Clovis' Nikon Nuggets

[Clovishound]

Decided to shake things up a little today, and headed over to Cypress Gardens. Now don't get too excited, the macro lens never came off the Z7ii. There were a few different critters however.

These are most likely stink bug nymphs. There were a ton of them. When I first saw them, they were covering the leaf of this plant. I believe they were newly hatched.

I believe this to be an assassin bug. The one's commonly around my house are bright orange (there is a picture of one of them two posts back), but these are a different color and a somewhat different morphology. They both have that distinctive long proboscis. OK, further research reveals it's a pale green assassin bug.

This looks like a saddleback moth caterpillar.

This one is nether strange, nor unusual, nor that great a picture, however, I seldom see an anole with such a beautiful butterfly in it's maw. This was in the butterfly house, so I'm sure the caretakers weren't too happy about it.

 

[Clovishound]

Another weird one. Did a quick search, and was unable to identify this critter. Some kind of beetle, I suppose.

Wasps aren't usually this cooperative.

 

[Clovishound]

I've been noticing a very small dragonfly, or dragonfly lookalike hovering around some of my wildflowers. Thought I would try my hand at getting some in flight pictures. Not quite as difficult as I imagined, but I can't get that close, so I have to include a lot of background, even with heavy cropping. Not a great shot, but it's my first attempt. I would like to try this on a normal sized dragonfly, but they don't have that hovering around plants behavior.

 

[Blue439]

The beetle one is especially good, well done!

 

[Clovishound]

I made my way back over to Cypress Gardens this morning. I won't say it was humid, but I think I should have been using a Nikonos. I wasn't too hopeful about what I had shot when I left, but they cleaned up a little better than expected.

Go ahead and say it, I have a thing for the small tree frogs.

Saw this whistling duck again for the first time in a while. By the time I swapped lenses and grabbed a quick shot, it decided it was time to leave. From the side, it looks like they have a crew cut with whitewalls. These are not a very common sight around here.

DON"T LOOK Blue439! This guy decided it was a good idea to build it's nest right across the trail.

 

[Marilynne]

It's almost time for the tree frogs to pop up down here. Also, see lots of Black Bellied Whistling ducks.

 

[Blue439]

Your little frog is so cute! I will not further comment.

 

[Clovishound]

Your little frog is so cute! I will not further comment.

I warned you.

 

[Clovishound]

Thought I'd take the last few pictures with my trusty old homemade diffuser. The Pup and I have shiny new AK diffusers arriving tomorrow. I'm looking forward to trying it out, but I doubt it will make that big a difference. At least it will look more professional than my duct tape special.

Anyway, here is my friendly little anole in the backyard. When I get up close he moves around a little, but pretty much stays put, if I don't make any sudden moves. When I move back to check exposure, or change settings, he usually decides to skidaddle.

I like the contrast of the beautiful flowers and the crazy weird assasin bug nymph.

 

[Blue439]

Lovely soft light. The lizard ones are top quality.

 

[Clovishound]

Lovely soft light. The lizard ones are top quality.

Thanks. I'm hoping that the new AK will provide even softer lighting. It's supposed to arrive this afternoon, and the Pup and I are planning on an outing tomorrow. The weather is starting to cool down enough that the Pup is wanting to go out and shoot with me.

 

[Robin W]

Thought I'd take the last few pictures with my trusty old homemade diffuser. The Pup and I have shiny new AK diffusers arriving tomorrow. I'm looking forward to trying it out, but I doubt it will make that big a difference. At least it will look more professional than my duct tape special.

Anyway, here is my friendly little anole in the backyard. When I get up close he moves around a little, but pretty much stays put, if I don't make any sudden moves. When I move back to check exposure, or change settings, he usually decides to skidaddle.

View attachment 409895
View attachment 409896


I like the contrast of the beautiful flowers and the crazy weird assasin bug nymph.


View attachment 409897

I love the lizzard peeking around the leaf.

 

[Clovishound]

I love the lizzard peeking around the leaf.

I went through a lot of fruit flies teaching him that trick.

 

[Clovishound]

Well, the Pup and I made it out to Magnolia Plantation today to try out the new AK diffusers. They were a little more fiddly putting together standing at the trunk of the car, than sitting in a comfortable chair in the house. I'm sure some experience will take care of that. I may consider leaving it assembled most of the time, and just transporting it sitting on the back seat.

Anyway here are a few shots with it.

This one suffered just a little in the light quality by having the subject somewhat shaded by the top of the plant. No cure for that other than removing the flash from the camera, and triggering it remotely. Too cumbersome to switch with live models most of the time.

This one probably shows the light quality the best.

Hi-ho Silver, Away!

 

[Clovishound]

We tried something new. There are a number of plants at Magnolia that have large to very large leaves. We tried the technique of remotely triggering the flash to illuminate the leaves from behind. I don't think I really nailed any one of these, but it looks interesting enough to try again. There are a couple I really want to like, but just can't get excited about. That's not a reassuring sign.

Constructive criticism welcomed.

The best feature of this one is the bugs all lined up on the main stem.

This may be the best of this batch. I find the transition from green to white interesting.

This is one I really want to like.

 

[Clovishound]

And here are a couple more. At this early stage I believe that the new diffuser is definitely better than my old one, perhaps not a huge upgrade, at least as far as light quality is concerned. It is a little softer, and more even lighting. The biggest difference is the lack of heavy shadows under the critters. I would imagine that is largely due to the reflector. I mounted it on the bottom which would help illuminate from a low angle. For some reason, I think I see a bigger difference in the plants and flowers than I do the insects, especially plants with texture.

 

[Blue439]

Your diffuser looks fine, and off-camera flash is definitely the way to go.

 

[Clovishound]

Headed back over to Cypress Gardens this morning to try some more with the new gear. Almost got rained out, and the humidity was brutal, but I persevered.

I was glad I had my snake boots for this one. I had to step too close to the swamp edge for comfort otherwise.

This is probably my favorite for the day.

 

[Marilynne]

Are you in the cone of the storm? If so, be careful!!

 

[Clovishound]

If you are talking about tropical cyclone 8, no. It is passing north of us. We aren't supposed to even get any rain from it today. It's a tad windy and overcast, and that's about it.

Thanks for asking. We tend to keep an eye on the tropics here on the east coast this time of year.