The story of an ant, a bug, a plane and ummm .....

I currently suffer from photo editing blues - too many photographs (some rejects, some I wish to keep).

This batch features an ant drinking water with its own reflection in the water.  The magnification was 7 times and I have applied a minor crop to the photo.

Parathiscia bug - photo taken with a dying flash (batteries were overused on some other subject).  The bug is resting on an old t-shirt (black), it is not a jersey.

 Tiny praying mantis.  My special bush has produced a set of baby mantii (is there such a word).  I saw 4 of these babies on the bush.  Size (about 5 mm) at a guess.  How do I know they are juvenile? - the upward curved abdomen is one indication (per the reference books). 

 

Red bulb eye fly (alophora) - size (total length) 2mm - this is most definitely the smallest living organism with compound eyes that I have tried to photograph (hope I have not forgotten some other subject that I took a macro photo of).  I am not entirely pleased with the result, but when one works with the magnification from 10 to 20 times it can be a lottery.  DOF (depth of field) is shallow - very shallow and any part of the subject outside of the parallel zone of .5 of a millimetre is not sharp / blurred.  I will try again with this type of fly - when the wind is not blowing and the sun shining. 

Juvenile hanging fly - looks like a mosquito, but it is not - it is a little smaller and does not suck blood.  These flies seem to prefer the heat / glow of a lightbulb.  I crawled along the ceiling to the light to get this shot - upside down.  I did use a flash.

A yellow eyed and yellow footed dove - any comments on the identification will be appreciated.

Thanks for the comments - they are most welcome and appreciated.  Click on any photograph to enlarge.