Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Carnivore Robber Fly Eating a Black Wasp. Unlike a dragonfly, this insect only has one pair of wings. Image taken with a Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5.
Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly Feeding on a Thistle Flower, and Small Bugs on a Queen Anne’s Lace Flower both at the Images taken with a Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR lens.
Bat in Flight at Dusk. I am looking for suggestions how to better capture images of flying bats. This image was taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 400 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 12800, f/2.8, 1/320 sec). The bats were moving too fast and it was too dark to autofocus. So I manually set the focus for about 10 meters (~33 feet), followed the bats, and tried to press the shutter button when they were in focus.
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Robber Fly on a “Mile a Minute” Vine. Backyard Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/6.3, 1/1000 sec).
The “Mile a Minute” vine is now my most hated plant. It is invasive and is invading the North East as the Kudzu has invaded the South. It is able to grow 6 inches a day, and out competes every other plant. I have lost many trees and bushes. Even if you spray, the small blue seeds remain viable for 5-6 years. The plant has spines, and I have pictures from several years ago with the vine stuck to a deer, that probably brought it to my yard.