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Why, Hello There!
As I mentioned yesterday in “Discovery On The Way to The Waterfall”, Kyoto biologist Nicolas Joannin sort of likes bugs, so I find myself snapping pictures of the little devils when I'm out with him.
The image above is a crop from this shot:
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Warning: this post has pictures of bugs. Don't scroll if you're squeamish.
(I'm quite squeamish about bugs, so nothing too wild on this post.)
We were at the Gioji Temple (as I've been posting about, starting with “Tag Along With Me on a Photo Shoot at Kyoto’s Gioji Temple”), and when we weren't taking pictures of the temple's ample moss and ferns or little microscopic mushrooms (white or orange, take your pick), we didn't have to look far to find a bug.
Sometimes we ran into them, literally, or almost ran into them. This next little guy, the size of a grain of rice, was hanging from an invisible thread at Nicolas's forehead level, and I noticed and was able to alert Nicolas about an inch from impact....
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hanging By A Thread
Full on 125mm 1:1 macro handheld at f/2.5 of a bug whipping around in the breeze is not going to turn out well, and indeed you can't really identify the green smudge in the picture above. Nicolas did better when he was simply trying to shoot me shooting the bug...
E-P2 — 1/160 sec, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Me and The Bug
which is which is left as an exercise for the reader
photo by Nicolas Joannin
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Legs
In an earlier post, I showed Nicolas under a dark roof photographing a bug... here's his photo of a spider:
And here's mine...
This guy's web was really interesting with the white spiral pattern, but wow did it undulate at a high frequency in the wind (sometimes aided by a puff from a chuckling Nicolas).
Later we came across this punk-rock caterpillar:
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Then there was this guy just about to start a meal...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mmmmmm.... Lunch
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/100 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
I noticed a black butterfly/moth thing on a nearby tree, but it moved to the other side of the tree before I could get it. But Nicolas followed, and got this nice shot:
A bit later, Nicolas found this little guy on his finger...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just Moments
before the little guy bit Nicolas
We then moved from the Gioji Temple and headed into the mountains, stopping by a place of some historical significance that I'll explain later. While there, we came across this hairy guy:
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tom Selleck
The shape reminds me, oddly enough, of Tom Selleck's mustache, but also in some ways of the “angel wing” countermeasure flares that military airplanes use in defense. The latter probably makes more sense, since as far as I can tell this is the caboose.
E-P2 — 1/80 sec, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Me and Tom
Me with a squished nose; Tom is the yellow smudge at the bottom of the frame
photo by Nicolas Joannin
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tom was on a rusty fence blocking this path up a very steep incline):
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Going Up
( but not anymore )
This was where the Mt. Atago railway used to run, similar, I suppose, to the train (“cable car” in Japanese) seen last month in “Returning From the Mt. Hiei Hike: Taking The Easy Way Out”. It ran from 1927 until the Japanese military confiscated it for its iron in 1944. You can see some old pictures of what it looked like here.
“Tom Selleck” made me laugh~ Word well selected!
Speaking of “bugs”, I have to share a website of photos of caterpillars. The photographer, who is the son of a physicist friend of mine at MIT, is quite like a naturalist of the Darwin-Voyage of the Beagle variety. All the caterpillars were found by him in the wild, often in vacant lots in the city.
http://www.pbase.com/spjaffe/massachusetts_caterpillars
Thank you, Howard, for the reference to Sam Jaffe’s site. It is fascinating even if one isn’t ordinarily drawn to ” bugs.” (Wasn’t there once a movie star by that same name??)