The Bugs in the Backyard: It's the Curls, Isn't It?

I don't know much about the technical aspects of photography - actually that is understating things a bit - I know next to nothing about the technical aspects of photography. I generally have no idea what I am doing. I don't even know what an f-stop is, even though it has been explained to me many times. I have figured out how to use my camera without really knowing what I am doing most of the time. But just in case you know less than I do, here's the thing about a macro lens. You have to get really close to your subject with it. It's not like a zoom lens, where you can take a picture from far away and it looks close up. With a macro lens your picture looks close up because you took the picture from really close to your subject. That's why you need a ring flash with a macro lens - you get so close to your subject with the lens that if you use the flash on the top of your camera the lens is in the way of the light. The point of all this is that I get really up close and personal with the insects I am photographing sometimes. Most of the time I am not worried about being bitten or stung, because the camera is between me and my subject, so if the insect is going to attack, it is the camera that is in their face, and the camera they will go after. Sometimes I have my hand on a leaf near a bug in order to steady it, but then I am pretty cautious about where the bug is going, and will move my hand if it seems agitated or like it wants to bite me. I do sometimes end up with insects crawling on my hand in those situations, though. And there have been a few times that a jumping spider has jumped onto my head while I am taking a picture of it. Think about this - when you are looking at a spider up close and it jumps at you... it's kind of startling. Also ironic, I think, how often an insect will try to get away from the camera by climbing onto me - because the camera cannot hurt them (I don't hurt them either, but let's face it - I am the one they should be scared of). Anyway, today I was taking a picture of a bee, and I was holding the stem of the flower, and the bee was starting to seem agitated, so I took my hand away and backed off, because I don't want to get stung - it would be bad for me AND the bee, because bees (some of them, anyway, and I don't know for sure which ones) die after they sting you. So, I left the bee alone and turned my attention to a nearby flower where there was a tiny beetle, and focused on it instead. And while I was taking a picture of the beetle, I heard a buzz near my ear, and felt something land on my head. Now, normally if a bug lands on my head I will brush it off, because I don't want bugs in my hair, but I am not going to brush off a bee that I can't see. I try not to annoy bees. I just stood there for a few seconds wondering what I should do about the bee in my hair - I have curly hair, so who knows how entangled it might get up there. Finally it flew out on its own, and landed on my shirt. That's when I began to think that my rainbow tie-dyed shirt might not be the best choice of attire for bug walks. This was not the last bug to land in my hair today. Another one landed on me during my bug walk, and then a couple of moths this evening when I was out on the porch taking more pictures. Actually, on the porch one of them almost flew into my mouth. I am always ready for moths to get a little too close when I am taking pictures on the porch - often they fly between me and the camera, which is not a big space - but I really don't want moths in my mouth, thank you very much. Of course, none of this is as bad as being stung, or getting a mosquito bite, but really, I sometimes wish that bugs would be more aware of personal space. On the other hand, I am always invading their space, but still - I don't jump on their heads.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

This was on the front porch when I got home this evening. I don't know what it is - it sort of looks like a mosquito, but it is so cool that I don't care if it is. Normally I would prefer to have a better picture of a bug to make it Backyard Bug of the Day, but I really liked this bug, so we're making do with what we have.

It was quite small and delicate. And as you can see, not alone on the front porch.

I wouldn't say there were enough moths for a bona fide Porch Light Lepidoptera Lollapalooza, but close:

There were at least six of these moths on the porch - and there would have been five in this picture if two hadn't flown away while I was focusing.

Three species by/on the door. When we come home on mothy nights, it is difficult to get in the door without moths flying in. And by difficult I mean that at least one always manages to get in here. When they are this close to the door, you know you're doomed.

On my arm, because moths don't respect personal space.

Plume moth

Moths were not the only insects on the front porch tonight:

Caddisfly

Tiny ichneumon wasp

But back to the subject of moths...

I spotted this moth on a tree today, and I almost didn't see it because it blended in so well (also, in spite of how it looks in this picture, it was in a shadowy, dark area). Later in the afternoon when my husband came home, I wanted to show him something that was growing in the backyard near this tree, and as we walked past the tree, I asked him, "Can you see the moth on this tree?"

So he looked... and pointed to this:

A totally different moth that I hadn't seen. Well, there's hubris for you. In my defense, I will make the excuse that this was hours later than I had seen the other moth, so it might not have been there when I found the other one. And my husband is taller than I am, and this was above my head. Also, I was on the other side of the tree. Enough excuses? I should give props to him - in real life this was harder to see than it probably appears here. Clever moth, too; in this picture the blotch on the tree appears green, because the light filtering through the tree leaves tends to make a lot of things look green in pictures, but in real life it was white, like the moth. The lichen before it is green, though, so given the choice between the gray tree trunk, the green lichen, and the white blotch (also lichen?), the white moth chose to land on the white spot. I always wonder in these situations, is the moth aware of what it looks like? Does it know that it matches? Because they don't always land in places where they blend in so well, so when they do, is it intentional, or are they just lucky? Some moths could probably blend in pretty well on almost any tree trunk, being mottled gray/brown. It is puzzling...

All right, what else was in the backyard today, you are wondering?

Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

I think this toad might live in, or at least frequent, our vegetable garden, which is great. A toad is an excellent thing to have in your vegetable garden, because it will eat things that want to eat the vegetable plants.