Milking the day

Al Denelsbeck

I’ve made two mentions of it now, but on a particular day last week I really and truly got out and did a little shooting – not anywhere near enough to make up for the poor showing in the first quarter of the year, but more than, say, nothing. And then the following morning I got some more, with both days contributing to the recent slideshow, but for this post we’re only talking about the first.

Unfortunately, a lot of the images didn’t pass muster, for a variety of reasons – poor light and shooting macro photos handheld among them – so we’re just going to review two of the other subjects from the outing. We’re still waiting for the boom that warm weather brings; I think most species have had their faith in spring completely ruined now and are hedging their bets, so subjects are still a bit sparse. A five-lined skink played tag with me around a tree, but one of the pond sliders bravely maintained its basking spot as I ambled much closer than I normally could – that’s the image in this preliminary post. I was kind of expecting to see it blind in the eye facing me, since that was the only way I’d gotten this close to one last year, but I could see it blinking in that eye at least, so I can’t offer a better explanation.

Near an inlet to the pond, however, I spotted a suspicious-looking tree root – suspicious in that I didn’t think a tree root had been there before. Attaching the longer lens confirmed my suspicions; it wasn’t a root, but a northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon,) delving industriously among the rocks and rootlets to make a burrow for itself.

northern water snake Nerodia sipedon sipedon looking for a home
I’ve seen one in the same location a couple of times before, and it’s likely this was the same individual – it was certainly sizable enough, roughly a meter long but up to 7cm in girth. We’d had an absolute deluge a few days previous to this, and it’s possible that the inflow right past these rocks clogged its former burrow with mud and debris, which it was trying to excavate. Eventually, it brought its head out of the shadows, but not in the most photogenic manner.

northern water snake Nerodia sipedon sipedon making an appearance
Due to the light and the path the snake appeared to be wending, I realized I’d probably do better coming from a different angle, which required getting to the opposite side of the inlet channel, a detour of a few dozen meters. On the way, I spotted another potential subject, but knew it wasn’t going anyplace soon while the snake might disappear, so I stuck with my first subject. Unfortunately, the opposite side of the channel wasn’t as good a shooting angle as I’d believed, with too much underbrush in the way, and I was left trying to maneuver for a clear shot while not alerting the snake to my now much-more-visible position. I succeeded, but for one frame only, and this is a tight crop from the original.

northern water snake Nerodia sipedon sipedon peeking out
Almost immediately after this, I shifted position for a slightly better view and caught the attention of the snake, which launched itself towards me with obvious malicious intent shot into the water and disappeared, as they are much more inclined to do – you pretty much have to corner or grab them to get any kind of defensive response, and even then it might be half-hearted. I knew from experience that the snake would re-surface within about two minutes, being far less capable of going without air than turtles or frogs are, but it would also peek out among concealing cover, and wouldn’t venture from the water for several minutes more, so I let it be and went back to the other subject I’d found.

On the trunk of a tree a few meters from the water’s edge, a newly-emerged adult dragonfly was still pumping up and drying out its wings before being able to fly, perched on its just-molted exoskeleton. I liked the juxtaposition, but was working without the macro flash rig, so getting focus and depth together was a challenge, and most of the shots that I attempted were crapola, but I yet managed what I was after.

recently emerged adult dragonfly on exoskeleton
Now, the caterpillar to butterfly metamorphosis is pretty damn dramatic, when you compare anatomy, but it takes place over a period of weeks within a protective cocoon. The difference between the aquatic nymph and flying adult stages of dragonflies and damselflies is pretty significant too, and it becomes apparent in a period of minutes. Yes, it had emerged from that brown husk not half an hour before, seemingly at least three times larger already, but it’s the head that I get the biggest kick out of. The old exoskeleton is split apart along the edges of the eyes and down the middle back of the head, outlined by the white interior surface, but just look at how dramatically larger both the eyes and the ‘face’ are. And I can’t tell you where all this extra mass comes from, because the insect isn’t even drinking water for this to occur, and is in fact drying out slightly; at best, it might be expanding its interior organs with air, but the respiratory rate for insects is remarkably slow. I don’t doubt that the molted skin is drying out and shrinking slightly itself, but I’ve seen this occur with other species and the amount of shrinkage isn’t significant, or even noticeable.

As yet, I still have the full molting sequence, start to finish, on my list of photography goals, since I still haven’t come across one right before it begins to emerge, though I’ve had a few close misses. Let’s put that goal down specifically for this summer; that seems reasonable. What it’s likely to require is getting out early in the morning when I have plenty of time and watching the water edges carefully, then staking out any nymph that appears until the process is complete. We’ll have to see how that goes.

You can count on me

Al Denelsbeck

It’s the fourth Thursday in April, and you know what that means? It means it’s Put Something Off Until The Last Minute Day, and so I’ll let you guess about what time this is actually posting on that date. Chances are, you’re not reading this soon enough that you can actually take advantage of it, unless your timing is good or you actually have this blog in an RSS feed – does anyone even use them anymore? Did anyone ever, especially for Walkabout here?

But hey, just in case: if you are reading this while it is still Thursday, you have a special opportunity. Drop me an e-mail before, oh, a certain amount of time passes, and I’ll send you a free 11×14 print of your choice. It’ll be our way of celebrating the holiday. Act now – e-mail servers are standing by!

backlit morning dew on dandelion blossom
This is another of the images that I decided against when doing the gallery updates, though it was close, and by no means intended to imply that this is the print you will get, I just wanted an image for this post, though if you like it then feel free, but otherwise you can have your choice, just drop me that e-mail and we’ll figure out what you want.

Because a slideshow worked better

Al Denelsbeck

So, a pair of recent photo outings netted remarkably similar photo sequences, and putting them all up in a post would have made it disturbingly long, so I opted to make a slideshow/video. This also served as further wringing out of the new Linux operating system, to see if I could perform all of the functions necessary. Seems to have worked out well enough.


The players, in order of appearance:

Canada geese, Branta canadensis

Red-shouldered hawks, Buteo lineatus

Osprey, Pandion haliaetus

Red-headed woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus

Bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus

I will take this opportunity to (once again) stress the development and utilization of some basic skills, all of which came into play to permit these images.

Listen – And know your species calls. Your ears can often tell you when something is about to happen, and allow you to be prepared.

Use your peripheral vision – A tiny flash of movement or color is sometimes all you’ll have, but it can tell you where and when to seek a better vantage. The osprey, for instance, was first spotted from under a full forest canopy when it passed against a tiny patch of open sky, and that movement in turn pointed out the nest.

Patience – It should go without saying, but sometimes you have to wait around for something interesting to happen.

Switching subjects for a moment, I’ll note that this time around, the video editing package was OpenShot, largely because HitFilm isn’t available for Linux. Worked very well and was pretty much a breeze to set up the slideshow, but I already had the images edited and sized and the audio recorded, so…

I’ve got a few more images from the same sessions to put up, which I’ll hopefully get around to soon – maybe even later on today since I have the time. If not, well, they’ll be along shortly.

Per the ancient lore, part 6

Al Denelsbeck

waves crashing against rocks
This week’s entry, or entries I guess, come from the Lakes/Streams/Waterfalls folder, categories I had created long before I was using digital. But it’s inaccurate for this, because this is not from a lake, or a stream, or a waterfall. I suppose I should have a Lagoon or Sound category, which would have seemed superfluous when I first created them but became much more useful when I moved very close to the Indian River Lagoon, the largely-saltwater sound between the barrier islands and the mainland (which hardly seems appropriate itself – maybe “mainswamp”) of Florida’s Atlantic coast.

Now, think about this. As a peninsula, Florida has technically two sides: an Atlantic coast (meaning facing the Atlantic Ocean) and a Gulf coast bordering the Gulf of Mexico. But of course it’s all one body of water. For our human naming purposes, supposedly there’s a technical border or differentiation, but where is it? I would think, on initial introspection, that it falls on the southernmost tip of Florida, but Florida doesn’t just point southy, it trails off into the Keys which extend like a trail of bread crumbs mostly to the west. So should we count, like, the southernmost point of Key West to be the border? Or maybe, the westernmost point since it’s a string of islands heading in that direction? Do the southern beaches of, for instance, Vaca Key and Bahia Honda Key still count as bordering the Atlantic? And this says nothing of the variously-named sounds between the Keys and the mainswamp. Is there a point in the middle of the water someplace where you can float splayed out and be in four or five different bodies of water at once? I’m not gonna get any sleep tonight…

[By the way, as you already know I have a Beach category, but I don’t feel these images match that idea too well either, so for now, they’re remaining as they are.]

Where was I? Oh yeah, pics. So, the image above was from a particularly rough and windy day in the very area that I did most of my snorkeling while living in Florida, right off one of the causeways in the Indian River Lagoon. It was far too choppy to try and snorkel, but I was on a photography outing that day anyway, and shot several frames capturing the waves crashing against the rocks. These rocks did not occur naturally there, but were strategically placed as a breakwater and erosion control, and this illustrates why very nicely: the violent impact of the waves would be dissipated against these and not the actual foundations of the causeway visible just a couple of meters beyond, keeping the soil, plants, and supporting rocks therein in better shape.

We don’t think a lot about what’s in the water when we see waves like this, but I can tell you that the Indian River Lagoon is chock full of life. Most of it likely survives getting slammed against the rocks without issue, but I have to believe at least some doesn’t handle the collisions well. The green blankets of seaweed (lagoonweed?) that you see here were actually handy for me, because they blanketed and cushioned the underlying layer of barnacles and oysters that gathered very quickly on any available surface; I could sit on these very boulders and put on my flippers and mask without cutting myself to ribbons, because oysters are extremely sharp, and barnacles only slightly less so.

barnacles and oysters on small rock in Indian River Lagoon
To illustrate a little better, this rock was from the same location, a few dozen meters away but on a much calmer day.The scale is deceptive: I could, if I was careful (or maybe reckless,) just fit my hand through that hole. I’m not sure any portion of the underlying rock actually shows in the photo – this is all barnacles, oysters, and dried lagoonweed (one oyster is visible hanging off at bottom center, while another mostly-round one can be seen a little above it and to the left.) Such creatures congregate quickly in the lagoon, borne in on the water and attaching themselves as the opportunity arises. Barnacles, in fact, are fascinating little crustaceans, and yes, I have that right – they’re not molluscs, and actually spend the early stages of their live swimming; you really should check them out. The plethora of these hard shells means that even casual contact can produce cuts, and I usually gained a few nicks with each snorkeling trip. And on occasion, more than nicks – I still have a few scars.

I still like the macabre, ‘mountain of skulls’ effect that this angle provides, though. I really should have come back when the clouds were tumultuous and forbidding.

Isn’t it always the way?

Al Denelsbeck

pond slider Trachemys scripta being all cool
After, really, far too long without anything of interest to photograph, I finally got out to do some shots, and had some time set aside to write a post. Alas, other things intervened, and I’m here putting up a brief missive to fill in between two ‘ancient lore’ posts, because I don’t really have time for something more substantial.

I will say, however, that this is the first post from within the new Linux system, as I am making good on my threat/vow/rant and getting myself free from Windows. I finally got back to working on it, installed Linux Mint as a dual-boot on my primary computer so I could easily go back to my old operating system as needed, and have otherwise been making sure I have everything I need to perform all of the tasks that I routinely tackle. There have been a few pitfalls and frustrations, but overall it’s been going a little better than expected.

Anyway, more will be along as soon as I can devote a little time to it. Next up, however, is the (so far) weekly installment of digital images from the depths of history.

Per the ancient lore, part 5

Al Denelsbeck

unidentified eggshells on lake reeds
Running a day late on this one, partially because I didn’t start it earlier and got busy, partially because I forgot what day of the week it was (weird schedules can do that to you.)

For this gripping episode, we have… eggs. Eggshells, mostly. I suspect the scale is pretty apparent, but they’re attached to a reed on the edge of a lake in Florida, so I’m going to say they’re likely snail eggs, and they came from the Invertebrates folder of my stock images. Which admittedly doesn’t have a lot of entries since the bulk of invertebrates that I photograph fall into the Arthropod category better. So, snails and slugs by a wide margin, and I don’t chase them too often. Going from memory, these eggs are about 3mm across

I would have loved to have captured new emergents from these eggs (or the other two or three patches of the same that I found on that day,) but no activity was to be seen. It’s easy to think something along the lines of, “Well, just come back another time,” (which I sometimes do as a self-accusation when I find I’m missing photos I think I should have,) but the reality is, these likely appear only during a certain time of the year, and hatch only when the conditions are right – this could be a span of just a couple of days. And since I wasn’t there to see it the first time, I couldn’t accurately say when these days might fall. These were shot June 5th, 2004, and I was only in Florida…

[Okay, this is just an example of how things stretch out longer than intended sometimes, and quite often when writing blog posts. I had it in my head that I’d left Florida in 2005, but wasn’t exactly sure of the date and thus whether I’d have had the opportunity to look for the eggs again. Then I started thinking it was earlier, and actually in 2004, and finally had to start doing some research and making connections with world events. I finally pinned it down.]

… until September of that year, when I’d moved back to North Carolina. If such eggs are found around here, they’d almost certainly be coastal, and I’m not out at the coast often enough. So here we are, fourteen years later, and still no further along in this pressing mystery. But before you make any further disparaging sounds, may I remind you that I’ve gotten photos of another species of snail hatching, oh, six years ago, and those were under water at the time, so stop being all highhanded.

[By the way, the “world events” I mention above happen to be hurricanes Ivan and Jeane, both of which hit the section of Florida where I’d lived only ten days apart – I’d actually gone back down to pick up the remainder of my belongings between the two storms, so wasn’t in state for either of them. The damage from the first was notable, but the second hit that region much harder, so it appears my timing was fortuitous. I may feature a couple of photos a little later on.]

Podcast: Getting the feel

Al Denelsbeck

I don’t actually think we’re going to have a spring or a summer this year. I think we’re going to just fluctuate in temperatures for the next several months, frosts and snow killing off all the things that start to grow when the temp is higher, until eventually the sun just gives up entirely and stays down.

[There – now I’ve established an excuse not to post too much and the pressure’s off.]

But life goes on, and so does my droning voice, which means it’s time for another podcast. This time, it’s an extension of the earlier equipment monologue. And yet, I wouldn’t do these if I didn’t think there was some redeeming value to them.

Walkabout podcast – Getting the feel

Not a lot to link to or illustrate with this one. I mentioned exposure compensation, and also white balance, so there are those links. Most of what you want to be familiar with, however, will be found in your camera manual, and if you don’t have one, typically they can be found online.

A quick note, something that I tell my students all the time: don’t worry about not understanding what some particular function or option on your camera is for. Manufacturers are now trying to make just about every body useful to any shooting situation, and not only is it not necessary to understand all (or even the majority) of these functions to use the camera effectively, in many cases you will never use them all, regardless of your experience. Some are only for very specific techniques; some are even virtually worthless. Remember, not that long ago there were just a handful of primary controls on any camera, and these are still the ones that have the greatest impact on your images (for the record, that’s shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.) So don’t think that you have to read the manual cover-to-cover to know how to use the camera. However, it’s not a bad idea to flip through it occasionally, and if there’s something in there that you have questions about, the webbernets is a handy resource. Even plugging the term into that search bar over to your right might generate a useful post that I’ve done in the past.

Nothing else that I’m thinking of right now, so here’s the first Copes grey treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) of the year, at least for me – this came from April 3rd when the weather was normal for this time of year. By the way, the snow/sleet mentioned in the ‘cast never did come to pass, though the temperature dropped very close to that. Definitely a weird season.

Copes grey treefrog Hyla chrysoscelis looking at me as if I was responsible for this wacky weather

BIAB: Down the rabbit hole

Al Denelsbeck

It’s disturbing how many posts I start to work on and find out they’re a lot more complicated than I originally thought – and in this case, underpinned with ethical considerations.

Let’s start with copyright. Original creations in the US, and many other countries, have a degree of protection under copyright laws, which roughly mean that they can only be used under the permission of the creator. For photography, this had a reasonable amount of control until the intertubes came onto the scene and anyone could, with little effort, snag an image and republish it elsewhere – and a really disturbing number of people believe this to mean that if they can, then it’s perfectly legal to do so. Simple (really, only) answer: no. If you didn’t take it, then you need the photographer’s permission to use it. For anything. Memes and Pissinterest and backgrounds to shitty ‘inspirational’ poems included.

[Small, semi-related side note: Jim Kramer, whose name you might recognize, once found that an image of his was being used without attribution or permission on some sappy religious site; Jim is as ardent an atheist as I am. Moreover, they were hotlinking it, meaning that not only were they using it, their site was ‘calling’ it from Jim’s own, so his own site bandwidth was being used to display it instead of the thief’s site. Jim simply replaced the image with a scathing rebuke of unethical practices and, if I remember right, a dig at religion at the same time – the image was named the same, of course, so the thief was now displaying this instead. It remained up for a couple of days before it was discovered and the link removed. I like Jim’s approach to such things.]

Now, music is a curious aspect of this. Ostensibly protected under the same laws, music is publicly ‘displayed’ all over the place – that’s kind of the point; it’s by far the primary way that musicians actually get successful. Imagine if the only exposure to someone’s music was through their live concerts. But there’s this weird, poorly-defined demarcation of what’s permissible (for instance, radio play,) and what’s not (distribution of a digital music file without paying the recording companies.) It’s very convoluted, and the artists and their ‘representative’ sponsors often disagree wildly on this aspect.

And then there’s derivative works. Essentially, any creation that uses a recognizable portion of someone else’s work in their own is not ‘original,’ and copyright still lies with the originator – if I take someone else’s photo and edit it into a collage or creative composite or whatever, they still retain the rights to it regardless of the work that I’ve done.

Which brings us to this. Remixes of well-known songs have their own little niche, and for a particular reason: it takes something that we like, but perhaps have been hearing too often, and gives it a fresh spin, an extra bit of character or even a different tempo and feel. For instance, I had some misgivings a bit earlier when I featured a remix of an album track that was probably unknown to most people, because I suspect the strongest impact of the remix came from knowing the original very well (I’d had it on the album for decades.) This might mean someone hears the newer version first and likes it, then finds the original very flat – I felt that way with The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,’ having become familiar with Elton John’s version first; I later found The Beatles’ original to be flat, nasally, and uninspired.

But I believe we’ve effectively thwarted that possibility here, because the song I’m about to feature is Peter Gabriel’s ‘In Your Eyes,’ and if you don’t know this song by now submit yourself for scientific study. Gabriel himself did umpteen versions of it since its original release on the 1985 album So and within the soundtrack of the film Say Anything. Even the 45 RPM vinyl release had two versions – both of which differed from the album release (you may be familiar with the truncated lyrics of the single.)

According to what I just discovered, someone named Bobby Clark, who also went by the moniker “808,” melded these two vinyl versions together to produce “808’s Extended Mix.” This was apparently featured on his own blog until the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) requested that he take it down. Which is where things get interesting in this whole copyright business.

All of the music was Peter Gabriel’s, and released through his recording company in two separate tracks. I don’t want to assume too much without knowing the actual facts in the case, but if a) attribution was provided, and b) the song was publicly ‘played’ on a site without requiring any payment or fees or whatever, this is exactly the same as radio play, except to a significantly smaller audience – the only difference is, you can’t purchase this version from the artist or the recording/distributing company. Or anyone else, so there’s no actual loss of potential sales revenue. The same recording company didn’t pay anything or push to have it played on the site, which is what they routinely do for radio stations – insofar as it prompted anyone to develop any interest at all in Peter Gabriel’s music to the point where they purchased something, it actually saved the companies a little money. This is largely why artists are at odds with the draconian practices of their recording companies, because the artists know that exposure results in increased sales. Recording companies often feel that any usage should be a sale, while artists often recognize that any sale is better than none.

[It’s a little different for photographers, because virtually no one ever sees an interesting image and says, “Wow, I like that! I should buy some of their photos!” Most people don’t even look down at the watermark or attribution to note who took it. Which means ‘exposure’ is entirely different between music and photography, even though there are some parallels between freely downloading music files and right-clicking on a photo to republish in a Twit. “Who performs this song?” is asked a billion times more than, “Who took this picture?” I’ll let you ponder the reasoning behind this…]

Anyway, as I dance along the borders of hypocrisy and selective ethics, I present to you Peter Gabriel’s ‘In Your Eyes’ as remixed by 808/Bobby Clark from the two single versions. Right at the beginning, you can hear the telltale hiss from the vinyl sources.

In Your Eyes (808’s Extended Remix) – Peter Gabriel

There are several reasons why I particularly like this version. I’d known about the additional lyrics included in some versions for a while. Curiously, the 45 RPM single seemed to have truncated some of the lines from the chorus, but then added a stanza at the end before the fade out (“Accepting all I’ve done and said…”) – which seemed to thwart the typical reason for clipping lyrics, which is an ‘acceptable’ length for air time. This added section was some of Gabriel’s better vocalizations as far as I was concerned. The extended B-side included these lyrics, with subtle changes, at both beginning and end – but then didn’t really have the primary lyrics of the original(s) within, which is what 808/Clark remixed to include. The B-side also featured the addition of a lot of background vocalists, among them Youssou N’Dour I believe, as well as someone really kicking the bass vocals. It builds up a lot better, more dynamic than the typical Top 40 offerings then or now, with instruments taking turns in appearing within the track.

If you’re only familiar with the popular versions, this one might be slightly disconcerting since the lyrics don’t drop in right where you might expect them, but it didn’t take me long to get used to this. Notable, too, is the extended bass (guitar) and drum work – the original, still audible among the familiar lyrics, is a bit simpler. ‘In Your Eyes’ is a great track in any version; I just found this one to be even richer. Illegal though it is.

Per the ancient lore, part 4

Al Denelsbeck

great blue heron Ardea herodias touching down after posing for lovely flight photo
This week, as we follow the folders in alphabetical order, it’s “Birds.” Or “Birds 1,” to be accurate, since in order to accelerate load times and searching functions, I limit the size of each of the digital images folders to about 4,000 pics. I’ll let you guess how many folders I have for arthropods…

So with this loaner camera, I charged it up and did a few test shots with it, mostly of the little aquarium that I was maintaining, then reset the image counter to ‘officially’ start my usage, which means my numbering is a little counterintuitive – Jim had shot almost 10,000 images with it before handing it over to me, and so I have a handful of frames that were first, but numbered quite high since they followed his number sequence. After resetting the counter, I headed out into the ‘wild’ to see what could be found – this is frame 3. Frame 2, only seconds before this, can be seen here (and you want to click on that link, because it’s a much better photo, but why repost something on the blog that’s been in my galleries for years?)

This was taken while wading in my old haunt, the Indian River Lagoon, a pretty cool place for photos and the source of my aquarium subjects, while in Florida at least. The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) had honked loudly as it crested the treeline behind me, and for what reason I cannot determine – I am 99% certain it could see me clearly standing in the open shallows, so I am forced to assume it was attracting my attention to itself. This could have been for territorial reasons, in essence telling me to get lost (which didn’t work,) or there could be another, more interesting explanation.

In some areas of Florida, the great blues have learned that fisherfolk often use live bait, usually medium-small fish about 8cm long or so, like finger mullet. And often, these are collected by casting nets in shallows exactly like the one I was exploring. Once in the bucket, they’re easy pickings for sneaky herons that may dash in while the owner is far enough away trying to collect more, and I’ve watched herons come onto docks and scamper right up to the bait collection; I’ve also watched one sidle up to an empty bucket, peer inside, look around the landscape suspiciously as if trying to spot Allen Funt, look inside again, then stalk off with what I was forced to interpret as a reproachful air. Regardless of my inaccurately anthropomorphic impressions, it is entirely likely that this heron, spotting me wading, thought I might be the source of an easy meal. I’m not sure this is the best explanation, because they seem to know they have to stay undetected when stealing bait and so honking isn’t the best of tactics, but this one actually circled around me at a relatively fixed distance before landing nearby, and launched itself off again less than two minutes later.

By the way, this shot was taken on the same day better than four hours later, but I’m not sure if I was out the entire time (and if so, was likely quite sunburned by that point) or had split up the excursions. I do know that the camera had a noticeable shutter lag, so timing that one to capture the spray was more difficult than might first be imagined, and I almost certainly discarded a lot of near-misses.

And Mr Bugg, just so you know: that’s three out of the four weekly posts so far that are images from Florida.

But what about third spring?

Al Denelsbeck

So last night, when the weather was reasonably warm, I went across to the nearby pond to see what I could find. I had two primary things in mind, knowing they were likely stirring by this time: frogs and fishing spiders. With the possibility of water snakes. Of the first and third, I saw no signs, but the fishing spiders were available.

A quick note: The easiest way to find spiders by night is with the help of a bright light mounted very close to the eyes, and LED headlamps, the kind that shine from the center of your forehead, tend to work the best. Finding the battery life to be an issue with my original lamp, which used three (rechargeable, in my case) AAA batteries, I’d sprung for a new one that used two 18650 rechargeable batteries, the same kind used by my LED focusing lamp and a tactical flashlight that I have. These are powerful cusses, and I figured the headlamp should be plenty bright and long-lived. The model I got had multiple lighting options, which was good – I’d had white, red, and green options for my old one, and they worked well for not ruining night vision (red) and for low-power unobtrusive path finding (green.) I couldn’t find a similar set of options, so I settled on one with yellow flood and blue options, as well as a focusing white LED as the main lamp. This turned out to be much better than anticipated, and the same unit I purchased can be found here (at least for a little while, until the Ebay listing changes.) First off, the battery life is great, and the focusing white lamp is very handy, able to be set for path width or sharp bright ‘pinpoint’ beam. But it was the blue lights that held the most surprise. Brilliant blue and good for finding a path but not too bright to trash night vision, it turns out they also shine significantly into the ultra-violet range, which means they can be used to spot things that fluoresce. Last night, I located a curiously reactive bit of fungus, until I determined it was actually a chewed-up piece of fishing bobber…

But on to the night’s finds. With the help of the LED headlamp, I soon located a smallish six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes triton) floating in a small pool off of the main pond. It was a little ways out onto the water, not too far but a little farther than nice, close macro work requires. And I digress again, because one of the projects I have slated for the good season is a post, or perhaps a video, on the huge variety of body positions and shooting angles that macro work entails – the photographer’s positions, mind you. This one was no exception. First, the image itself:

small six-spotted fishing spider Dolomedes triton floating on pollen-stained puddle
gumball seed pods from American sweetgum Liquidambar styracifluaTo get the above shot, I had to be sprawled flat on the bank of the pool, extending out as far as balance would allow over open water (not deep, but not, you know, ideal for camera equipment.) The biggest issue was the thicket of ‘gumballs,’ the seed pods of the American sweetgum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) that overhung the pool, some seen at right. These are not quite as hard as pine cones, but not far from it, and so quite far from the ideal thing to be lying prone upon. The spider, of course, waited until I was plastered across these before it decided to switch positions to something less photogenic, and I was forced to scrounge around for a small twig to reach out and try to guide it back into something useful. The moment the twig touched the water in front of it, the spider darted forward and seized the twig briefly, suspecting it to be prey – not the first time I’ve seen this aggressive behavior from fishing spiders. You’d think with eight eyes they could confirm at least animus…

Regardless, I achieved a couple of frames of the spider that met with my exacting criteria for position/angle, and was able to detach the gumballs from my chest [now there’s a sentence that doesn’t do well without context.] I feel the need to point out that the water isn’t as murky as it looks, but instead stained with the onset of pine pollen season here – you’ll see more of this later on.

extremely early or very resilient molted exoskeleton of dragonflyThe pond itself yielded no target finds, but as I was looking around I did spot a couple of legs poking out from the underside of a leaf, and I gently turned it up to see what was beneath. Instead of another spider such as a long-jawed orb weaver (this being a favorite haunt of those,) I found the molted exoskeleton of a dragonfly. Now this has me quite curious, because this seems extremely early for them, especially with the number of cold spells (and outright snow showers) that we’ve had this ‘spring.’ However, I also find it hard to believe that this has been present since last year’s molting season, which is generally late spring throughout the summer. Has this been sitting there all this time, or is it evidence of a very early emergent from the water, where dragonflies spend their larval period? I suppose I could do some carbon14 testing to determine its exact age, though I haven’t the elaborate equipment for it and it would only tell me in a range of dozens of years anyway…

But getting this image was part two of the test of Al’s flexibility, because the exoskeleton was on the underside of a leaf, right on the shore of the pond. So this time, I was lying on my side on the ground, head pressed against the pine needles aiming the entire camera rig at an upward diagonal to see the bottom of the leaf. No gumballs this time though, and I chased off a minuscule wolf spider so it wouldn’t get crushed, because I’m me.

suspicious legs from underneath leafJust so you know, this is all that was visible from any ‘normal’ position, and those legs are a few millimeters in length, the entire leaf being about the width of your finger – pretty subtle, in other words. All those pale specks on the surface are pine pollen, beginning to get all over every damn thing because it’s that time of the year. You don’t see them in the image above because that’s the underside of the leaf.

While I have seen several examples of green treefrog already, and one specimen of green (aquatic) frog, I haven’t seen any of the Copes grey treefrogs that also abound in this area. One tree near the small fishing spider pool has been a source of photo subjects over the course of a few years, and so I was obligated to examine it closely to see if the greys were out yet. That search proved fruitless, but on a neighboring tree, a much larger fishing spider was plastered right at eye level, simply begging for its photo to be taken. Okay then.

fishing spider Dolomedes tenebrosus posing helpfully but boringlyThe leg span of this Dolomedes tenebrosus was approximately 8cm, so, not a small specimen, though I’ve seen larger. But ‘top-down’ shots are boring, even conveniently at eye-level, so a different perspective was in order. Especially since this is nowhere near menacing-looking enough.

fishing spider Dolomedes tenebrosus portrait
Okay, camera with 80mm macro and extension tube attached, makes it about 30cm in length. Working distance of maybe 8-10cm, a mere leg-span away. The spider, as seen, was in a head-down position on the trunk, so this required a half-crouch, twisted upwards position tight against the trunk (again, that’s me) in order to get this image – too high to kneel of course. I’ve gotten pretty mellow from my original arachnophobic days, which is good, because I was sitting directly underneath the spider in an awkward position that would have made leaping away virtually impossible, should the spider have decided it needed to pounce on this impertinent human. Not to mention that, at this magnification, there would have been no indication of where it went, just its vanishing from focus should it have moved anywhere. Spiders, however, don’t pounce on people for any reason, though occasionally when disturbed they might simply jump away in a direction that may bring them briefly into contact, but this is entirely accidental. I knew this one would likely just sit perfectly still, since I had no twigs to offer it, but I did get to see it tapping gently with its pedipalps, as if idly drumming its fingers. I took this to mean that it was aware of my presence (rather than, as is often the case, simply blinded by the lights that I was using.) And yes, if you look closely you can see some pollen on its carapace on forelegs, though the overall lack tells me that the spider had not been out very long that evening.

Back in the front yard, I shone the light around and picked up more eye reflections, and followed it down to a little wolf spider. This one wasn’t particularly hard to shoot, simply requiring being sprawled on the ground without any painful debris… except for one thing.

wolf spider Family Lycosidae and earwig Order Dermaptera in tense standoff
Almost immediately after finding the wolf spider (Family Lycosidae) on the right, I spotted the foraging earwig (Order Dermaptera) on the left. I thought, Okay, here’s where I get the sequence of a spider’s capture, and waited, aware that I have very few images showing any such activity – I usually just have something from after it’s happened. And you would think that my position wouldn’t be an issue, but I still had to hold the camera in a way that I could aim and focus, and keep the headlamp on the pair, so I was propped on my elbows with head raised (so, thrown back a bit) – and waiting patiently. Even mildly awkward positions soon make one aware that muscles that aren’t used this way routinely get fatigued really, really quickly. Meanwhile, the earwig was poking around without moving much from position and the spider seemed oblivious (which my searing bright LED light was likely not helping in the slightest.)

Then the spider moved a little, turning to face in the earwig’s direction. I waited.

Then the earwig moved a bit closer to the spider, getting within easy range. I waited.

And then, finally, the spider darted forward, just within contact range of the earwig though it wasn’t clear if it had actually tried to pounce. The earwig gave a sharp convulsion and whipped those pincers upwards defensively, hacking at the air above its body, while the spider beat a hasty retreat even before the defensive reaction had completed. It looked to me as if the spider realized this was an earwig and thus unpalatable, though I’d never heard of such a property, so I have a little research to do. I would have thought the spider was large and adept enough to handle such prey, but it was demonstrated otherwise, so what do I know?

Anyway, I have a few more shots that’ll appear in another post, while the weather reports are threatening more cold weather, with a slight chance of snow again, for the end of the week. This is really getting tedious – I’m going to have to get a winter home in central America or something.

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