Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

A fire is crackling in the fireplace, and from time to time the furnace starts up and pumps warm air through the house. Stark change from just 72 hours ago, when the air conditioner hummed and tried to take the edge off a muggy 90 degree afternoon.

Between Monday and Wednesday this week, the afternoon temperature has dropped by 50 degrees. I suspect that the insect photography season for this year has come to a close.

Late last week I ventured into the Allegan Forest, knowing that it may well be the last trip of the summer. It’s deer hunting season – bow hunting now – so I wore an orange safety vest. Perhaps overkill, but then I was walking through chest high grasses, often bending down into the tall grasses, so I figured the orange vest was the least I could do.

It was hot on Friday. It was hot all last week – weather more fitting to late July than early October.

Again, though, the insects seemed to be few and far between. Maybe it was too hot for the yellow legged meadowhawks, who seem to prefer to fly in temps between 60 and 70. But maybe the insects are just following their own internal clocks and are winding down for the year.

Anyhow – no luck at all at several sites off 44th street. The marsh off 48th street hosted a few damselflies and, surprisingly, a fair number of white faced meadowhawks. I walked back to the heat of the marsh where there is still a small area (maybe 10 square yards) of open water.

Walking out over the dried vegetation I heard a loud and intermittent buzz – and for a second or two hoped that it might be a rattle snake. But it was a pair of white faced meadowhawks, coupled and trying furiously to get out of a tangle of grass. They finally broke free and separated as they flew away. The male lingered about and I got some shots of him. His wings were worn with age, and were also cloudy – I guess also from age.

It’s interesting to see how photos change with time. Some grow more interesting, and more meaningful, others fade away, and still others become downright silly or embarrassing.

Of course – the photos don’t change. The photographer does, however. So often the perception of a photo is tainted by the impression we had when taking it, the subject matter, or even how we were feeling at the instant when the shutter button was snapped. All those things are distinct from the final image that is made, but still influence our own subjective impressions.

And sometimes our initial impressions of a photo may lead us to dismiss it, simply because it didn’t seem significant at the time that it was taken. That was the case with the photo shown here - Chicago Harbor . At the time it was taken, I felt that that the sailboats were order less and akimbo, the details of the lighthouse and break water were too insignificant, and that the water and sky lacked punch.

But after a little work in Photoshop the sky and the water started to work, and I started to like the boats, each heading in its own direction.

I might hate it in a week, but after pulling some 12x12 inch prints, right now I like this shot.

October is upon us, and while the colors may be changing the temperatures are not. Unusually warm weather has been persisting throughout southwest Michigan, stretching out the summer. Last year we had already had a snowfall by this time…

Of course, I’ve been trying to take advantage of this with more insect photography – but in most cases the insects seem to be adhering to their own internal clocks. The numbers of dragonflies, butterflies, and insects of all sorts drop off this time of year, warm weather or no.

Last week I visited the marsh off 48th street in the Allegan Forest, and so far that has proven to be the only productive insect photography trip in recent days. The marsh was full of dozens of spotted spreadwing damselflies, almost all of which seemed to be mating. There were a few yellow legged meadowhawks, and to my surprise a few lingering ruby and white faced meadowhawks. I managed to get a few shots of the damselflies and one of a ruby meadowhawk – which, per my field guide, should be gone by now.

The three keeper photos are in the Image Stream. With record warm temperature predicted these next few days, I’ll probably try to make a few more outings, but overall it looks like the books will soon close on another insect photography season.

I’ll be exhibiting a matched pair of Dragonfly prints as part of the Signature Artists Cooperative DUO show in the Epic Center - 359 S. Burdick, Suite 203, Kalamazoo, Michigan. The show runs from October 1 - October 31, 2007, with a reception at the October 5 Art Hop, 5-7 PM. Stop by at check it out!

The Signature Artists Cooperative is a great bunch of artists from all fields, who meet throughout the year to exchange ideas, critique each other’s work, and just have fun. We also run an itinerant gallery in the Kalamazoo area - popping up in some vacant storefront for the month of December.

I’ve been a member since 2002, but am still a newbie - some of the original founding members are still active, almost 30 years after the group got started. For folks looking for info about the Kalamazoo based Signature Gallery, or about the collective group show that Signature puts together, there is a new website that should have all the info you need - signature-artist.com .

A few days ago I commented on observing a black and red spider, overcoming a grasshopper many times its size. Based on the size and shape of the spider, I wondered if it was a Black Widow – but I dismissed that idea because it had yellow bands in addition to red markings, and also because the red markings did not form the hourglass shape that we associate with Black Widows.

A week later I again encountered one of these shiny black spiders – this time with a dead cicada in its web. I decided it was time to identify this species.

When I turned to my field guides and attempted to identify this spider, I got a bit of a surprise. While it’s not a Black Widow, it turns out that the Black Widow has a northern cousin – know as the Northern Black Spider or Northern Black Widow Spider. In fact – there are several varieties of widow spiders, apparently with similar degrees of toxicity. On the plus side – most of the material I’ve read indicates that deaths from these spiders are very rare. Some sources put the odds of fatality at only 1%.

Bugguide.net has a nice collection of photos of the northern widow.

The Southern Black Widow (the only black widow I was aware of until recently) is Latrodectus mactan. The Northern Black Spider is Latrodectus various.) This site, from the US army – has a rundown of all North American widow species - http:chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/ento/FACTS/WidowSpiderJTF-Mar2006.pdf)

It was interesting to actually observe these spiders in action. I had always wondered why these spiders had such intensely strong venom, and figured that it was just an example of randomness in evolution. After all – a spider simply has to have venom strong enough to kill prey. There is no downside to having venom far more powerful than the minimum needed, so if a species happened to evolve with super-potent venom, there would be no evolutionary pressure to move towards a weaker poison. The species would continue with venom stronger than needed, simply because it works.

While one can’t draw a conclusion from just two observations – I now look at things differently. Both of these spiders were subduing relatively enormous prey. Their webs were disorganized strands of silk in the grass, but were also quite strong. Strong enough to hold a large grasshopper and cicada long enough for the potent venom to take hold.

So maybe the great toxicity of these spiders’ venom is part and parcel of a much more complicated – and very specific – survival strategy. Grab large prey and subdue it fast. It would be interesting to survey a population of these spiders in the wild, and see if they rely on large prey vs. smaller insects for food.

At any rate – I’m now pretty convinced that these spiders are common in some parts of the Allegan Forest. My two sightings were a week apart, but also several miles apart – the first one was in the site I call the coreopsis field, which is a clearing off 46th street, just about 1 mile north of 118th avenue. The second sighting was in the old farmstead, off 48th street and about a mile south of 115th avenue.

Now that I know what the webs look like – I’m quite certain that I’ve seen several in the past few months. I can think of at least two occasions where I’ve seen large insects – once a butterfly and the other a grasshopper – trapped in similar webs in the field off 48th street.

Since I first observed these spiders while lying on the ground, shooting low perching dragon flies, their presence in the fields is a little bit of a concern. While these spiders only bite as a last resort – I can easily see myself laying a bare arm on top of one while lining up a shot of a dragonfly, bee, or butterfly.

I guess I should be worried – but then the odds of getting into a car accident while driving from Kalamazoo to Allegan are probably greater than the odds of being bitten by a Northern Black Widow – and certainly higher than the odds of being fatally bitten.

At least now I know what to watch for, and if abdominal cramps and other symptoms settle in after a day’s shooting, I’ll know to get to the doctor as opposed to just waiting it out. And here again – the Allegan Forest has produced another interesting subject, and getting some good, clear shots of these spiders (unlike the ones shown here) will be a future project.

September 21 – the autumnal equinox. The last day of summer

In the Allegan Forest, the first signs of fall have appeared. Squirrel season started on September 15, and hunters are appearing in the woods. Deer season starts soon, and hunters are tooling around on the back roads, scouting out locations and making plans.

Some of the scrubby foliage has started to turn to autumn color as well, suddenly noticeable this last week. But still – there were several places on this hot afternoon where not a leaf had turned, and I could look around and feel like summer would never end…

Well, it is ending, and the arrival of the yellow legged meadowhawks has really brought the point home. Most of my steady haunts are now without any dragonflies – but other places and spots are now full of the yellow legs. These dragons seem to like cool temperatures, and they skulk around in the shadows where the woods meets the savanna.

They also like to hover, rise up and perch high, or zip away and perch just inches from the ground. As dragonflies go, they seem more alert and skittish than most – running around with the frenetic air of autumn squirrels.

In a few weeks even the yellow legs will be gone – and another dragonfly season passes. It’s been a good one so far – and hopefully the last few weeks will be the best yet.

The red dragons always usher in the end of the season – first the Ruby Meadowhawks, then the Cherry Faced and White Faced Meadowhawks, and lastly the Yellow Legged Meadowhawks. And so it is no surprise as I rolled into the Allegan Forest last Thursday that Yellow Legs were out in abundance. 

But still, it was a surprise to see a lot of dragonflies out at all – and a pleasant surprise at that.

The Yellow Legs are a bit difficult to track. Most perching dragonflies make a shot hop when they are spooked, and land again nearby. Tracking them is a pretty simple matter. The Yellow Legs on the other hand tend to dart up high in the air, move off in one direction, and then zip down to a low perch, often just inches above the ground.q

I started out the day in the coreopsis field off 46th street – though the coreopsis are long gone. It was a warm day with clear sun, and the field had several large darners lumbering overhead. I arrived at about 9:30 in the morning, and as the sun burned off the dew many Yellow Legged Dragons emerged. Their habit of perching low the to ground made them difficult to spot – except when spooked – but the males seems to be competing for territory and were busy buzzing at each other, which of course gave away their location.

Also in the field I also found a large argiope spider – a female with the dead remains of a male stuck in the web near her. It was not as large as most argiope I’ve encountered – body length was maybe about two inches in total – but it was a nice catch.

Talk about getting low to the ground – it was in a small web only about 6 inches above the sandy soil, and was angled to be slightly upside down. I really had to get the camera down into the dirt to angle the lens up for a shot.

From there I hopped over to the old farmstead off 48th street. The marsh is again drying up, and I’ve been disappointed to see steadily diminishing dragonfly activity there these last few weeks. I walked into the heart of the marsh, where there are still a few square yards of open water. Unfortunately, a few white faced meadowhawks buzzing around in the grass were the only interesting subjects.

This week – the third in September – is projected to have hot, summer like weather. Hopefully this will offer a chance for a few more dragon shots, before the season comes to a close.

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