I’ve mentioned before how the camera shows me things I can’t otherwise see:
- By getting me closer
- By stilling the inherently flitty
- By giving me the gift of time to look
This week’s wasp photos weren’t tack sharp of their heads and antennae and hairy bodies (Wasps have body hair? Who knew?), but I got several good looks at their wings. As with dragonflies, they have amazingly delicate stained-glass-style wings that at the right angle catch the light. That’s not my first observation when they’re diving into my glass of wine in the backyard, crawling over my plate of food, or buzzing my head, so again, thank goodness for cameras.
And from another day . . .
And finally, a wasp with what appears to be restless-leg syndrome . . .
Amazing! I love how close up you are! you are QUITE the photographer – I’m proud of you 🙂
Alison – Many thanks. I’m glad that pinky-winky plant is at the corner of the porch. I can see it from my office window and know when it’s in good light and attracting insect interest.
Excellent photos! Love the concentration on wings. They are glassy indeed. Still wish wasps would keep their distance.
Judith – Thanks. I’m not comfortable with them buzzing around me, but here at least they’re more interested in the hydrangea nectar. Hurray!
Isabel
Great pictures…but I’m glad it’s you on the camera and not me. Wasps and I don’t get along that well.
Tom
Tom – We all have our “things.” You might have noticed I have a downright shortage of photos of spiders and snakes. Not zero, but not many.
Amazing what we miss by not using the camera (and amazing what we miss when we spend too much time at the viewfinder)
Jim R – Fair enough. I sometimes have to remind myself to put the camera down and just experience the event, rather than trying to “capture” it.
My sister left me holding a bouquet of gladiolus while she shopped. I had 20 minutes to study their mauve, pink, yellow, white, and coral blossoms — possibly the best-spent 20 minutes of my week. Your photos give me the same — and better when it comes to things that move, like birds and insects — opportunities to appreciate the lovely details of gorgeous parts of life that I tend to pass too quickly. With the sting of fear removed from the wasp, it gets a fairer look. That last shot, framed in pinky-winky, makes the little critter quite endearing.
Laurna – IKR? There *is* something about that wee face that looks sweet or cute or goofy – except for the mandibles, which look a bit like fangs.
In summer I sit on our east-facing balcony a lot, esp. for breakfast and lunch. At the beginning of August wasps begin to be interested — never before… This year there were three different kinds. I leave the balcony door open and they go inside to explore, but always come back out. They pick at my yoghurt and fruit but not me. I sit still and never flail my arms about.
Just another critter I am happy live with, like my Little Bit — the fruit fly who follows me around. “Too much bread” in your diet my sister tells me.
In Palm Springs, my sister has two Palm Beetles (“one up from cockroaches” she says) that come each day — except in 115-129ºF weather — and perch on her shower shelf. She has named them Roy and Clarice. They were “featured” as she put it, in the Sparks Street Insectarium (now gone) and the ones they had came from Palm Springs.
(Pandemics — living alone — make strange pet fellows.)
On that visit there with my sister, I held a tarantula in my palm and let it walk up on arm.
Barbara – I wonder how many people have these unusual pets or co-vivants. And whether there are more now . . .