Large Milkweed Bugs

It is the time of year to find large amounts of Large Milkweed Bugs out in the fields. They are colorful bugs, bright orange & black, usually found on old Milkweed Pods. But you can find them on other plants around the Milkweeds.

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Milkweed Bugs on a Milkweed Pod

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Spider Web with Dew Drops

While I was looking for Dragonflies, I found this small spider web with dew drops on it. It was only a couple inches in length, which accentuated the small dew drops when viewed close-up. It was very windy with the web blowing in the breeze and it was in the shadows, so I had to shoot at a high ISO and fairly wide open f/stop to stop the movement. I did not try for a series and then stack them for depth of field since it was bouncing around so much.

Halloween Pennant Covered with Dew

We went to Davidsons Mill Pond Park to look for dragonflies and what ever else we could find. I have looked for dragonflies early in the morning covered with dew for years, but have not found any so far. To our surprise we found one on this morning. Unfortunately it was very windy plus in the shade. It was not warm enough for the Halloween Pennant to fly, so we had a great photo subject that was not going anywhere for a while. Being in the shade the light was terrible and with the wind it was blowing back and forth. I had to raise the ISO to 2000 and still only had a shutter speed of 1/125th sec @ f/8 with a 150mm Sigma macro. Hand holding the camera, I tried shooting quite a few series of different focus points to combine later in a stacked photoshop file with sharpest ones to combine for one sharp image. I shot quite a few bursts as it was blowing around. Being late in the season this dragonfly showed a lot of wear, damaged wings, pieces missing, etc. The one wing was even bent at an odd angle so I left that section with a little softer focus. With the way the wind was blowing I was surprised I got as much as I did. Not perfect but it was still fun to try.
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