Food for Flies

I found myself getting frustrated trying to get a picture perfect lily last week. When I looked closely these flies were the villains. When I thought about it later, maybe the lily was there for the flies and not my perfect image. Another reminder for me to photograph what I see instead of what I wish was in front of the lens.

Prairie Rose Cafe

I'm continuing my exploration of the prairie using high speed video recording on the iPhone. These small flies were busy one morning last week and tolerated the close up attachment that requires a distance of about an inch for optimum focus. Recorded at 240 fps which means one second of action translates into 8 seconds of video. Now if I could afford a more sophisticated camera that records in high speed. Most cameras limit the shooting time to a few seconds because of the intense onboard computer commitment to process and store that volume of information. The high end cameras have a pre-record feature so you can save the action after it has happened. This is a great feature since it can take several seconds for a camera to transfer the information to a memory card.

Type A (ant) Behavior

Everyone sees butterflies and feels the mosquitos but ants are usually overlooked. They are constantly in motion and could be described as having a type A personality type. It might be a trap to ascribe personality traits to insects but if ants are type A  say have attention deficit characteristics. With this line of musing, maybe the mosquitos have attacked my brain.

Autumn Feast

What are they? Beats me. I could have spent some time identifying each species but this quote from Mary Oliver comes to mind.

"Still, What I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled---to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world."

Enjoy.

Take a Break From the Big Picture

In photography we tend to concentrate on the big picture, the grand landscape, and charismatic megafauna. In life at this time of year we are focused on the number and size of presents. Take 30 seconds to watch one of God's little creatures. Say thank you to the harried clerk, look for the twinkle in the eye of a child, and remember how this all started.

Autumn Drama

I am always looking for a story to tell with video. Predator/prey relationships make a good story even in the insect world. Bill Wallauer who filmed the movie Chimpanzee for the Disney gives some insights into the world of wildlife filmmaking at Google + Photographers

Technical: Filmed with a Canon 7D and 70-200 mm lens