You are *quite* the photographer, FTM! Well done!

I have trouble getting a photograph of an egg! LOL! Very pretty spider. Don't know who it is but still quite the looker! :-)

nah, chicka! it is all in the camera! (soaking up the compliments all the same)

here are the cicada pics. it was fine on my finger until it started to drill me. time for it to go, i am not a tree.

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Oh please do soak up the compliments dearest FTM! You deserve them! OMG! Lookie that cicada!

What camera do you use? I *need* one! :-)
I **need** your skill too! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

C with 3Ds and no digital cam.

just a coolpix nikon L5, no slr :)

i am still getting used to how it works. thanks again for the compliments!

OMG, it's the aliens again!!!!

(Referring to the head on shots, not your ability FTM!)

What beautiful wings! I've only seen the husk of a cicada, never a live one....very cool...

Aren't cameras amazing? I have a very simple Kodak EasyShare Z700 but it's wonderful for my limited abilities.

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Taken thru the window. And I have adobe photoshop, but no manual so I don't know how to use it much :(

Jeanner, can you fix up my hummer so he's not so blurry?

All great photos. I truly love photographs of the tiny things! That spider is fantastic! The cicada looks like he has a personality when you capture that 'face' with the big eyes. Funny - it is orange. Our periodics are electric green like bottle flies.

Still have not found my bag of hummer feeders so working with one.

I tried to get a photo of beautiful Gulf Fritillary (which which comes this far north as summer progresses. I positively ID'd it from my butterfly book. It was on my mondarda blooms and yesterday on the liatris. My butterfly garden is mostly in full bloom right now. But, by the time I walked in to get the camera and come back outside again it was gone. I'll have to keep checking because it is a beautiful butterfly and the colors are brilliant. Butterlies fade out as they age.

Wow, FTM, I LOVE the green legs on that spider! It truly is beautiful!

Is that 2nd thing a damselfly? It is amazing! It looks so unreal! And that cicada is wild! No mistaking that face, that's for sure. LOL

Sarah, your little hummer is adorable! Just look at those cute legs, all prepped for a landing! Awww!

My Liatris (and my butterfly bush) is blooming, but still no butterflies here. Maybe they're freaked out by all of the birds. My yard is a busy fly zone. :D

Brenda

the closest i can come on the spider is marbled orb weaver, but i am still investigating! the second is a black winged damselfly (?0- the problem is my book says the females have the white spot and are dark brown. this was very metallic black, more like a male, with the white spots. so, maybe a diff kind.

this cicada would be so much more colorful if taken during the day. i would love to see one of yours, ct. these are so black with the red orange eyes and wings...creepy looking, which i like :)
i saw the oddest thing yesterday. dh and i went out to the park, first time together since hunting season. there the periodicals were quite loud of course. it felt like some kind of brain boring torture system. not that it was deafening, but so diff than the usual cicadas' they way it seemed to "drill" my ears, but i did get used to it. (i remember it was last year when there were so many cicadas i couldn't stand to outside." anyway, dh picked one up and the entire abdomen was gone. only its thorax, head and wings were left, and an opening like a bottle top where the abdomen would attach. it was alive, and still drilling that sound. who would have thought?

good luck on your fritillary, ct! and nice pic of the hummer, sarah!

well, i'm a goof. i meant mabel orchard spider.

looks close to me.

Leucauge venusta, Venusta Orchard Spider

Here is a link that might be useful: bugguide,

Oh cool, bug shots! FTM is on the bug trail!

That first picture of the cicada, looks like a face on his forehead - great shots FTM!

Sarah, I tried to sharpen it but I'm afraid I didn't get too far :^(. But you might have better luck if you use the original photo .... in photoshop, under the Filter menu, there is a Sharpen option, Most commonly used is the Unsharp mask using an amount of 300 or less, a radius of 3 or less and a threshold of 3 or less. Each picture is a little different so you have to play with the values a little.

I love the bugguide website, I use all the time.

We had an abundance of these golden backed snipe flies this spring. I had never noticed them before - anyone else see these?

I caught these two mating.

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cool! and so detailed and sharp.

i love all the insect my cilantro blooms attract (although i think i once had a squash borer moth feeding there). today i saw something similar to the borer and nearly ran for my camera. of course, it was gone by the time i got out there.

i didn't even notice those three red spots on the head until after i looked at the pic. so, that wowed me, also.

Thanks for the info jeanner! Gotta get the manual for photoshop away from my sister's SO for awhile! He downloaded his software onto my 'puter for me.

Get fly photo!

S

Ohhhh That Hummer is soooooo sweet! We have a pair nesting in our cedar again this year.

WOW! I've never seen golden backed snipe flies. Great pic!

Thanks for all the camera info.

Those flies are awesome, Jean! The wings are incredible! Are they a lot bigger than the usual housefly?

I received the link below today. It looks like a simple way to edit photos online, with nothing to download. And it's a free version! :) I'm still using my Paint Shop Pro to edit stuff, so let me know how this one is if you use it.

Here's the pic, a little bit clearer, with PSP.

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Brenda

Here is a link that might be useful: Picnik

The snipe flies are a little bigger than a house fly - maybe by an 1/8".

So is anyone seeing honeybees? I haven't heard if they have solved the mystery of the disappearing bees but I found this interesting ....

Here is a link that might be useful: Another reason to hate cell phones

Thanks Brenda! I'll check it out too!

I haven't seen any honeybees in my yard this year. Plenty of wasps, though. Bees are usually very common here, though, especially in my creek.

I found the article below a while back, and posted it on the California forum. The cellphone issue is definitely a "hot button" one. :)

Brenda

Here is a link that might be useful: Experts may have found what's bugging the bees

Honey bees have been in decline long before there were as many cell phones as we have today. I am not a cell phone fan but I don't see them going away either - bee death proof or not. If proven perhaps they could research a different signal at best.

FTM - looks like you have the correct spider from the bug guide. I think insects make the most interesting of photographic subjects. Nobody really notices them and all of their wonderful colors and fantastic shapes unless seen up close and personal and (still). Keep them coming! Our periodicals are not out right now - at least not in any noticeable mass numbers like they are prone to do like you said - droning into your head. I've seen them so thick, drowned in the water, they were undulating on the waves as they lapped the shore. Very odd sight. I had an elderly lady tell me they used to tie a string on them when they were kids for fun - to watch them fly around. Also, this same lady said they wore the discarded exoskeleton as 'jewelry' with the legs sticking to their sweaters. Too funny! Can you see someone doing that today - putting aside their iPod to pin up a cicada?

Beautiful fly shot Jean - you have a penchant for catching critters in the act! LOL I notice a huge difference in the sexes - big gal - little dude;-) or so it would seem with insects more so than mammals.

lol,. ct! though i don't think i would want to tie one to a string!

i used to collect the skeleton when i was little and play pretend army with them :)

Ftm, love your pics!

"cool! and so detailed and sharp" ***snicker*** :o

thanks, poo! missed ya around.

Love the spider beautiful colors but the cicada is creeeeepy looking :-) Looks like he wants to eat you or something. Is that its mouth? That long thing in the front. I would be screaming if one got on me. You are very brave! Thanks for the pics though, you are very talented. Bonnie

i have a couple more tiny spider photos to post whenever i get to it. one is an ornate crab spider, i think. the other i believe is some kind of orb weaver. it has one of those spiny odd looking abdomens.

bb, i think that long thing in front is what made me feel like i was being probed. like i was a tree to lay the eggs in or something. at that point, it was time for the cicada to go!

this was a tiny little thing. a female from what i read on the below page! taken about a month ago. i saw perhaps the same spider today, only older. maybe i have more than one! it is now about half to 3/4 inches instead of 1/8 but i didn't get my camera in time.

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bad pics of some crab spider, possibly 'ornate.' it is hard to hold a flashlight on a spider and get your camera to focus, let alone hold the camera still enough, let alone not block the camera with the flashlight! :)
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it has been so long, i can't remember what it was eating, fly or ?

Here is a link that might be useful: Micrathena Gracilis, Spiked Micrathena bugguide.net