I found a dead dragonfly in a flowerpot in my backyard a couple of days ago. It was undamaged, so I assume it died of cold/old age. It looked like maybe a California Darner (Rhionaeschna californica) but I'm not sure as it was pretty faded. One forewing was mostly intact, so I thought I'd play with a different sort of image. I shot this against pure white diffusion material, then simply processed it in Lightroom as a negative - which turned the white to black and the pale amber wing structure to blue. I love the serrated leading edge of dragonfly wings; it reminds me of the way they fly, skillfully knifing through the air.

Tags:   Macrophotography Insects dragonfly dragonflies Odonata Macro negative

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See the spider? Its prey didn't, either (nor did I at first). Look closely for a two-tailed spider (so called for their long spinnerets; family Hersiliidae). Only after taking a shot of an odd, tiny, white object on a tree trunk then checking the image on my camera back did I realize it was a spider with a beetle meal. Five-star camouflage.

Tags:   Macrophotography Macro spiders arachnids Hersiliidae Two Tailed Spider Brazil

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A small (6-8 mm.) darkling beetle (Metoponium sp.) found at night on a creosote bush; Anza Borrego Desert, California. A detail I like is that the compound eye looks like a blackberry.

Tags:   Macrophotography Insects beetles Tenebrionidae desert insects Desert Anza-Borrego Coleoptera

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I think Boana sp.; Brazil

Tags:   frogs amphibians eyes Tree frogs Brazil Wildlife Photography Nature Photography

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My last photo of 2024 - tiny snail/slug eggs found in my garden this morning. Each sphere is no more than 1 mm. in diameter.

Tags:   Macrophotography Macro eggs snail gastropods mollusc garden

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