Other winged things...

[jcoffin]

A bee was kind enough to still long enough that I could take his portrait (several times...) so I thought I'd take advantage. Unfortunately, when I try to post it directly, I get an error message saying "It was not possible to determine the dimensions of the image." -- something I haven't seen before, but perhaps CombineZP is munging the metatdata or something. Anyway, here's the URL:



Six frames, each taken at f/16, 1/125th of a second, with Alpha 700, K/M 100/2.8 macro. Stacked with CombineZP.

For what it's worth, I recent updated my tripod, replacing my decades-old Bogen 3001 with a 190XPROB (both are re-branded Manfrottos, though I don't know the Manfrotto part numbers offhand). I'm quite happy with the change -- for this shot, I used the center column turned horizontally, and really couldn't have gotten the shot with the old tripod.

[Dusty]

Jerry, that's not a bee, that's a Yellow Jacket! They're mean and nasty! Real bees are soft and fuzzy looking, and can only sting once. That girl there will keep stinging you until you kill it or she decides you've learned your lesson.

Dusty

[David Kilpatrick]

I fixed your image link. You should view the size of picture you want in Flickr, mouseover the pic, and Copy the Image Location (URL of that particular variant). Then paste this in. For this pic it was, a medium size:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3572/349 ... 2f8c8d.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

David

[jcoffin]

Jerry, that's not a bee, that's a Yellow Jacket! They're mean and nasty! Real bees are soft and fuzzy looking, and can only sting once. That girl there will keep stinging you until you kill it or she decides you've learned your lesson.

Dusty

Oops -- I guess I got lucky that this particular one may not have been feeling as nasty as usual at the moment (or something). Actually, I'm not sure what happened, but the first I saw she was lying on her back, feebly kicking her legs. I'm guessing she got pecked by a bird or something, but in any case I did my best to be gentle in flipping her back on her feet. For five minutes or so, she just stood, and then started moving around a bit slowly. About five minutes later (or so) she was apparently feeling more normal, and flew away -- but in the meantime, I had some time to get a few pics. I also got a couple from directly above:



Here's a tighter crop at slightly greater magnification that shows the eye segments a bit better:



I'm obviously not even close to an expert, but I'm pretty sure the three small, round bumps on top of the head are eye segments.

[Hand held, 1/125th @ f/16, K/M 100/2.8 macro, Alpha 700]

Thanks for fixing the URL David -- I'm not sure what was going on, and was probably too tired to think straight and figure it out.

[Dusty]

The bumps are eyes. Judging from you description, and the condition of the wings, I think you caught one that just came out of it's pupae stage. There my be a nest above that spot where she fell out of. A close look at the wings gives the impression that they're 'virgin' - i.e., no blood flow yet. This happens when they come out of their pupal stage, and they can't fly for a while.

Dusty