I’m an amatuer photographer, and, when the bugs, butterflies, and bees come out, I like to chase them and take their photos.
Here’s a lovely spider I found, on a hedge in my neighbor’s yard.
I think it’s called a Gasteracantha cancriformis or Gasteracantha elipsoides
Range: North Carolina to Florida and west to California
So, here’s my photo of it. I like spiders, since they eat bugs, and bugs are plentiful here in Florida.
I have thousands of photos. Some of my favorites are when we went to Yellowstone National Park 2 years ago. The geysers, hot springs, and pools were BEAUTIFUL, but, scary. Think about it, you’re walking inside a volcano crater that has crusted over. Little Tremors daily, too.
Anyone else been to Yellowstone?
Love the pictures. This is a picture of a hawk that has taken up residence in our front yard. It uses our Crepe Myrtle trees to hunt from. Does not seem to be bothered by anyone getting near.
THAT’S WHY I DO NOT take photos of people! And, if I get people IN my photos, accidentally, I either blur them out, or remove them entirely via photoshop.
I had to take some photos for a hospital, and had to get each person to sign a release form. What a bother.
Thank you! If you can get a December 2004 copy of Birder’s World, you’ll see one of my photos, on page 18, the woodpecker and the dove having a fight at my birdfeeder.
My photo of a monarch butterfly cocoon was on display, with local amatuer photographers, in the local Art Museum here, for a while, too. I’ll see if I can find it again.
And, if you ever used E Cards, in 2004, flowers in particular, you might have used one of my photos as an E Card.
All of my photos are copyrighted. The good old Library of Congress did that for me, for a fee, of course.
My dentist has one of my photos in his reception area, or, he used to.
Probably has something else, now.
I’ve entered contests with National Geographic, not won anything yet, but, still trying.
It’s a gift from God. I use it, to get people to deeply appreciate the absolute BEAUTY in all of God’s creations. We don’t take time to closely look at flowers, birds, bees, animals. I use my camera and software to zoom in on things that people wouldn’t probably ever see , without a close up photo.
You know?
Here’s some photos of when we were in London:
They have this big ferris wheel called the Eye, and, this is one view from one of the cars on it.
This is their Parliament bldg.
Me in front of Westminster Abbey. Very cool place, lots of graves inside, though.
This is a flower that was growing outside our hotel. Don’t know what kind it is, but,it’s pretty.
And, here’s a photo of a seagull I took, at the beach, one winter’s day. I tempted it with some bread. They’re always hungry! [/IMG]
So, that’s that, and, I won’t bore ya with any more.
Anybody else been to London, and know the name of that flower?
Your photos are beautiful! (Except the spider, ahem!—eughhh!) I wonder if the flower is an African Daisy? I’ve seen them in different colors like that, even orange petals with purple centers…
Yay, another spider sympathizer! I actually like spiders. We used to have wolf spiders in our garage at our last house. I went out there when we first moved in and told all of them that they are welcome to stay there as long as they don’t scare me and don’t try and come into the house. They did and we had a good working relationship from then on.
We had a crab spider like the one you shot outside our screened porch, that guy was a worker and could whip up his web in just a few hours. Poor little guy kept building the thing where the rain and wind would hit it and he finally moved but it was neat to see him knit his web.
Neat shots, I love photography even though I’m not that great at it.
My mother taught me to not be afraid of spiders, snakes, all that.
Spiders do a lot of good for the environment. I wonder why there isn’t a “save the spider” campaign somewhere?
We have a black widow in the back yard, and a huge tarantula looking spider that keeps making a web right where the rain gutters were.
We get jumping spiders, too. We’ve had a lot of the brown recluses, and, I guess just about every spider that’s native to our area, at one time or another.
They don’t bother people, they’re just like snakes. They leave you alone as long as you don’t look like you’re attacking them, by getting too close.
We have a LONG black racer snake that slithers through the backyard during the summer, I don’t know where it goes in the winter, and we have a family of fat toads that plop out and hop around on the carport, during the summer, at night. Those toads have been here for about 5 summers.
So, do you like toads, snakes, turtles, and all that?
The only insect I hate is the mosquito. They make my life miserable if I’m out around dusk.
Very nice pics! That spider is beautiful! I like spiders…The only ones I’m not crazy about are the brown recluses…We had a nasty infestation when we first moved in…Ugh…
I like all of those. I once had a friend Fedex me his muck turtle and slider (both native to FL) to release in the lake at my house. The look on the Fedex ladie’s face when she handed me this cooler with holes poked in it and you could hear something moving in it was priceless. She told me “I don’t want to know what that is, it’s been moving around in the truck all morning!”. I never told her!:roflhard:
Those Bufo toads we have are enormous, I saw one out the window in my yard and thought it was a hurt squirrel. I found out that he wasn’t interested in help and he wasn’t a squirrel, he kept leaping for me. :roflhard:
I’m pretty much a nature freak, if it’s not going to kill me, I let it be.
Oooooh, nice photos! I have similar spiders in the woods along my creek, but most are quite dark (it’s possible they can change colors and simply maintain the dark color of bark on the black walnut trees).
One of my favorites is the giant gold and black spiders that weave large webs and eat the *&^%$#@! horse flies. They (and the beautiful 4’ black racers eat rats around here) do tend to scare the bejeebers out of people!
One of my favorite things about living in the country is the wildlife here, from deer to wild turkeys to the sharpshin hawks that nest in the trees behind the house (overlooking my henyard–of course). LOL, this town is so small–I once spied a huge snapping turtle stomping determinedly down the sidewalk a block from the town square!
Photolady, I wish I had your gift for capturing the beauty of God’s creation. Thank you for sharing that gift here with us.
Brown recluses are pretty icky. We had a family of them, about 3 of them, that would come out at night, and crawl across the popcorn ceiling, in the living room. We left them alone, until they had a couple of babies.
ONE TIME, I turned on the bedroom light, and there was the biggest, most stretched out spider hanging on the wall!! I screamed, and my husband had to kill it, (heh heh), and show it to me, after it was dead.
Florida is FULL of bugs. Jes fulla dem. It’s not a shame if you find roaches in your house. It’s a miracle when you DON’T! I hear northerners think roaches are a sign of filth. ha ha! Around here, they’re as common as beach sand.
We got rid of our roaches by caulking up EVERY TINY HOLE in the kitchen, and bathroom. Roaches crawl up the drainpipe, if you don’t watch out. Many times have I found a big old cockroach trying to climb out of the tub, before we kept the drains shut. Oh, and FLYING cockroaches, ick! They make a buzzing, hissing sound, too! I’m serious!
anyways…I can get along with spiders and snakes just fine.
Glad to hear there are other spider likers out there.
Sounds like a beautiful place to live, and to photograph.
as for the gift:
My grandfather was a photographer, he had “the eye” for it.
Now, I have the gift.
It’s just something that happens, you see something, and then all of a sudden, everything else vanishes from around you, and your whole mind and eye zooms in on the subject, and your brain is calculating the sunlight exposure and cropping the photo, before you put your finger to the clicker button.
AHH! Yes, the flying cockroaches! My mom and dad get those towards the end of summer and man, they come flying around with a vengeance…lol…I have heard, however, Brown Recluses eat cockroaches…Could be why we’ve never had much of a problem with roaches, considering our Brown Recluse infestation! LOL!
At our old house, we used to have a Black and Yellow Garden spider, and my goodness was it beautiful! I used to sit outside just to watch it! Then, in the Fall, we would get these really big spiders, I have no idea what kind they were, but I was utterly fascinated with them. They never tried to get in the house, they just built gigantic webs near light sources and only came out at night.
There was one Autumn, years ago, that I didn’t have one of those big 'ol spiders and honestly, I was pretty bummed out about it! So, one day I was leaving the house and there was one of those big spiders on the back door, trying to build a web. I was in a hurry to leave and told the spider that when I got home, I was going to move him because the door wasn’t a good place for a web considering we were going in and out a lot (I know, I’m a dork, telling that to a spider LOL!!). Anyway, I got home later that evening, and hubby had come home before I did. I noticed that spider wasn’t there and I asked hubby if he saw it when he came home. He said he did…I asked him where the spider was and he said, “uh, it’s not alive anymore.” I was SOOO mad at him! I called him an a**hole for doing that and told him I told the spider I was going to move him so he wouldn’t get hurt! Ok, and here’s the really bad part, I actually started crying!!! Sometimes I wonder if my compassion runs a bit too deep…haha
No, it’s good, and normal, to care about animals and insects that hurt NO ONE. Spiders mind their own business, and do a lot of good for keeping the bug population down.
I am softhearted, towards animals, reptiles, (some)insects, and even plants.
What really angers me, outrages me, is to see anyone hurt their pet dog. I can’t watch animal precinct, without going into a rage.
Dogs love you, EVEN if you abuse them! What a kicker, that is!
What else bothers me, is, when people buy plants, and then just let them die. How horrible! WHY BUY A PLANT if you’re going to let it die a slow, painful death? Why buy a dog if you’re going to let it freeze, be lonesome, and hungry, and thirsty? How insane!
Oh yeah, even though I’m a Christian, I still have a temper towards cruelty.
So, no, you aren’t
too compassionate, you just have a loving, kind heart.
That’s all.
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I wonder if the flower is an African Daisy? I’ve seen them in different colors like that, even orange petals with purple centers…
