The Bugs in the Backyard: Focusing On Life

There are a variety of reasons why I take photographs of bugs, but it all really started with Because I Can. I got a macro lens for my camera (it was a gift from my husband) and having a macro lens meant I could take nice close-up pictures of small things, and when I went out looking for small things to photograph, well, bugs were an obvious choice of subject. Of course, taking pictures of bugs was one of the main reasons I wanted a macro lens in the first place, but at the time I was thinking just the "nice" bugs, like butterflies and ladybugs. I wasn't going to take pictures of the icky ones, which was pretty much everything else. But then when I actually got the lens, and was hungry for subjects, I started looking around, and really looking at the "icky" bugs, seeing them much better through that lens that made them look so big, and I realized that they're not icky at all. And then I started to realize how many bugs there are, bugs I never imagined, bugs I had never seen or heard of before, bugs that were beautiful to look at, and had such interesting, alien ways of living, all around me, and Because I Can, because I have a macro lens, was no longer the primary reason I was taking pictures of bugs. Bugs I used to hate, bugs I used to fear, I came to see them all so differently through the lens of my camera. I began to see them. Even the bugs I have always loved, the butterflies, I was able to see differently, and better. Before I started taking close-up pictures of them, I had no idea what a butterfly's face actually looked like. I guess I imagined that it was pretty much like the cartoon butterflies that I had been seeing my whole life, because I had never really looked at a butterfly's face. Even when I had opportunities to do so, like when I saw pinned butterflies in a museum exhibit, I always focused on the beautiful wings, I never really studied or examined the rest. I have read things about how when you travel, and see interesting things, you shouldn't bother taking a lot of pictures, you should just live in the moment and preserve it in your memory instead, and that is probably good advice in a lot of ways, but it always kind of irks me because I love to take pictures. And I would say that you should take some, because when you look at something through your camera, you are literally focusing on it. You are examining it, and framing it, and picking out details. And maybe, like with me and my macro lens, and the bugs, sometimes it will make you see things in a way you never saw them before. Maybe you will find yourself looking for beauty in things you never used to think were beautiful, because with your camera you have to find a way to show others that beauty. And maybe the people who give that advice, and I, should stop telling other people how they should look at the world. But I am still going to say, look at the bugs, up close if you can. They're pretty amazing when you look at what they really are.
Ironically, there are some bugs (which often includes butterflies) that I don't need a macro lens for, and today I actually had to go inside and switch to my telephoto lens to take pictures of the Backyard Bugs of the Day. You see, I was out in front of my house, down by the rocks near the street, looking for insects, when a huge dragonfly came along. I watched it, hoping that it would land so I could take a picture of it, but it didn't, it flew off into the trees, so I went back to taking pictures of ants and aphids as I had been doing. But then I heard a bit of a ruckus behind me, a rustling of the leaves in the street. I assumed it was an animal, as the squirrels and chipmunks have been feisty lately, but when I turned around, from among the dried leaves in the street rose what I assumed was the huge dragonfly, having turned around and come back when I wasn't looking. But there was something odd about it:

I think you can probably tell from this picture (which is horrible, but dragonflies in flight are a difficult thing to photograph), but it took me a few seconds to understand what I was seeing.

I kept trying to get a picture as the blur zoomed around...

Here's that previous picture magnified to show the Backyard Bugs of the Day:

Two dragonflies. Male and female. Flying together...

Finally they landed, but up in a tree. I took a bunch of pictures, but this was really not a situation for a macro lens. After a while I thought I might as well at least try to go inside and switch lenses in the hopes that they would still be in that same spot when I came back...

... and they were. I am sure you know what's going on here, but I can explain a bit anyway. The way dragonflies (and damselflies) mate is that the male has graspers on his back end, and he holds onto the female right behind her eyes. She moves loops her body forward to connect to the male for the transfer of his genetic material. The amount of time they spend like this varies from species to species; these two were like this for at least 10 minutes that I was watching, and eventually they flew around a bit more together before I lost them. He will stay with her, possibly connected still (I don't know about this particular species, and don't even know the name of the species), until she lays her eggs in water–I don't have any idea where they are going to do that, but there is a pond about a quarter mile down the road. Dragonfly larva live for a couple of years before they become adults, but I don't know if these will spend the coming winter as eggs or if they will hatch before then. I assume they will hatch before winter, but I guess it depends on when we have a frost.

And here are the ants and aphids I mentioned:

Notice that the aphids are different sizes/stages of development.

Today was sunny, but chilly (okay, it was in the low 60s, but yesterday was in the high 70s, so by comparison it felt kind of cold), and extremely windy. A good day for basking in the sun to warm up: