The Bugs in the Backyard: Good or Bad?

I took 637 pictures in my backyard today. Two of them were of my husband, so not for this blog. Of the remaining 635, almost 400 of them were of today's Backyard Bug of the Day. Why did I take so many pictures of the same bug? Because it was a cool bug, and I wanted it to be Backyard Bug of the Day, and for that I needed a good picture. I talk about good or bad pictures here mostly if I think a picture isn't good but it's the best I have to show you a particular bug. I know as an artist I shouldn't apologize for my work, but I can't help it–I don't want to post a bad picture and have people think that I don't know it's bad. But I want to share the bugs with you, so sometimes I'll post something below my standards. So what are my standards for a good picture? First of all, it has to be in focus. Using a macro lens I don't get a lot of depth of field, so I have to make choices about what will be in focus. Most important is usually the eyes; if the rest of the bug is in focus and the eyes are not, unless it's an extreme situation where the head is really bent away from the camera, that won't be a good picture. But it is also important to get the important features in focus. The important features are whatever it is that makes that cool bug look cool. It might be the wings, it might be the body shape, it's different for different species, but whatever it is that is the main point of interest has to be in focus. That's what's necessary for me to consider a picture basically good. Almost as important (and only almost because I can sometimes fix this on the computer) is that it be lit well. Other key factors are a good background, a nice composition, some drama if I can get it... Every once in a while–and I mean less than once a month–I will look at a picture and say, "Wow!" Those are the great pictures, the best. Mostly I settle for pictures that are between okay and good. Today I didn't get any wows. I don't think I even got any good pictures. I got a few okay pictures–not a lot for the number of shots I took. But I am going to post a bunch of them so you can at least get a look at the interesting features of today's Backyard Bug of the Day, even if you don't get a sense of all of them in the same picture.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

I did try to look up what kind of wasp this is, which is a whole different reason for annoyance: I looked in three different insect field guides, and couldn't find it in any of them. And this isn't a case where there are a lot of insects that sort of look the same. This wasp has distinctive markings. It just wasn't in any of the books. This happens to me a lot, and it can't possibly be that every bug in my backyard is amazingly rare. Why can't I ever find them in the books?

One reason I loved this bug: blue wings. I am a sucker for any blue insect.

I also love the false eye spots on the back. I am not sure why a wasp needs false eye spots, which I think are usually to deter predators, but there they are. Of course, not all wasps can sting, so maybe it does need protection from predators. I don't know, because I don't know what kind of wasp this is.

Another factor that makes a picture good: not having my hand in the picture. Which, by the way, is also a good illustration for all those people who think that all wasps are evil and just go out of their way to sting people. This one actually crawled on my fingers a few times, I had my hand near it for most of the 400 shots I took, I was totally in its face with the camera, and I did not get stung.

Bee photobomber

Other Bugs:

I didn't even have to go outside to find my first bug today–it landed on my newspaper.

The dragonflies remain uncooperative.

Crane fly eyes

Plant hopper

Caterpillars are everywhere lately...

White hickory tussock moth caterpillar

Red banded hairstreak, I think.

Some kind of plant bug

Tiny moth–for a sense of scale, compare it to the goldenrod flowers.

Sharpshooters

I've been trying to get a picture showing how popular the goldenrod is these days. Here you have two bumblebees, a wasp, and two flies...

... and here you have all of the above, plus a gnat.

Geometer caterpillars like it, too.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I saw this insect sitting on the goldenrod, and when I leaned in for a closer look, trying to see if it was an ant or something else, I realized it was dead. But then it moved, and I wondered how that was possible...