a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

A Gnaphosid spider:

From 20150524_moose_hill

I really loved this beetle, which belongs to the family Carabidae, or ground beetles. Iridescent colours and a wonderfully alien head.

From 20150524_moose_hill

Closeup of the head:

From 20150524_moose_hill

And here’s a closeup of the elytra (shell) of the beetle.

From 20150524_moose_hill

Continuing on the theme of experimenting with dandelions. As mentioned, I added the macro snap-on lens and I cranked up the aperture, in order to decrease the depth of field. This was so that the dandelion wisps in the foreground went bokeh and allowed us to see the center. Unfortunately, with the lenses I had available, this meant that I was unable to get the whole dandelion into the field of view. I should try again with other lenses.

Using flash, of course, made the background dark, which made them more dramatic.

I can’t decide which of these two (or the one in the previous post) looks best.

From 20150524_moose_hill

From 20150524_moose_hill