First One of the Year

With the warmer weather on the way especially the lazy days of summer will come the churring sound of the Cicadas in the trees. This morning when I got up I spotted the very first one right out the front door. So here it is. May you have a blessed Sunday, chris Image created with a Canon 7D and a 100mm macro lens. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 16.0 at 1/250th of a sec. Camera was supported on a Manfrotto tripod with a Bogen ballhead.

In Cadence

The past few days it has been warming up as a preview of what we will see in the upcoming summer. With the heat the cicadas emerge from underground to come out into the light to call out for their mates and lay their eggs for a future generation. Their cadence of calls can be heard from the warmth of early morning to late afternoon when the males find protruding branches up in the trees to call from. To me it's the sound of summer and summers past. God's precious love to all, chris

Image created with a Canon 7D and a 100mm macro lens. Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a Bogen 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400,F16.0, shutter speed 1/13 th of a sec.

Buzzing Cicada

I was driving with Jay in the car when there was this buzzing next to my shoulder that startled me. Jay questioned, "What the heck was that?" I slowed the car and looked onto the window sill of the car to see a Cicada trying to escape. I plucked it up with my fingers and made a feeble attempt to toss it out the half rolled up window and missed. I couldn't see where it landed and besides I was driving a car and needed to pay attention to the road right? We continued our drive and about five minutes later I noticed that it was on my upper arm. I had Jay put it into a plastic cup and I photographed it later and the set it free in the woods. They are such an amazing creature. Living underground on roots. Some of them for years and then popping up out of the ground to breed and then die. Very cool. View the image large to see all of the detail in the Cicada. God's light and love to all, chris

Cicada

I'm stuck in insect mode at the moment. This morning I found a cicada on one of my photo back drops. Cicadas first live underground where they live as nymphs sucking on the juices from tree roots. They come above ground to molt. After molting the male cicadas then begin their frenzied, noisy search for a receptive female to breed with. The female lays eggs and when the nymphs hatch they burrow down into the soil and attach themselves to tree roots to feed. Some species only come to the surface to breed every seventeen years. They are one weird looking bug. By the way they don't bite or sting though they are kind of grabby with those legs.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Cicadas

Cicadas are such cool looking insects. I found one this afternoon lying on the dirt road just down from my house. I saved it until this evening so I could photograph it in the soft evening light just before sundown. Then I set it free

God's precious light and everlasting love to all,

chris