Photos, videos and docs of Janet Brien, with the keywords: "beetle"

289/365: "How brave a ladybug must be! Each drop of rain is big as she. Can you imagine what you'd do, If raindrops fell as big as you?" ~ Aileen Fisher

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 02:08:25 +0000

3 pictures above in notes! :)

Well, this day didn't turn out as expected...I am typing this on Steve's iPhone and am relieved to have this bit of access to the internet. There was a crew working down at the road putting in new cable or optical line, not sure what. At about noon we lost our phone and internet and nobody seems to know when this will be resolved. :/ I had plans of visiting and commenting today but only got to say hi to about 35 people before my plans were tossed in the trash. :( [NOTE: Service was finally restored at 8:30am pst, yay!!]

However, I did take my pictures and we figured out how to get them uploaded so I won't miss a 365 day! :)

This morning I was busy commenting and having my usual delightful time when I felt something crawling in my hair! Gently touching, I felt nothing but then saw something on my glasses! Ack! I was sure it would be a nasty tick and pulled them off instantly to see. To my relief, I saw instead a beautiful ladybug crawling along. Without a pause, I hopped up, went downstairs and got my camera! Such fun to take pictures of these beauties... As it turned out, I got 4 nice pictures to share today!

Aileen Lucia Fisher (September 9, 1906 – December 2, 2002) was an American writer of more than a hundred children's books, including poetry, picture books in verse, prose about nature and America, biographies, Bible themed books, plays, and articles for magazines and journals. Her poems have been anthologized many times and are frequently used in textbooks. In 1978 she was awarded the second National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Born in Michigan, Fisher moved to Colorado as an adult and lived there for the rest of her life. (From wiki)

Explored on October 17, 2013. Highest placement, page 7.

Ladybug Wingies!

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 02:08:25 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Every once in a while, this ladybug would open its wingies and then close them again. It never took off, which made me happy because I was able to release it outside much easier that way!

(Textures by Jerry Jones)

Up Close and Personal with a Ladybug on my Glasses

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 02:08:25 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

I meant for this picture to be first but oh well! I was very pleased that I can see the composite eyes here!

Ladybug Taking a Stroll on my Glasses

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 02:08:25 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Look at this beauty! I really should have held the detachable macro flashes out to the side to avoid the bright spots on the back but it will do for now. Something to remember for the future. :)

(Textures by Jerry Jones)

Itty Bitty Beetle on my Thumb

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 05:10:02 +0000

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This beetle was about the size of a grain of rice and was quite busy crawling all over my finger, making it a challenge to get a reasonable picture! :D

Tiny Beetle with Fancy Hair

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 04:05:12 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

1 more picture above in a note! :)

Months ago when I was taking pictures of Clio Tiger Moth caterpillars, I found this perfectly adorable beetle hanging out on a dead plant stem near by. I managed to get two nice images and you'll see the other image as an inset! :)

Clumsy Black Beetle Balancing on Wild Grass

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 03:10:12 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

1 more picture above in a note! :)

While I was looking around for the little pink flower I was planning to photograph, I noticed something dark fly down and try to land on...one of the pink flowers I was looking for!! Instead of landing on the little flower, which was small even to this beetle, it crashed into the flower and fell off the other side and into the grass.

With an amused grin, I creeped closer with hopes of taking pictures of it crawling up to the flower. Unfortunately, the beetle was several feet from the flower now, but its antics were great fun to watch! If a beetle could act annoyed, this one was doing a very convincing job! It was trying to fly but kept bumping into grass or stems and getting knocked down again. Then it would try crawling up a stem and fall off because of its fairly large and heavy size.

I could see a fun challenge awaiting me if the beetle could manage to crawl out of the jungle below and afford me a good vantage point for a picture. As you know, I am always practicing to take pictures of fast-moving insects or fleeting opportunities which require quick judgement, fast aiming and steady hands while aiming for that one chance for sharp focus. I watched with baited breath as he finally clambered up a very shaky stem of wild grass with the intentions of flying from the top. As it crawled over the tiny tines of the top of the grass, I got three pictures, and amazingly, I got focus on all of them!! Then he was in the air and off to crash into a flower somewhere else! :D

Of the three pictures I got, two of them were just a big shallow of dof for my liking and the angle wasn't optimal. But when I saw this picture I laughed out loud with a gleeful, "YES!!!" I couldn't have asked for a better outcome! Now, for those of you who are saying to yourself that you'll never get a picture like this, I'm saying the same thing!! So much of getting pictures like this has to do with luck and opportunity, but also lots of practice. Honestly, do what I do: practice every single time you have an chance to chase a bug around. You'll get better and better, and with time, you'll get much calmer and steady with the camera, and your results will improve. You have nothing to lose, and it's a fantastic game to play!! Come on!! SHOW ME YOUR PICTURES!!! :)

Black Beetle Close-Up

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 03:10:00 +0000

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I wanted to crop this beetle to 1024 x 1024 so you could get a better look at this lovely fellow! One of the things I'm so happy about is that black insects are not easy to photograph. The details are usually lost or totally blown out where the sun reflects. But in this case, the sun was diffused by an overcast sky and it was hitting him at just the right angle, and he's properly exposed! HAPPY DAY!!! *snoopy dance*

Artistic Challenge: Psychedelic Beetle

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 04:05:15 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

2 more images above in notes! :D

Not long after I joined ipernity, I met a very talented lady who loves to create collages of images, using Photoshop and her fabulous imagination to create incredible artwork! I have long-admired people who can do this well, and I let her know what I thought! Barbara (Plumnuts) wrote back and told me that she is involved in groups devoted to this kind of artwork and wondered if I would be interested in trying one for fun. When I said, "BRING IT!" she supplied me with a texture she made with cicada wings, and told me to go have some fun!

This is my first attempt at such a thing, and although it's only a blend of two subjects, there were many layers involved and a lot of manipulation and fooling around to get to this result. I didn't want to try adding too many elements for my first project, but the next one I try will have at least three elements! (I hope to use this same texture with some other images...I have something in mind, we'll see if it works out! I'm still buried in work so I won't be working on it for another week probably)

By the way, Barbara posted two amazing collages using her cicada wings textures, take a look!
Things that Lurk at Night in the Jungle in 3D
Waking Leaf Fairy

If this kind of challenge sounds like fun and you'd like to try your own version, here's a link to the cicada wings texture over on Flickr: Cicada Wings: Free Texture Let one of us know that you've created your own image so we can appreciate what you've made!! :)

Prionus Root Borer Beetle Portrait

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 04:49:31 +0000

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Take a look at this guy!! WOW!!! All those prisms in its eyes are easy to see and you know, it was probably really getting tired of me blinding all of its zillions of prisms with my flash! By the way, compound eyes are composed of thousands of photoreceptors which are extremely sensitive to motion and fluctuation in light. (Did you know that spiders--which are also not insects--do not have compound eyes? They have simple eyes called "ocelli")

If you would like to know more about compound eyes, this page was very informative: Compound Eyes

Side View of a Prionus Root Borer Beetle

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 04:49:40 +0000

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Look at the luxurious fur coat underneath this beetle! Isn't it pretty?!! It's very hard to see this hair just by looking--it appears to be velvety instead. I wonder it it is soft or bristley? I wasn't about to touch this guy--it was not too happy about getting flashed by my strobes, and I didn't want to stress it out even more. And well, do you think I would be brave enough to touch this guy?!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!!! :D :D This thing looks like it's straight out of a 50's monster movie!! :D :D

The Enormous Prionus Root Borer Beetle!

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 04:49:50 +0000

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Last night I let the dogs out to do their business before bed, and as I went to close the door, I nearly put my hand on the biggest beetle I've ever seen in my life! [Insert lots of horrified expletives as I leaped back in shock] This guy was literally about 3" in length, and would you just LOOK at those antennae!?!! WOWY ZOWY, HOLY COWY!!! The second I saw it, I ran upstairs to told Steve to come down instantly and look what was on the front door...lol...he creeped over to the door and...[insert more amazed expletives from him :D :D]! While he was staring in amazement, I put the macro flash on my camera and I took pictures! I wanted to have the option of making this my Picture of the Day, so I checked back after midnight, and it was still there! I took more pictures, and this morning it had flown away.

I discovered that this is a Prionus Root Borer, and it's one of the largest beetles in the Western North America (um, no surprise there! :D). These beetles play a very important role in helping to decompose old logs but they also diminish the value of salvage timber with the holes that they burrow into the wood. (Thanks to Leapfrog Art for helping to point me in the right direction on identifying the species!)

If you would like to know more about these huge beetles, I found a very informative page here: Wikipedia: Prionus Root Borer Beetle

Black Beetle on Daisy

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sat, 22 Jun 2013 04:33:39 +0000

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Today when I went out into our smaller meadow, I saw a black beetle fly by and land on a daisy. It was so intent on gobbling pollen that I was able to get several images before it took off and flew away! I usually have trouble with black beetles because it's so hard to see their eyes, but I think this one turned out quite well! Hooray!

beeandbeetleonflower

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sun, 29 May 2011 04:09:28 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

The bee is probably a Sweat Bee, Halictus farinosus

Thanks to Phil Huntley-Franck for identification information!

Soldier Beetle, family Cantharidae

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sun, 29 May 2011 04:09:47 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Soldier Beetle, family Cantharidae

Thanks to Phil Huntley-Franck for identification information!

Soldier Beetle, family Cantharidae 2

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sun, 29 May 2011 04:09:44 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Soldier Beetle, family Cantharidae

Thanks to Phil Huntley-Franck for identification information!

Bordered Plant Bugs Mating

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sun, 29 May 2011 08:03:40 +0000

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Bordered Plant Bug pair mating, Largus californicus,
genus Largus, family Largidae

Thanks to Phil Huntley-Franck for identification information!

beetleonblossom

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Fri, 27 May 2011 08:11:17 +0000

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Eye-spotted Lady Beetle, Anatis mali

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sat, 28 May 2011 05:44:32 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Eye-spotted Lady Beetle, Anatis mali
(not definite on this)

Thanks to Phil Huntley-Franck for identification information!

aphidonflower

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sun, 29 May 2011 04:09:09 +0000

Janet Brien has posted: