Crushed

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crushed praying mantis

I found this beautiful Grizzled Mantis on a footbridge in Savannas Preserve State Park in Florida last November. It appeared to be half-squashed or half-crushed. I felt really bad for it. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I ended up photographing it and leaving it more or less in the condition I found it; I left it to a fate I wouldn’t know. They say insects most likely don’t feel or experience pain as humans do. “Putting something out of its misery” is more of an “higher order” concept, and while its fun to anthropomorphize arthropods, it’s often better to take a less self-centered approach. Which is not to say I did the right thing. As much as letting it die on its own didn’t change anything, killing it would not have changed much in the larger scheme either. In the end I didn’t want to do it, so I didn’t. I’m not sure what that says about me; it doesn’t seem like anything good to be honest. I guess the sense I am most left with is one of sadness; it had been a long while (adolescence) since I had seen a mantis in the wild.

∞

I am sharing this particular photo because in a matter less grave than life or death, but “crushing” in its own way, I lost a good chunk of writing today to a vagary of the WordPress system. I had left the tab of a WordPress post draft in my browser open for about 24 hrs. Since then my session had expired and when I began writing this morning, I had to log in again. I’m not sure what exactly the technical problem was, but after I had written for a while, I clicked the “Save Draft” button. An error screen came up saying that the request didn’t work or that it had failed. Below that line of text was a hyperlink that said “Try again.” I clicked it – to my chagrin. The worst part is, as soon as I did it, I remembered this was the wrong thing to do. It had happened before, and I had lost my writing just like this time. The last revision saved was from the day before; the new text was sent to oblivion. I searched the browser cache in vain. I tried to hit the back button, but the time for that was at the “Try again” screen – do not click “Try again.” I do believe clicking the back button works if you do it without proceeding through the error page. I’m sure WordPress is aware of this. I wish the “Try again” page that comes up was a little more robust in its warning about continuing with the process. I am very frustrated and somewhat daunted at the task of having to rewrite this story. I think remembering the unfortunate mantis has given me some perspective to move forward, but it still is rankling me.

So here’s to moving forward. Here’s to better writing, here’s to a safer WordPress.

Here’s to healthy mantises.

Diminished Returns

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tattered red spotted purple butterfly

They say if you keep doing the same thing again and again and expect different (i.e. better) results, you’re nuts. But sometimes you’re nuts to begin with, and you just do what you are. The rest is just hoping for the best. Sometimes you hope, and you move forward. Sometimes you just are.

tattered red spotted purple butterfly

(Don’t worry, though; everything changes.)

A Damselfly Without Its Data

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Ischnura hastata Citrine Forktail male

I have plenty of photos to share with the world, but the words I would like to accompany them appear to have gone missing lately. And that’s not the only thing. Typically, photos are taken and EXIF data is recorded and appended to the image. I have been using a new workflow where I use Nikon’s viewNX2 to do the initial processing of the RAW (NEF) file, thereafter converting the file into TIFF format (to edit in GIMP). After the the NEF to TIFF conversion, I lose the EXIF data. It is not the biggest deal for my current purposes, but I would rather have the “Date Created” or “Photo taken on” information reflect the actual date and not the day I processed the photo and turned it into a TIFF. It is also nice to be able to share with other photographers the camera settings (of course I have fewer recorded data fields than typically with the reverse lens set up; basic items like aperture and focal length are not available and the camera registers as “No Lens Attached”). My googled journey to find answers left me with virtually nothing…except maybe high blood pressure and a headache.

If any photo processing savvy person knows how to remedy this problem, your input is more than appreciated.

As for our beautiful bug, this is a Citrine Forktail damselfly that I found in Florida in late March or early April (see I’ve lost my mind, obviously located within the EXIF data). The yellow coloration indicates a male. According to BugGuide.net, it is unique among all damselflies with “stigma” (the spot on the wing, to use BugGuide’s term) in that it is not on the edge of the wing but surrounded on all sides with the clear membrane of the wing. It also is (likely) the smallest damselfly in the United States, and certainly the smallest I have personally encountered. It fit very nicely into the dimensions of my camera’s DX (APS-C) sensor as this uncropped shot illustrates.

Pain in the Writing

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Crab spider with Mirid plant bug prey
Crab spider with Mirid plant bug prey

Writing is hard when you are depressed. It is a distinct if not special pain to hit that first key. It seems impossible, and a word, then a sentence, and God forbid a paragraph is Armageddon come to pass. This post is just something that must be done. I apologize in advance, but this is an act of an act, a scratching and clawing means to a modest end that appears to be slipping into an abyss but is really sinking into cushions that are soft but not comfortable. And so here we are, and at least one of us must be. This is a paragraph. This is the end.

Entry Point (and Shoot)

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Common Ringlet Butterfly perched on a plantain
Common Ringlet Butterfly perched on a plantain
Common Ringlet Butterfly perched on a plantain

When I started shooting insects, I was inspired by my subjects, the challenge to photograph them and the pride in capturing an image that could potentially continue the thread of inspiration. I still post a photo or few from my earlier Canon Powershot A620 days on occasion. My budget (as ever) delimited me with a point and shoot camera, but I tried to push it as far as I could. One way was to get a lens converter adapter and attach a Raynox MSN-202 lens element; this setup helped me get closer shots of smaller subjects. As a novice, I was not really aware of all the strengths and weaknesses of the A620 (though the noisiness of the images seemed unbearably evident at a certain point), or maybe more accurately, I was not aware of how to manipulate the camera to compensate for those weaknesses. I won’t get into clichés about “it’s not the size of your sensor, but how you use it,” etc.; but for the macro enthusiast, it’s worth pointing (and shooting) out, that you can get good shots without having a giant dSLR rig. So get what you can now, and make up the rest later. (And read the user manual, that really helps, too.)

Yet to Come

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ladybird beetle pupa

This isn’t a Phidippus regius jumping spider, but that is what I am hoping to find today as my Florida adventure continues. My ignorance was cured by a quick Google search, and I realized they were (potentially) under my nose all the while. I’ve been in a scrub palm habitat questing for the next great insect subject, and apparently that is a good place to look for these spiders. I have zero jumping spider sightings so far, but here’s hoping. In the meanwhile, I have a ladybird beetle pupa nestled under a funky plant structure.