A Planthopper collected last summer and photographed yesterday, December 9:
Taken at approximately 4x lifsized.
The 2015 Signature Artist Gallery is open and underway for our 36th season! Here's a snapshot of my corner of the gallery this year:
I'm also featuring a photobook of extreme macro photos - Creatures! As always the gallery features multiple forms of fine art -watercolors, pastels, jewelery, pottery, metal, turned wood, archetectual ornaments, fiber, and furniture. There are even a few swords and drinking horns. This years gallery is again located at 4602 West Main Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49006. For more about the gallery visit our website - signature-artist.com
I wanted to make a stacked macro today, so I pulled a specimen out of the freezer without looking, figuring I'd work with whatever I got.
Ouch! I winced when I saw how small this one was! Why do I even bother to collect things this size...
So - here it is... When I collected it I thought it was a drone ant with wings intact, but looking at it I think it is actually a wasp, possibly family Sphecidae - thread waisted wasps.It was very small and this portrait was taken at about 8x lifesized. Update: I have since learned that this is indeed a winged ant.
Pentax K01, K24mm f3.5 reverse mounted on a lot of extension. Here is a reference image of the insect, taken at about 1:1 lifesized:
A focus stacked macro photo of a Milkweed Bug, probably Oncopeltus fasciatu:
Collected several weeks ago when the milkweed seedpods were getting ready to open. Shot at about 4x lifesized, Pentax K01 with reverse mounted SMC K 24mm f3.5 on extension. 130 exposures in 2 stacks, combined in Zerene Stacker.
A couple shots of the South Haven, Michigan, lighthouse. The light in on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Today storm brought driving rains and wind gusts of up to 60 mph. The 40th anniversary of of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald was just two days ago - today's storm was tame compared to the one the Fitzgerald endured but still is a reminder of how turbulent the lakes can be.
Driving near Stuyvesant, New York earlier this week we encountered a Nature Conservancy preserve. The boardwalk along Mill creek was a great break from driving. The freshwater tidal floodplain had an odd fey look to it.
It's autumn, and time to lay in firewood for the upcoming winter months. I found this spider in my wood pile as I rotated out the remnants of last year's firewood and began stacking a newly delivered load. My best guess on identification is that this is a ground spider, family Gnaphosidae.
Since it was nestled on a piece of firewood I positioned in on a wood chip to simulate its natural environment. This portrait was made at approximately 3x lifesized and is 135 stacked images (two separate passes on the subject.)