Shell & Shadows - D700, 24-70mm

Leaf and Frost - D700, 85mm PC, HDR

Wondering around the frost covered yard yesterday morning…a few more images…

Leaves and Frost - D700, 85mm PC, HDR

Leaf and Frost 2 - D700, 85mm PC, HDR

Flowers and Bow Tie - Canon G10

My nephew got married last weekend and we had a great time at the wedding. No, I was NOT the photographer, just a guest but I did take my Canon G10 and shoot a few vignettes of the day. The ceremony and reception were at the El Serrano Restaurant in Lancaster, PA. The service was in the courtyard pictured below and the reception was upstairs in the restaurant. Wonderful service, great fun and superb food, all surrounded by family and friends, what more could you ask for…

El Serrano Courtyard - Canon G10

Two more shots from the day, the harpist and a shot of one of the upstairs dining areas. A very nice place with GREAT tapas…

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Wedding Harpist - Canon G10

Upstairs Dining Area - Canon G10

Soft Mantis - Female - D700

Experimented with some diffusers and reflectors yesterday to get a softer looking image…I kind of like this look. Could be the last of the mantis images…REALLY…time to move on to something else.

Here’s two more shots using the diffuser and reflectors again…click to view a little larger.

Soft Mantis 2 - Female - D700

Soft Mantis - Male - D700

Male Mantis Stare-Down - D700

Had enough mantis photos yet…thought soooo but here are some more anyway. They are starting to get pretty large now, eating REAL good. I usually get a LOOK or two while I’m photographing them, not for long, just checking me out.

Click images to view a little larger..

Here’s one of the females hanging out in the Russian sage, a favorite spot…

Female Manits in Russian Sage - D700

This male was wagging his abdomen at me, maybe that was a signal he was not too happy…

Male Mantis Tail Wag - D700

And for something a little different, a male mantis in sepia…

Male Mantis Sepia - D700

Female Mantis - D700, 85mm PC, f/6 @ 1/320

I was experimenting with some off camera flash today and this female mantis was very, very patient…here’s the setup:

D700, 85mm PC with polarizing filter (on a tripod), PocketWizard MiniTT1 with SU800  (on camera). SB900 (on light-stand) with LumiQuest Softbox and a piece of polarizing film over the flash-head, triggered with PocketWizard FlexTT5. So what’s extra piece of polarizing film over the flash head for? It allows me to dial out any glare on the subject caused by the flash by adjusting the polarizing filter on the camera. Trust me…IT WORKS. You may need to do some test shots adjusting the filter on the camera an 1/8 of a turn each time and checking the results on the LCD to get rid of all the glare or just a little.

Here’s a 100% view of the mantis head in the first image:

Female Mantis - 100% View

Here’s another shot of the same very, very patient female mantis using the same flash setup:

Female Mantis 2 - D700, 85mm PC, f/11 @ 1/40

Female Mantis 2 - 100% View

Male Mantis in Rain - D700, 70-200mm w/500D

This spring I watched a mantis egg sack hatch in the yard, they were very small then but they have been eating good since… I found five in the garden one day, three females and two males. Here are two recent shots of the males. Both were shot with a Nikon D700 at ISO 800 with a 70-200mm with a Canon 500D close-up filter, hand-held. Yes it’s HEAVY but it takes pretty good close-ups.

Click images to view a little larger…

Here’s a 100% view of the mantis head from the first image:

Male Mantis in Rain 100% View

Here’s the other male checking me out as I take his photo…

Male Mantis in Rain 2 - D700, 70-200 w/500D

and here’s a 100% view of his head…

Male Mantis in Rain 2 - 100% View

Baby Mantis 1 - D700, 85mm PC

Every year now for the last four years we have had a preying mantis lay an egg sack in the scotch broom and in almost the same spot. This year my wife was checking the egg sack to see if they hatched yet and there they were streaming out of the egg sack. Pure luck, I grabbed the camera and started trying to get some shots…well they are REALLY small, see the next shot for some scale. Trying to find these guys in the broom now is quite a task. They come out of the egg sack a bright yellow and change to a light brown in about an hour or so. I saw one the other day and it was about an inch long and green so they must be eating well.

Baby Mantis 2 - D700, 85mm PC

Baby Mantis 2, 100% - D700, 85mm PC

Here’s an overall shot of the shrub with mini mantis everywhere, all the slightly yellow blotches are baby mantis…shot with my Lensbaby Composer because it’s what was on the camera when the hatch started, I changed lenses later but they had already dissipated in the scotch broom by then.

Click to view a little larger…

Baby Mantis 3 - Lensbaby Composer, Sweet 35

Back-lit Kousa - D700, 70-200mm

Two images from the garden with an impressionistic interpretation…the kousa dogwood is covered in flowers this year so I wondered around the tree looking for a image. Shot a bunch of multiple exposure images spinning and zooming between each exposure. When I walked around the back of the tree the sun was back lighting everything with a glow. I think this one illustrates the feeling I was getting.

The next one is a some poppies we had until the hail storm the other day pounded them to the ground. Good thing I got a few shots while I could…this is a multiple exposure (2 shots) done in camera, one focused on the front poppy and one focused on the back poppy. A fair amount of post processing was done to this image.

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Pink Poppies - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro

Forest Floor - D700, 24-70mm

Here’s a detail image of the damp forest floor in the pines. Mother nature doing her recycling thing…

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