First shots this Vasant

Winter here usually comes with few installments of cold spells broken by few sunny days. Not this time. This year it was one single long spell of cold days. It however broke the pattern that was going for almost one and half year now of reality not matching with season. Say, last winter was more like monsoon, Summer had lacked the usual heat and Monsoon the rains. So hopefully this winter being like winter will restore the order. and now, abundant Sunshine has returned and so the colours. Best season for photography starts now and I hope to do better compared to last few months.

I was thinking about not seeing the roller for quite some time and one morning see him. I quickly got home, picked up camera and returned. He however had left by then. Its disappointing that unlike in past, when he or even the pair was seen quite regularly, is seen less and less now. Last time I spent good time watching it was actually nearly three years back. a  shot from archives for now.

I did not find the roller but still it was worth spending some time there - a black hooded Oriole was calling happily and not many things can match the experience of listening to one. While coming back saw this hoope sitting on the ground. I went and sat at some distance. then at somewhat lesser distance and then even lesser. It didnt mind my company even at some 15 feet or so.

Meanwhile, keeping up with the season, my favourite tiny weed flowers are back.

okay, I know it doesnt make a sensible post to repeat all those weed flowers every year no matter how much I like them so rest assured I wont repeat my last February post. I however found one beautiful addition this year that wasnt there before. It should be around 4mm in size.

Insects too have started appearing and first of them to appear everywhere is.. well, what might sound very uninteresting subject to most - a mosquito it is I think. I quite like it for its antennas and one of them was posing for me the other day.

Some colours to end with. Hope to be back with more colours soon..

(Insects) Once more

I like reading stories and also like to read them again and again. In fact, my liking for stories started before I could read them myself and also enjoyed telling those I just heard if I find an audience - that I used to find in a friend sometime. I however remember once going mad when he insisted I tell him same Akabar-Birbal story 22nd time. Well, in all these years since then, my own track record is not a lot different or probably its even worse. So, now I see need to justify.. I mean, understand the behaviour. I had once googled and found some study saying that children who are exposed to same story repeatedly learn language better than those who listen to different stories. (clarification: I was exposed to English very late in the day so quality of my English has no link with me reading same stories again and again.) - but then, I still read same stories again and again. So, why does repetition sounds useful and enjoyable irrespective of age? I dont know about others, but with me, I guess, its simply because I forget things happily and reading them again gives same first time Aha feeling. and, that's not at all limited to stories. Also, I think in general repetition brings familiarity, which in turn feels like beauty, security etc and also taxes brain less and less wrt to things already understood leaving more resources/building better context to understand things missed out at earlier iteration - so all kinds of minds- those seeking security, seeking beauty, seeking depth or simply lazy or slow ones all are likely to love repetition? of course, of things you enjoy and which support at least one of the benefits that repetition gives.

Its good three or so years that I have been taking lots and lots of pictures but I never enjoyed or tried to learn photography. probably have spent some time learning about equipment but 'photography', never. Which means that I usually learn things that helps me bettering my photographs by random experiments or by chance. Now, one such learning was that high ISO is big problem only if you have underexposed too. I don't remember when I forgot that learning. and then, I had fallen to habit of stopping at ISO 1600. Recently however, when a friend mentioned same thing again, I remembered my old knowledge. and before I forget it again, I was faced with subjects I was looking for, and light conditions I wasn't looking for.

Second and fourth shots above are at ISO 12500, first at 6400. for shots I would not have taken at all, they I think have come out quite well - at least for web size. Noise at this ISOs is pretty bad for out-of-focus areas and even after wasting good amount of time on above, they do appear quite poorly post processed, but then for those who know how to do it, it may not be a big issue. Need to post process makes the high ISO again non useful for me (and probably that was the reason I forgot the earlier learning too), but still, it was good to once again learn something that I had learned previously also.
I had seen that insect last time, again always in low light. I somehow quite like its transparent like dotted appearance and was very happy to see three of them at different age in matter of two days. All ages look equally beautiful to me. Sorry for skipping the ID - I had found it last year but have forgotten now. may be will update later.
ok, between me taking above shots and uploading them here, I saw some other insects. Interestingly, red and black combination with green seems hit this days. Nature too loves repeating whenever she can :-)

Continuing with Monsoon macro

This is more or less continuation of the previous post. I did not manage to spend much time with camera in hand since last post, and even when I did, it was mostly again looking at same subjects as previous post. I have a feeling I am going to repeat same subjects in this post too, but let me resist that temptation while I can.

Saw this spider and watching it for a while, I guess it was either still immature or in a young like playful mood anyway.

Saw this spider few times now - appropriate size to move in and out of Algae world.

If something similar sized looks at it from behind, this is how it appeared - looks like a snake head. isnt it?

Few feet from above spider and what I saw looked like little lumps of gold on a leave just above my eye level. Yes, beautiful sunlight had its contribution to that appearance but these eggs were also quite nice. It was somewhat high for taking shot comfortably still, did manage a shot.

It seemed to me that insects from remaining two eggs might come out soon but when I saw these eggs again after few days, they were still intact.

On another sunny day, saw something was clinging to a grass stem. it appeared like a seed to me but for the seed it was at unlikely place. I look at it and find this. I guess its a leafhopper - though it was bigger than leafhoppers I have seen previously.

and lastly, one more shot of those Springtails I had covered in last post too. I think this is the best possible shot I can manage of them. - below frame is 1/3 crop of a shot taken at max magnification my set-up gives. which is approx 3.65 so the frame below is some 2mm at longer side. and I can see these creatures eyes too!

That's what I have for this mini update. lets see what I find for the next one.

Mitey start of Monsoon

Monsoon start in north India comes in two varieties. Much celebrated variety is grand opening with refreshing downpour that brings temperatures down by 10 – 20 degrees and ends the Summer in an instant. Other one is, mild showers for few minutes and clouds overhead causes humidity jump that more than offsets some reduction in temperature and cause feel-like temperature to worsen. This year happens to be of the second variety. Life other than the humans however doesn't seem to be making much distinction between the two varieties and surroundings has started turning green at usual rapid pace.

First monsoon creature I noticed was this. Saw them for the first time since my school days and was happy to see them - even though not many of them and only for a day or two. Didn’t know their name and was surprised to find that they are not only named Giant red velvet mite, they actually are Mites. Now, aren’t mites supposed to be very very small? anyhow, their size was source of disappointment also for the reason that they were too big for my reverse lens macro set up – the one I was carrying then.

I saw one of them trying to dig into ground. Could not understand what it was trying to do and wondered if it was to lay eggs there? Googling however tells me that they actually live mostly under the ground and come up on surface only for few days. I fail to imagine how such a big creature can live inside what looks like solid earth.. but probably its ok as I don’t see myself as very imaginative being. It however reminded me of yet another story. ‘Fires within’ by A C Clarke this time.

When I was taking the first picture above, I didn't think much about some parts of the brick on which the mite was walking being blue. but that small insect on mite’s head was more difficult to miss. I soon found that blue was not just colour of brick but lots and lots of insects. I was taking a shot of green algae just starting to appear and saw these blue things. I thought they were even smaller than Mites I had seen previously (less than 1mm) and certainly not bigger then them.

As if to give me sense of size, a mite actually appeared in frame. While shooting, the mite appeared much bigger than the blue insects – but probably it was optical illusion because of its speed and legs as in the photo it appears smaller – that is, if you can spot the mite in the photo in first place (its already a cropped shot).

Green algae is my current attraction - I had seen it through macro set up only towards end of last monsoon and had got a feeling it could be interesting to watch that world. I was therefore waiting for them to start growing. As I was walking to pick the patch of algae, saw this another subject I didn't photograph last year - not because I didn't notice them. it wasn't an option as there were thousands and thousands of them. I didn't take a shot thinking it could be done any day and then they disappeared. As I was watching some millipedes walking by, one of them stopped, spiraled itself and moved around its own center for a moment, straightened again and continued in same direction it was originally going. That appeared a very strange thing to me and once it was gone, I regretted not being fast enough and shooting the behaviour. just then, another millipede comes, stops at same point, does similar spiraling act, uncoils, starts walking - all I managed was to say 'wow, I missed it again'. before the third one came however, pattern recognition part of my brain started functioning and I had my camera pointed at that place even though no millipede was in frame. and surely, nature is unimaginative at times. a third one walks-in in a moment, spirals, uncoils, walks away.

As I upload above shot here, I google to see if such spiraling is normal or not. It says its their defense mechanism - but that leaves me more confused. what i saw didn't look like one. they appeared under no threat. the spot where they came to get spiraled was more sunlit than area around - but they walked up to there themselves and appeared in no distress while walking under the Sun elsewhere. probably some other problem with the spot that wasn't visible to me..

Coming back to algae, while watching a patch of it, I saw this something feeding happily on it. it was incredible to look at that tiny something through macro lens. I guess, in nature amount of details is not scale independent but as things become smaller, more detailed they become. I know it can be shot in much better way but being first of such a creature for me, I find this also fascinating.

Not all details are so well done however. some do look ugly even with lots of details. plus these below things are not being kind to my Tulsi plants either. (as usual: better shot next time)

and lastly, main sighting of this post. These black-red mites (unless they are something else and not Mites), whatever their name may be. Incredible to watch them running around. and happy with these shots for now. btw, I find that algae also are different at different places. - not unexpected, just an observation.

once in a while two of them would come face to face and in one such encounter, they did what appeared a wonderfully done sword fight. lasted only a second and then I think winner was decided or whatever, but they went in different directions.

as if getting Mites, even if only partially in focus wasn't good enough, I got to see and capture this young one too. for sure it becomes the smallest thing I managed to capture so far.

That's what I have for this update. If temperature/humidity goes down a bit and my computer allows me to work for longer, should be back to my usual posting frequency soon.

Mantises

Few months back I saw some red things - they were praying mantises it seemed. They would sit in curled up position and move only once light conditions are poor enough which meant for long I couldnt manage any shot. but still, watching them when they walked was very enjoyable - body length increasing by few folds and each step preceded by action that looked like he was punching air and preempting any danger. There were just too many of them around but all I could get was few average shots on couple of occasions as below. Second individual was kind enough to walk while light was still good.

Then with winter, insects were not seen as much and so above red or any other mantises. and after the winter break, first one that I managed to notice was this below individual. He sat on this flowers for days and days and days.. I was really surprised how long that flower stayed there!
In the background, there is a crab spider - you can see if you make great attempt at seeing it and then just believe me when I say its there. Mantis was standing with its back to the crab spider and only recently had noticed that someone else was sharing the flower. Here, Mantis is interrupting his attempt to ask crab spider what's his business here to pose for me.

Then one day, I notice that an ant on the yellow flower was actually a tiny mantis! I was very excited to finally find an ant mimicking mantis. so I took some shots.

I kept visiting that flowers for next few days and while I didn't notice any change in that Mantis (nor I was expecting any change), when I started uploading shots for this post, notice that it had changed, probably grew bigger too. Wikipedia told me that my ant mimicking mantis was actually a mantis nymph that was mimicking ant only while it was small. 

yes, I felt very uneducated, but seriously, for someone who really is as uneducated like me, it was probably ok to misjudge. See the next image how it looked when you looked at flower with your eyes, not macro lens.

Don't know what these are called, but probably they would grow to become something like below ones. I had encountered them last summer/monsoon.

I am still new to insect world and sure there are many strange ones around, but in what I have seen so far, I find mantises one of the more interesting looking. Specifically, how their bodies are folded and how they predictably stay at same place for days together. Few others below. I had shared them at previously but listing them out again to make this post as a complete collections of all Mantises I have found so far.

With Nature, if you make a generic statement, next thing you find is, retracting yourself. Happens with me at least. Below types were actually hyperactive. let alone finding them at one place for days, it was almost impossible to judge where you should try to focus as it ran with fantastic speed.

and not too many folds here. Unless, its something else altogether. This was very big. I have a full shot too but preferred this as other has white/yellow wall in background.

This post turns out mostly a photo listing one and I think another of same kind may follow soon. It probably is appearing unbalanced, but I guess amount of text in previous post was enough to counter at least ten photo-only posts :-)