Happy Halloween


The weather has been spastic as all git-out, and I’ve actually postponed meetings with a couple of students because it’s been raining frequently and unpredictably, despite many meteorologist’s claims otherwise. Yesterday as the weather cleared I got out to a park that I don’t visit too often, having left early to beat the rush hour traffic, and had some time read more

More spiders – lots of spiders

I’m sorry, it’s what I’m finding to photograph.


So about a month ago I mentioned that the green lynx spiders (Peucetia viridans) that I’d been observing had all made egg sacs one on the dog fennel plants, one on the butterfly bush, and one on the rosemary bush. They have all since hatched, and I’ve been watching the new spiderlings read more

Too cool, part 20: Stop it, you’re creeping me out


Lyssomanes viridis, known to those of us who do not speak dead languages as the magnolia green jumping spider, is a lovely translucent green spider that wouldn’t hurt a fly um, is harmless to anything larger than a honyebee and is undeserving of any arachnophobic reactions. Until you get close. Really, really close.

Because, while all jumping spiders have the same equipment, on the magnolia read more

On composition, part 19: Distractions


When we’re learning how to do something even vaguely artistic, there is a series of pitfalls that can arise: while concentrating on following “rules” or guidelines or better techniques or whatever, we can get too wrapped up in details and forget the more important aspects, like style and message and appeal. This particular topic is one, in the read more

… be true

This is largely a continuation of an earlier post, where I went in too close to a particular species of spider, and I’m going to do it again. It’s all legal if I provide a warning.

I went down to the river yesterday, because I hadn’t been there in a while and I wanted to see how autumn colors were progressing – the river is one of the better locations close by to see a wide read more

Leftovers

This is just showing off a few more pics from the Savannah et al trip, ones that didn’t fit into the text of the previous posts too well (I know – this implies I actually do some editing, which is startling in itself.) The problem is, all of them are vertical orientation, which is much harder to fit among the text, so the format is going to go wonky, or even wonkier read more

To thine own creepy self…


“So, Al,” you begin, (“you” meaning someone who reads this blog regularly, possibly an entirely fictitious character, and not necessarily you yourself, but thank you if it applies,) “are you trying to tell us that you spent all that time in Savannah, the edge of the subtropics, and did almost no insect photography? Seriously?” And to that I reply, read more

Spectres and splattered bugs


We had plans to do the whole downtown Savannah thing again this trip, and spent one day and one evening down there. The Girlfriend wanted to do a walking ghost tour again, taking The Younger Sprog with her, but I decided to skip that and do a self-guided tour, starting with Colonial Park Cemetery.

I’m not going to go into the whole history of the cemetery here – there are more than enough read more

Simons and Solenopsis

On Day Two of the Valiant Quest for Chillin’ (that sounds so much better than “vacation,” doesn’t it?) we hit the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, still the best wildlife rehab place I’ve seen. The staff and volunteers demonstrated that our previous experience was no fluke read more

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