Big honkin’ bug post


That title’s an homage to a coworker of mine from history back, who described a spider in that manner and sparked a bizarre mental image…

So around Walkabout Studios, as I said earlier, are arranged several egg sacs (“oothecas”) of Chinese mantises (Tenodera sinensis,) specifically so I can photograph them in various life stages, including hatching. Along for the read more

On this date 14


Eight years ago this very day, I was endeavoring not to get bitten while attempting to actually photograph the bitey bits. I succeeded in the former but failed in the latter, still producing this enigmatic (so I say) portrait.

Those red marks are a clue of course, and the fact that they’re mark and not A mark tells you this is the northern variant – specifically, a read more

Just because, part 34

I should be working on video editing, or even sorting, but I don’t feel like it. Plus there’s this thing about the number of images uploaded for March, which is gonna be a pretty big number, to a four-year old anyway.

So another handful of pichers, without a lot of exposition.


It was a warm and sunny day yesterday (totally unlike today,) and the turtles were taking advantage read more

Late but early

Wholly without intending, I have two more entries for the end of the month abstract – shot right at the end of the month, as in, this morning. However, the official post had already gone up by the time that I shot them (it was scheduled to appear at 1 AM,) so I’m just adding a post. There might even be another today, of photos that I shot yesterday, and it appears another video is coming read more

March timeses on

… or something like that. It’s end-of-month abstract time, is what I’m saying.


Our abstract here is a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) that I’d waited until the light was bad so the shutter would drag, and captured it on takeoff – this was all carefully planned to appear like impressionist brush strokes, y’ see. Really.

And another, because I got two that I liked read more

Someone will be cooperative

That’s what you can count on in nature photography: even if your primary subject fails to appear or do something photogenic, another subject will fill in the gaps.

Actually, you can’t count on that at all. Don’t listen to me. [I know, you weren’t anyway. Thanks for that.]

Having spotted some bald eagles at a particular spot that seemed promising a few weeks back, The Girlfriend read more

Closer than last year

… or the previous one, for that matter.

I’d mentioned earlier that I’d primed the yard with egg cases of the Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) – seven of them, to be exact – and this morning I found the first of them had produced progeny. Unfortunately, read more

A splash of evening color


Just a quick pair of pics, taken less than an hour ago. There will be another post coming, hopefully before the day is out, that has more of those words that you all love so much, but for now, we have color.

And a moon. And if you look closely, Venus. I think it’s Venus.


Yeah, just checked through Stellarium – it’s Venus. You might see it better later on, depends.

On this date 13


This week, we’re going back just three years, partially because this image shows typical conditions for the season, which is the deluge of pine pollen that occurs. Those are the little yellow specks all over the main subject, which I am taking to be a short-tailed ichneumon wasp (Genus Ophion) – that seems to be what BugGuide is indicating, though their read more

Drawn to scale


I’ve mentioned in two previous posts about a trip to the NC Botanical Gardens, a session The Girlfriend and I did before their closing, and I would have warned you about the closing had I had more than a day’s notice myself. Note that this just applies to the gardens proper the nature trails out back remain open.

Anyway, I was hoping to see at least a Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis,) read more

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