Playing with the Macro Lens

Pond Life

Here are 4 critters on and around some Duck Weed. The largest is a baby Water Strider. Point your mouse at the image to see the other 3 (Mouse-Over only works on a full computer, not a mobile device), and a ballpoint pen tip for scale:


Here's another baby water strider, with a hitch hiker going along for the ride (check the tip of his tail):

In the Bee Hive

This is a Varroa mite on the back of a Drone. These are the mites that have been causing a lot of problems with honey bees:


Eggs newly laid (the white tubes) - during the next 3 weeks they will go through a larval stage (the white worms), then the cell will sealed for the metamorphis stage:

Here's a brand new baby bee emerging into the world, 3 weeks after the egg was laid (adjacent sealed cells are bees still in the metamorphic stage):

Around the Garden

This small spider is maybe a half inch long - I'm glad they don't get any bigger than they do!:


This Black Widow spider was found in a woodpile. The weather was cool and she wasn't as quick as she probably would have been in warmer weather, making it easier to get some photos. You can see her 'spider silk' in all 3 views. From Wikipedia: "Its tensile strength is superior to that of high-grade steel, and as strong as Aramid filaments, such as Twaron or Kevlar. Most importantly, spider silk is extremely lightweight: a strand of spider silk long enough to circle the earth would weigh less than 16 ounces".


This very strange little critter is a bit larger than a gnat, but not by a whole lot. It flies with it's legs in the same forward position that they are in here:


The beautiful but deadly (for tiny insects) tips of a Sun Dew Carniverous plant:


Another tiny garden visitor:


A glimpse of life on a thistle bloom:


This is a tiny bee on a Golden Rod bloom. It was taken on a bright sunny day, but the background appears black because of the f-32 f-stop, required to get the depth of field that close up. The flash had to do all the work:

Photographer:Richard Cobb
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon 105mm Micro Nikkor 1:2.8G ED
Flash: Nikon Closeup Speedlight Kit R1C1