and photographed several Hummingbird Clearwing Moths, and a few other interesting species including a Northern Crescent Butterfly, a Great Spangled Friillary Butterfly and a Common Wood-Nymph Butterfly.
Although it was a long drive, the good company and the super environment that Carden is known for, made it a very enjoyable day out. BTW because of the current virus, we all drove independently ... oh well ?!
July 21st 2020
| Location: Clinton, Ontario | Weather: Pleasantly cooler, and hazy cloud |
A birding friend (Deb Johnston) who is also an active fellow member of the birding Facebook group, Ontario Bird Photography, lives very close to a swamp area near Clinton. Deb has been posting some outstanding images on the Group, that were captured in and around this swamp, so I have been thinking about going to this spot for some time, to check it out.
Today, I did just that and was very impressed with the location/habitat and the species that I saw whilst there. The highlight was an active and quite bold Sedge Wren that popped up and around our vehicles, giving us both fantastic shots. Other species I saw were Blue Herons, Virginia Rail, a few different Sandpipers, Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, several Red-eyed Vireos, several Woodpecker species, as well as many Sparrow species. My grateful thanks to Deb for the guidance, directions and hospitality she showed me during my morning in the area. Definitely making this area a spot to visit more regularly going forward.
BTW the Guinea Fowl was one of about a dozen I saw along a gravel road next to a local farm... ;)
Today, I did just that and was very impressed with the location/habitat and the species that I saw whilst there. The highlight was an active and quite bold Sedge Wren that popped up and around our vehicles, giving us both fantastic shots. Other species I saw were Blue Herons, Virginia Rail, a few different Sandpipers, Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, several Red-eyed Vireos, several Woodpecker species, as well as many Sparrow species. My grateful thanks to Deb for the guidance, directions and hospitality she showed me during my morning in the area. Definitely making this area a spot to visit more regularly going forward.
BTW the Guinea Fowl was one of about a dozen I saw along a gravel road next to a local farm... ;)
July 17th & 19th 2020
| Location: Around Cambridge | Weather: Never-ending heatwave it seems |
July and August are really tough when it comes to birding and so, as I've mentioned a few times before, I resort to insect shooting. Although not as exciting as photographing birds it does have its own type of magic. Over the last couple of days I've toured around the back roads just outside Kitchener & Cambridge in search of subjects. Some I photograph them as I find them and some I bring back home. At home I'm able to have some control over movement & lighting, so for the most part the images are significantly better than they would be if I shot them in the field.
July 15th 2020
| Location: Lynde Shores | Weather: Hot and muggy |
It was good to be back to this outstanding location .. so many nice birds, and many of them quite unafraid of humans. My target bird (Least Bittern) however, although I saw it several times (briefly), never managed into my viewfinder. Some of the others that popped out are shown below. As has been the case for the last few weeks, the drastically sunny weather made it somewhat difficult to get a decent shot.
July 10th - 12th 2020
| Location: In and around Kitchener | Weather: Generally hot & sunny, but 11th we had rain |
Although it seems that I post mainly dragonflies & butterflies, I actually love to photograph the smaller insects and especially ones that are somewhat ugly (although, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder). Anyways the first and second image below are shots of an Assassin Bug, a predatory beetle that measures approx 15mm end to end. The second image is a close up of only the head, and the whole shot is approx 3mm edge to edge. To take a shot like that it is imperative to create a multi image stack, which is essential, in order to create a workable depth of field. The stack I created here is of around 15 individual shots, blended together in Photoshop, to create this final image. Each of those individual shots were taken at x5 magnification and using a Canon 65mm MP-E macro lens on Canon 5D Mark4.
July 9th 2020
| Location: In and around KW | Weather: Yep, Hot and Sunny |
After a good day birding, it's back to chasing bugs !!
After a few weeks of foraging along back roads & trails I've found a few spots hat have been quite productive, One spot in particular has been producing some decent insect sightings. It seems every time I walk this trail I see dozens if not hundreds of Dragonflies and Damselflies, as well as a good quantity of butterflies. I usually keep a lot of my spots a little on the hush-hush side, but today I can tell you that the spot I just mentioned is ...Drynan Regional Forest which is along Dumfries Road between Cambridge & Paris. If you go be kind to wildlife :)
After a few weeks of foraging along back roads & trails I've found a few spots hat have been quite productive, One spot in particular has been producing some decent insect sightings. It seems every time I walk this trail I see dozens if not hundreds of Dragonflies and Damselflies, as well as a good quantity of butterflies. I usually keep a lot of my spots a little on the hush-hush side, but today I can tell you that the spot I just mentioned is ...Drynan Regional Forest which is along Dumfries Road between Cambridge & Paris. If you go be kind to wildlife :)
July 8th 2020
| Location: Lynde Shores, Whitby | Weather: What else, but HOT |
| It's been a while that I've been able to do any birding, but I had heard through a few friends, that there was a cooperating Least Bittern and a Marsh Wren at a the marsh along Halls Road in Whitby, so with a 3am out of bed start I headed up to meet our "team" at Halls Road for a 5:30 am meetup. As soon as we got to the designated spot the Marsh Wren was sitting up on top of some swampy foliage blasting out his song, and so getting a few shots wasn't too difficult. What was difficult was finding the Least Bittern, and after a few hours we gave up and headed to somewhere cool for some breakfast. I heard today (9th July) that the Bittern was back on territory ... go figure !! As always ... click on an mage for it to expand to full size ... Happy birding :) |  |
July 5th, 6th & 7th 2020
| Location: Back roads around Cambridge | Weather: Hot & sunny (what else LOL) |
Hot, hot & definitely hot !!!
July 2nd & 4th 2020
| Location: In and around Kitchener | Weather: Endless hot & sunny |
At the risk of repeating myself - it's been another hot few days, so birding has been taking a back seat to insect photography.
Tip of the Day: The best money you can spend on photography is travel. Whether it's a 100 mile drive for the day or a 4 week trip to the Amazon.
July 1st 2020
| Location: Kitchener, Ontario | Weather: Hot & sultry |
Well ... doesn't time fly when you are having fun. It seems like yesterday I was commenting on the end of May. Maybe it's a case of the older you get the faster it happens. Anyways, welcome to July and Happy Canada Day.
As you can see from the gallery below it's all about the photography of various insects, but there are some interesting techniques involved in the creation of those images in many cases. Some of these techniques I will leave for later entries, but one I will comment on ...
The image of the Robber Fly (which is the one on the lower left) was created using a 25 image multiple stack. What is stacking? Stacking is the procedure whereby the very tight focusing used in Macro photography is extended and as the name suggests is a technique where you take multiple photos of the same subject, but at slightly different focusing distances, and “stack” them. When we merge these images in post processing, we produce one overall sharp image where the whole frame is in focus. Stacking images is so easy using modern software, which in this case I used Photoshop CC. Now I could go through all the steps here, but there are many websites that illustrate that already. Here is one that I liked ....
Stacking images - follow this link !!
As you can see from the gallery below it's all about the photography of various insects, but there are some interesting techniques involved in the creation of those images in many cases. Some of these techniques I will leave for later entries, but one I will comment on ...
The image of the Robber Fly (which is the one on the lower left) was created using a 25 image multiple stack. What is stacking? Stacking is the procedure whereby the very tight focusing used in Macro photography is extended and as the name suggests is a technique where you take multiple photos of the same subject, but at slightly different focusing distances, and “stack” them. When we merge these images in post processing, we produce one overall sharp image where the whole frame is in focus. Stacking images is so easy using modern software, which in this case I used Photoshop CC. Now I could go through all the steps here, but there are many websites that illustrate that already. Here is one that I liked ....
Stacking images - follow this link !!
