Clovis' Nikon Nuggets
- Thread starter Clovishound
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Clovishound
Senior Member
What about copperheads?
I shot one today.
I shot one today.
Clovishound
Senior Member
Shallow depth of field due to me being 6 ft away, using a 500mm focal length, and near max aperture.
Great shot IMHO
Clovishound
Senior Member
Clovishound
Senior Member
After my distraction with hummingbirds, I'm back to the dragonflies today. Saw this guy on the end of a crepe myrtle tree branch in my front yard this afternoon, and grabbed the camera.
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Robin W
Senior Member
I hope this guy was not in your yard. Did you smell a cucumber like smell? I always heard they smell similar to a cucumber.
Robin W
Senior Member
What kind of bug is that? It looks a little like a dragon. Very well camouflaged, I am surprised you even saw him much less to get such a great shot of him.
Clovishound
Senior Member
No the copperhead was not in my yard. I didn't smell cucumbers, although I do have a very poor sense of smell.
The bug is an ambush bug. Here is a picture of two of them. The male is exhibiting protective behavior. I know, it looks like something else, but it isn't. Fortunately, they are quite small. They are rather formidable predators, nonetheless.
The bug is an ambush bug. Here is a picture of two of them. The male is exhibiting protective behavior. I know, it looks like something else, but it isn't. Fortunately, they are quite small. They are rather formidable predators, nonetheless.
Like what you did with the background here.
Clovishound
Senior Member
Thanks, I tried several angles to get different backgrounds. This one had some blue sky showing through the leaves. This gave it some specular highlights that turned into bokeh balls. I may have tweaked it a little toward the blue in post.
He flew off several times while I was shooting. I stayed put and he came back after a minute or two every time.
Robin W
Senior Member
So glad it was not in your yard. The cucumber thing could have been an old wives tale. I have never wanted to get close enough to one to smell it. The ambush bug is pretty prehistoric looking.
Clovishound
Senior Member
Venomous snakes, large predatory reptiles, and very annoying insects are just part of life here in this part of the country.
Around 7,000 to 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes in the US each year. Of those, only about 5 - 10 die. Copperheads account for the most bites, but rattlesnakes deliver the most fatal bites. 28% of all bites involve alcohol. (That would be by the person bitten, not the snake.) 57% occur by people handling snakes. I'm sure that means intentionally. To put things in perspective, between 2000 and 2019, there were 1.2 MILLION snake bite deaths in India. They have a population of around 4 times ours at 1.4 billion, but still the difference is staggering. The chance of a person dying from a snake bite in India before the age of 70 is 1 in 250.
On a less deadly note, I got a few more hummingbird pictures today. Managed to snag a few adult males. I discovered that the red color on their necks, being iridescent, only has that bright red color when the light hits it from the right direction.
Around 7,000 to 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes in the US each year. Of those, only about 5 - 10 die. Copperheads account for the most bites, but rattlesnakes deliver the most fatal bites. 28% of all bites involve alcohol. (That would be by the person bitten, not the snake.) 57% occur by people handling snakes. I'm sure that means intentionally. To put things in perspective, between 2000 and 2019, there were 1.2 MILLION snake bite deaths in India. They have a population of around 4 times ours at 1.4 billion, but still the difference is staggering. The chance of a person dying from a snake bite in India before the age of 70 is 1 in 250.
On a less deadly note, I got a few more hummingbird pictures today. Managed to snag a few adult males. I discovered that the red color on their necks, being iridescent, only has that bright red color when the light hits it from the right direction.
Clovishound
Senior Member
Discovered this little guy in the back yard lurking on a mountain mint plant. It almost looks like pupils in the large central eye pair, but it's just the reflection of my flash diffuser and the lens in the middle mimicking a pupil.
Clovishound
Senior Member
I wonder if these are tasty with a little melted butter.
With flash:
And without:
With flash:
And without:
Clovishound
Senior Member
"HEEELLLPPPPP MMMEEEEEEEEEEE!" For those of you who don't get that, it is a quote from the 1958 movie "The Fly" with Vincent Price. I saw the movie sometime when I was a kid, but don't remember much except this scene from the end of the movie. OK, in the movie the fly was caught in a web. And, it had a person's head instead of a fly head. Details, Details!
I also got a couple shots of the spider working from the other end. I didn't post it simply because it just looked so wrong.
I also got a couple shots of the spider working from the other end. I didn't post it simply because it just looked so wrong.
Clovishound
Senior Member
Spotted another jumping spider yesterday. Beautiful coloring, but this one is really small. It was a game of hide and seek with me. He found a partially opened flower bud that had a hollow area that he could retreat to, occasionally coming out to scout around. It made it really difficult to get a head on shot with those big puppy dog eyes. I'm hoping to find him again today, and get some more, but it doesn't look like he's in the some spot this morning, and like I said, he's extremely small, making it hard to spot him from a distance.
And a couple so-so shots from the Pup's and my outing on Monday.
And a couple so-so shots from the Pup's and my outing on Monday.