Macro

Photo of a true bug, ventral and dorsal aspects I photographed this true bug in 2007, about eleven and a half years ago, but the beauty of it is that the insect as a species has not changed.  This is one of the things I appreciate about wild life photography, whether minuscule or marvelous, that the images are timeless.  People change, landscapes change, and buildings change - but wildlife images are as useful today as they were in the past.  If you didn't know the photo was from last decade, you couldn't tell. The term "bug" gets way overused in the English language.  The above insect is a "true bug" and belongs to the order Hemiptera.  These include things like stink bugs, water striders, and assassin bugs.  All true bugs have piercing and sucking mouth parts. Other insects, such as lady bugs, are not true bugs at all.  If you look closely at the ventral (belly) view of the juvenile bug you can see the needle like appendage projecting from ...

Original spider photo taken by myself. Giant Hawaiian Garden Spider attacks ship.  Captain wants to know what pest control will do about it. We were fortunate enough to go on a cruise from Vancouver, BC to Auckland, New Zealand this fall.  It was a glorious adventure; a 38 day cruise with 20 ports of call.  One of those was in Kona on the big island of Hawaii. While there we walked around the harbor and discovered numerous things, a cool lizard for one and an amazing garden spider.  It was very big - with a body at least an inch long - and an enormous web made out of filaments like guitar strings.  The spider itself was in the middle, waiting for a delicious morsel to come calling.  Unfortunately, the spider was on the other side of the web, and was not accessible because of the dense bush behind it.  I could, however, manage a photo from the side. As I wrangled myself into position, attempting not to disturb the beast that was patiently wai...