Predatory Insects around my Bonsai yard- MACRO/MICRO

[Ash]

Hey Mitchell- beautiful photographs, they are really something .

I love jumping spiders too, they seem to look straight at you with interest and I often wonder how much they can see. And that crowned looking spider everyone called 'ugly' is a Gasterocantha. I have two species in my bonsai house and some Nephila (big golden orbs) too.

The two attached images are not great photos but are of some I have taken of insects that live on figs. The first are little Pleistodontes wasps that pollinate figs. It is not a great shot but then they are very small!

Wasps inside a fig.jpg

This critter is not so good for the fig- a big longicorn beetle (Batocera) that lives in fig wood as a larvae!

Longhorn beetle.jpg

Again great pics Mitchell

Ash

[Mitchell]

The wasps are interesting indeed! That beetle is incredible! WoW!!

[Petra]

Totaly agree, excellent work mitchell. Only wished i would sit down and study my manual to get the best from my camera.
this is where im at , at the moment.Just took this one at the weekend.

tree frog2.JPG

[hbk13007]

Mitchell,

I'm sure some of the folks here would be fascinated to see the macro setup your using with the 2 lenses.

I've seen this before on youtube but have never attempted it myself. Might go pay around with an old 50 mm1.8 and 200mm I've got lying around somewhere!!

Good work mate!!

[Mitchell]

He is beautiful Petra! Wish I had gtf's here in Sydney. There's some but not in my area, really. Had a go at editing that shot a bit, boosted contrast/ saturation, sharpened.

HBK, unfortunately I don't have the lens taped together anymore. It's as simple as finding two lens with similar sizes mm's so you can tape the ends together without scratching glass. Alternatively you can order what is know as a reversing ring, which will join the threads together at the end of two lens.

[Chris]

Today at the pool

bee.jpg

Last night the web is attached to 2 of my trees

orb.jpg

[Mitchell]

Great shots Chris!

Was going to ask about your settings, but thought I'd take the opportunity to let people know about metadata.

Metadata is data located inside data. So every image taken by your camera embeds the details of the shot in photo. You can remove metadata if you copy and paste the image, but otherwise it is there.

Meta data can be valuable to work out, why a shot is so good or to replicate the shot again.

Here's an example from Chris's bee image. You can find metadata of your images, by right clicking the file, go to properties then go to summary. Then click advanced.

We can also tell, Chris's camera can time travel and has taken these images from tomorrow. Might want to check you date settings mate.

[Chris]

Found how to do that take notes for the good shots and away you go brilliant Mitchell

[Chris]

That advice Mitchell is fantastic I've taken notes on the good pics it's a bonus.

Here are some ant's checking out what this big black thing with a funny mirror is sitting so close to them.

ants.jpg

i will get some more of these little buggers as they have a fantastic colour with the right light angle, it's just the fact of kneeling in a nest of ants to get the pic

[Matt Jermy]

Ayone know what these lil bugs are?

..they have appeared ALL over some 'kangaroo-apples' I planted up by the back fence...
..and they don't seem to eat foliage , nor can//could I work out what they were feasting on.
I guess I just want to know what their agenda is..!!
Matt.

[Greth]

Ash, jumping spiders can see pretty well, they need to for hunting. I studied these kinda things at uni, we made a spider opthalmoscope! Usually just good vision from the two front eyes, the other smaller ones to the sides are just to watch out for lurking predators, and low resolution. Web spiders have 8 smallish eyes, none of which are especially acute.

[gollum]

Ayone know what these lil bugs are?

..they have appeared ALL over some 'kangaroo-apples' I planted up by the back fence...
..and they don't seem to eat foliage , nor can//could I work out what they were feasting on.
I guess I just want to know what their agenda is..!!
Matt.

these are assasin bugs

they are good guys,
eat catepillars stinkbugs and flys etc

can bite ya if you rough em up but not poisonous: respect

[Petra]

Great shots Chris!

Here's an example from Chris's bee image. You can find metadata of your images, by right clicking the file, go to properties then go to summary. Then click advanced.

We can also tell, Chris's camera can time travel and has taken these images from tomorrow. Might want to check you date settings mate.

awwh, you are full of ideas.I also tried this, how cooooooooool Mitchel.
Keep up the great ideas on photography .
oops! i meant to ask is that your longhorn bug, got any more i would like one,dead or alive.
Please.,,

[Chris]

I took this earlier tonight and called it Luna Serenity

Luna Serenity.jpg

[lennard]

Some strange looking insects on my trees today:

Some kind of grasshopper?

grasshopper.jpg

A larvae/worm of some kind building his house with sticks from my Brush Cherry:

worm.jpg

Lennard