Fourth of July Buggers

I’m at home in CT for the holiday this weekend. Just having some fun taking closeups of insects and spiders in the yard.  I used the built-in flash on these shots in order to hand hold at very small apertures.  Up this close, the depth of field becomes very shallow, so the small aperture compensates.  I really need a set of extension tubes.  I’ve got +1, +2, and +4 close-up filters stacked on my Pentax FA 77/1.9 lens for most of these shots…a bit optically unsound, but I think the images came out all right.

Yellow Crab Spider Eating Fly

This spider was on the same lily the next day even though all but one of the petals had fallen off overnight:

Yellow Crab Spider Waiting For Next Meal

Tiny Spider On Daylily

Tiny Bee On Day Flower

Bumble Bee On Lysimachia clethroides

This dragonfly was hard to get close to, but kept on returning to its favorite spot on the deck:

Dragonfly On Deck

Usually, dragonflies are difficult to approach.  I think this one was sleeping. I spent a good fifteen minutes photographing it within three inches before it started to buzz its wings. Then it wiped its face and took off before I could get another shot:

Dragonfly On Yew

Look at the water droplet on its fly in the previous picture. This detail shows the droplet magnifying the eye lenses:

By the way, this was a very large dragonfly. Perhaps the largest I’ve seen around here. Very dragonly.

Dragonfly Wing