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Ants Forage A Dead Bee

Filed Under entomology, photography

Ants Forage A Dead Bee - Click to view details

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Labyrinth Orbweaver Spider

Filed Under entomology, local travel, photography

I found this near Temple City High School while walking the neighborhood with my camera. It looks very similar to the Labyrinth orbweaver I found at OSH the other day.

This was a very skittish, clumsy spider. It appears to have a difficult time carrying its large bulbous abdomen. It also cannot grip plastic as well as other spiders I have captured. Similar to other orbweaver spiders, it plays dead when first approached. It actually fell out of its web when I attempted to capture it.

This ended up being a difficult spider to photograph, and not just because of its size. I recently built a light tent that isn’t really bright enough to allow for low aperature/high speed shots. In fact, I had better success photographing this spider while it was out of the tent using my flash ring.

Make sure to scroll to the bottom to get an idea of the size of this spider.

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The OSH Spider

Filed Under entomology, photography

I spent the day doing some errands and home improvement projects. I didn’t expect to have time to take any macro photos today. I definitely didn’t think I’d be smuggling any spiders out of a store.

I was in OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) getting a spray bottle and some ground soil. While waiting for assistance out in their garden center, I spotted a small spider in a spiral orb web - the one most people think of when they imagine a spider web. Empty spray bottle in hand, I wrangled the spider into it and took it home for closer inspection.

I’m having difficulty identifying it so for now I’ll just call it the “OSH spider”. I’ll release it outside my apartment when I’m done. I’m not sure OSH will want it back.

[EDIT] - I think I have identified it as a labyrinth orbweaver - (Metepeira labyrinthea)

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Alien Head Spider

Filed Under entomology, photography

While exploring the LA Arboretum last weekend, I found a tiny spider on a tree.  I snapped a few pics and realized that he might actually be dead.  I brought a small vial with me and stored the little guy for further viewing back at home.

When I got home, he wasn’t as dead as I thought. He was crawling around making himself at home in the vial.

I attempted a few dozen photos Tuesday evening, but the vial glass made the shots all slightly blurry.  I moved him into a larger vial and added some leaves and a few ants - making him comfortable as I tried to figure out how to photograph the tiny guy.  Wednesday night I noticed he made a small web within the vial and opened it to see if I could photograph him sitting in it.  However, I forgot that non-dead spiders have a tenancy to move around a lot.  None of the photos came out.

Last night, however, I got lucky.  After opening the vial, he moved around for a bit, but settled down after a few minutes in a newly-formed web spread over the opening of the vial.  I snapped just enough pics to work with.

Following the instructions of one of my favorite insect photographers, Brian Valentine, I ran the photos through a shareware program called CombineZM.  Here’s the results of two stacked images:

The spider’s scientific name is Zygiella x-notata, but it appears not to have a common name. My guidebooks state that the male can grow to be about 5mm in length, a few millimeters shorter than the female. I don’t know enough about spider anatomy to know which gender it is, but I’ll just continue to call it a male.

I would like put in this name for approval: The Alien Head Spider. Really take a look at the spider’s abdomen. Can you see the alien head?? Here’s the alien from the film Independence Day for comparison:

I plan on returning him to the arboretum and his tree this weekend. I’m sure the mother ship has been looking for him.

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Western Black Widow

Filed Under entomology, photography

I photographed a western black widow the other day, much to the discomfort of my friends.  We were in downtown Los Angeles with our cameras, doing what I have come to call “Shootin’ Up Los Angeles”.  I organize the outing every 4-5 months and invite friends and co-workers to join me.  But more on that in another blog post.

We were walking down North Main Street just west of Olivera Street when I spotted the venemous spider. The street and sidewalk was not very well lit, so it surprised me that I spotted the black arachnid chilling in a corner.  I set up the tripod and tried to manually focus, but the angle was too strong for my cheap tripod to handle and my camera slowly bowed down.

Photo copyright R. Beltran

To solve the problem, I blew gently on the spider, causing it to head up her web about a foot, stopping at the perfect height for my camera! (see above)

I snapped a few shots as my friends helped light the spider with their camera’s flashes, but the shots came out over-exposed. I decided to switch from my Canon EF24-70 f2.8 L lens (pictured) to my Canon 100mm Macro F2.8 USM lens. Focusing was even more difficult, but after a few shots, I finally got what I was looking to get:

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Porch Light Visitors II

Filed Under entomology, photography

I’ve decided to start a “Porch Light” series dedicated to the strange and wonderful creatures hanging out at my porch light at night.  The first in this series is the European Mantis from earlier this month.  In fact, the mantis visited the porch light again tonight - the first I’ve seen of her since that night.

Tonight’s star was a strawberry root weevil (Otiorhynchus cribricollis), whom was calm enough to sit and pose for me for a while.  I tried a few settings on my ring flash (as well as tried using just the ambient light) and in the end, I got this shot by holding the ring flash in front of the weevil.

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The One That Got Away

Filed Under entomology, photography

I was mentioning in yesterday’s post about a brief encounter I had with a praying mantis outside my apartment. It’s back, and it is no longer camera shy! I took photos of the European Mantis (Mantis religiosa) around the lamp outside my apartment before I took it inside to photograph it in better light. Here are the results:

I love the texture of it’s wings. Beautiful natural art!

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“Roll The Dice” Saturday

Filed Under entomology, local travel, photography, urban-explorers.com

Late Friday night, after a long work week, I realized the endless possibilities of what I could do on Saturday. I could go on a road trip. I could visit a museum. Or maybe go to the Huntington Gardens. I’ve been meaning to visit the Long Beach Aquarium - maybe this was the weekend? There’s also a few LA historical spots I’ve been meaning to visit. The endless options became a moment of indecisiveness. What to do?

Roll the dice!

I wrote down eight actions on a piece of paper and rolled the dice to find out which three I would complete. I made them slightly ambiguous so I could combine them more easily into one Saturday. I don’t think “visit the mountains” and “visit the beach” could be doable in one Saturday morning, for instance. So here’s the list:

1 - Photograph something over 100 years old
2 - Photograph beautiful art
3 - Photograph a fish in its environment
4 - Capture morning fog (on film)
5 - Photograph 15 insects
6 - Visit a place you haven’t been before
7 - Go on a mini road trip
8 - Hike somewhere into the wilderness one mile

The idea was to roll an eight-sided die three times, and whatever action matched the number, I’d do it. This is when the first problem arose: I couldn’t find an eight-sided die! Instead, I used a twelve-sided die.

First roll: Photograph a fish in its environment - This was an ambiguous action to mean: “Go to the Long Beach Aquarium”, but it all depended on the other two.

Second roll: Photograph 15 insects - This is more difficult than it sounds. Capturing fifteen different bugs in one essentially one morning is something I’ve never done before. Even on a weekend Spring trip to Joshua Tree, I only captured about a dozen different insects.

Third roll: Capture morning fog (on film) - My heart sank when I rolled this one. When I wrote it down, it was two hours earlier in the evening. But at midnight, realizing that I had to get up before sunrise some 6 hours away, I didn’t feel as excited anymore.

But where’s the adventure if I were to break my own rules to make this game easier?

Before going to bed (now 1am), I got out my camera and headed outside my apartment. I suspected that the security lights might have attracted some insects. As luck would have it, I wasn’t the only one with that thought: there was a large praying mantis clinging to the wall near the light, waiting for prey to come on by. The long, slender, brown mantis was the first mantis I had seen in years here in Southern California, but previous experiences with them suggested that this one wouldn’t mind me getting close to photograph it. It looked at me with its alien-like eyes as I snapped a photo. Immediately, I realized that I had the aperture set incorrectly. In the two seconds it took me to look down at my camera, change a setting, and look back up, the predator had vanished. I retreated to bed.

Capture morning fog (on film)

At the ungodly hour of five, reserved for most of my life as a time to be unconscious, I reluctantly stumbled out of bed. Twenty minutes later, I was in my car driving around Los Angeles in search of fog. The weather report called for “morning low clouds and fog then becoming mostly sunny.” I first headed into Pasadena, where I had been lucky before in capturing fog. Nothing. I headed south on the 110, then north on the 5, then circled back to the Pasadena Bridge on the 134. Nothing. I headed back on the 134 going west and into Glendale. Nothing. I explored the winding roads of Griffith Park. Although there were many walkers and runners, no fog. Nothing. What was even more frustrating is that there was “low clouds” as was forecasted, but the gamed called for fog.

I headed back to Pasadena just as my favorite cafe, The Corner Bakery, was just opening for the day. The sun had risen and any chance of finding low-lying fog had dissipated, just as I suspect any fog must have done.

After breakfast, I headed home. As I lay down for a short nap, I came up with a game plan for completing the other two challenges.

photograph a fish in its environment

I woke up at 9:30am for the second time today, still earlier than I would on any other Saturday. My journey to complete these two last challenges would not be a long one: I headed to the Los Angeles County Arboretum. This 127-acre botanical garden is less than three miles from my apartment, and yet I had never visited. To make up for this embarrassment, I purchased an annual membership upon arrival.

I was extremely impressed with the Arboretum. Being a member of the Huntington Botanical Gardens for a few years, I was surprised by some of the differences the Arboretum offered. Most noticeably was a friendly gardening staff. The staff here were incredibly gracious and willing to provide interesting details about the gardens. I talked to two of the main gardeners as I explored. The Huntington boasts on their walking tour that they have on average of five gardeners on staff for every acre of land - not one of them I’ve ever seen converse with the guests. Here, the gardeners seem genuinely interested in approaching and talking with the guests. One was working on the new Dream Snake installation, a 1,000-foot long path that snakes its way through the Australian section of the arboretum. He seemed very busy, but took a few minutes to talk with me. When I mentioned this was my first visit, he was happy to list what I should see today, (which I believe was everything). He invited me to follow him into the Begonia & Orchid Green House and proudly pointed out the new watering system. As he went on his way, I noticed a koi pond at the far end of the green house. Mission accomplished!

While exploring near the Garden for All Seasons, I was approached by Darleen, another resident gardener who asked me how I was doing. When most Los Angeles conversations stop there, she continued it by sharing an anecdote of the white rose bush she was about to plant nearby (a Peace Rose). As she explained, this flower was first created in France, moments before the Nazi invasion. In fact, in haste of the invasion, they didn’t have the time to name the flower. The French snuck it out of the country to insure its survival. After the war, they appropriately named it the Peace Rose. A relative of that rose was what sat in front of us.

Photograph 15 insects

I was at the Arboretum for three hours to complete the final task of photographing insects. After noon, the winds picked up just enough to make flowers blow in the breeze. Not noticeable unless you are a photographer with a macro lens trying to photograph them. By 2pm, my patience was running thin, but I was able to capture 15 of the 20 or so different insects I saw at the Arboretum. Here they are:

[1] Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) - One of the easiest insect to capture on film when they have landed, yet one of the hardest while they’re still in flight.

[2] Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) - Although they are fairly common in the area, they’re hard to sneak up on without them ’skipping’ away.

[3] California Praying Mantis (Stagmomantis californica) - I found this large carniverous predator battling a lizard in the grass. Mantis is from the Greek, a word meaning “prophet, seer.” I wonder if this guy knew his end was near? My presence had the lizard scurry into the nearby bushes (the direction the mantis is looking) but unfortunately, it was mortally wounded by the quick and brutal moves of the lizard.

[4] Parasitic Wasp? - identification is tough on this one. I originally thought it was a queen ant, but ants have elbow-jointed antennae. It is resting on the edge of a rose and probably measures less than 1/3 inch in length (9 mm).

[5] Funereal Duskywing (Erynnis funeralis)

[6] Casebearer Beetle (Cryptocephalus castaneus) - A small leaf beetle, about the same size of a ladybug.

[7] Gulf Fritillary Butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) - I didn’t realize it at the time of photographing this beautiful butterfly, but it was having intercourse! See its mate behind it?

[8] Funnel Web Wolf Spider (Sosippus californicus) - One of the few wolf spiders to build a web.

[9A] Carpenter Ants (Camponotus) - It looks like there are two kinds of ants here. I’m trying to identify them.

[9B] Carpenter Ant (Camponotus) - maybe…?

[10] Flower Fly (Toxomerus marginatus) - Body length is about 5-6mm, or the width of a ball-point pen cap.

[11] Another Skipper, possibly a female (Hylephila phyleus)?

[12] Willow Mining Bee (Andrena salicifloris) - These tiny bees (5/8″ or 15mm) love rolling around in flowers, covering themselves with pollen while gathering nectar. I spent two minutes photographing this one. Later photos (not posted) show it completely yellow with pollen.

[13] California Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa californica) - These large bees are so large and heavy, they have trouble landing in a flower without pulling off the petals. Instead, they land on the outside of the petal (its weight sagging the whole flower closer to the ground) and probe for nectar near the sepal.

[14] Marine Blue Butterfly - (Leptotes marina) - My second photographic encounter with a blue. It has a wingspan measuring less than an inch (26 mm). (Here’s the first encounter)

[15] Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) - The giant of the butterfly family, I was lucky to get this one on film, albeit from a distance. These butterflies take advantage of their 4-5 inch wings and rarely stop to rest for very long.

So, when all said and done, I completed two of the three challenges I set for myself. As it so happens, I completed a few that I didn’t set:

6 - Visit a place you haven’t been before
7 - Go on a mini road trip

I look forward to another “Roll the Dice” weekend adventure!

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Oregon Coast Road Trip

Filed Under entomology, graphic design, local travel, photography

Being a proud Oregonian, I was excited to have the opportunity to visit the Motherland for an extended weekend. My youngest cousin was getting married and I looked forward to being present for the ceremony. (I’ll most likely keep those photos for family only.) After the Saturday wedding, I began my road trip home, 1,000-miles from Newport, Oregon to Arcadia, California. It was a fantastic three-day journey through the redwoods of Northern California, the rolling golden hills of Central California, and the fertile valley from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Here’s a map and some photos. Click on the photos to see them on Flickr. Scroll to the bottom for a link to a slideshow.

View Larger Map

Here’s a link to view these photos in a Flickr Slideshow. You can also view it in a slideshow on my site here.

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Kenko Extension Tube Set Review

Filed Under entomology, local travel, photography

I recently purchased some Kenko Extension Tubes for my Canon 40d and thought I’d write a mini photographic review. The set comes with 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm extensions, all made of quality plastic with metal connection mounts. Extension tubes allows photographers to focus closer than the lens’ normal minimum focal length. In other words, you can get reeeeally close to your subject and still be able to focus.

Here are a few photos I took at the Huntington Botanical Gardens over the weekend. I’ve included a portion of the full-resolution shot (3888×2592p) to show the detail captured.

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