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country flag of Exploring photos taken in Netherlands

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  • Eristalis tenax covered with pollen. I saw this only one time and was able to take a picture. Never seen this sinds. 
This is a Drone fly or in dutch Blind Bee. which is covered with pollen. (Please zoom in on the picture to see the star like pollen). Drone Fly,Drone fly,Eristalis tenax,Geotagged,Netherlands,Spring,blinde bij,pollen
    Eristalis tenax covered with pollen.
  • Triops This is a Triops. I gave my son one of those triops breeding kits. It was a big succes!
This one lived just under three months which is very old for a triops. Picture made with a revesed 35mm pentax lens Geotagged,Netherlands,Spring,Triops,Triops longicaudatus
    Triops
  • The Sumatran Tiger - Panthera tigris sumatrae Not a real wild-life shot, but for me my best zoo shot ever. Hope you like it too :) Geotagged,Mammals,Panthera tigris sumatrae,Sumatran tiger,The Netherlands,Tiger
    The Sumatran Tiger - Panthera tigris sumatrae
  • Trichius gallicus Found this beetle today, in a little park in my hometown Wijk bij Duurstede the Netherlands. French Flower Chafer,Geotagged,Netherlands,Summer,Trichius gallicus,Trichius zonatus
    Trichius gallicus
  • Corythucha ciliata My first images of this species from the Netherlands, found under bark of a Sycamore/Plane tree (Platanus) on the Vrijthof in Maastricht (one of the few currently known populations in the Netherlands) 
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/71888/corythucha_ciliata.html Corythucha,Corythucha ciliata,Heteroptera,Lacebug,Tingidae,invasive species,nl: Platanennetwants
    Corythucha ciliata
  • The red fox - Vulpes vulpes Headshot of a Red Fox staring at the camera. Canidae,Closeup,Fox,Geotagged,Mammals,The Netherlands,Vulpes vulpes
    The red fox - Vulpes vulpes
  • Ozyptila sp., extreme macro, Netherlands Whilst playing with our cat in the backyard, I noticed some movement in the grass, a tiny crab spider. Unusually small compared to how I normally find them, and I wasn't expecting them on the ground. This one I roughly estimate at 4-6mm wide for the abdomen, so without legs.

I sacrificed this one. To repeat my earlier take on this: I prefer to use arthropods found dead (about 75% of cases), yet sacrifice on an exceptional basis, within moderation. Only if it's a species not done before, or if the subject is meaningful or promising. And I will always disclose it.

Technically, I'm pleased with the result, which doesn't happen a lot when it comes to extreme macro. The interesting "making of" note for this one is that I used a tunnel diffuser. Which is a very fancy way of saying that I enclosed the subject entirely with a paper cup, and then aimed my flash unit directy to the outside of the cup. The paper texture causes soft spread light, yet due to the shape of the cup, light also bounces inside of the cup, in all directions. Altogether, this creates a relatively soft and even light in all directions.

It's a delicate process for me to pull this off currently. Positioning the cup without touching anything else is stressful, but once done, you lose focus light. There's almost no distance between the front of the lens and the beginning of the cup, so hardly any way to get any preview light in there. Therefore, everything needs to be ready, calculated and programmed before taking this step.

Ways around this would be to have a very strong permanent light next to the cup, to at least have *some* preview light. Or, to have the cup placement procedure be more repeatable, in some permanent position where it always lands in the same spot. I'll explore that.

Back on point, ultimately the point of all of it is the subject, not the process. I find it delightfully unsettling. Should have posted it for Halloween.

As for species, I expect it is in the Ozyptila genus. This genus has relatively dull crab spiders and most are only a few mm in size.  Extreme Macro,Extreme Macro Portraits,Netherlands,WeMacro
    Ozyptila sp., extreme macro, Netherlands
  • Vespula vulgaris  Common wasp,Geotagged,German wasp,Netherlands,Spring,Vespula germanica,Vespula vulgaris
    Vespula vulgaris
  • Moor Club On the right time and season you can find this fungi on the moor, found this group near Leusden the Netherlands Clavaria argillacea,Fall,Geotagged,Netherlands
    Moor Club
  • The Devil's coach-horse beetle Found this beetle onder a log today in Leersum the Netherlands 15-11-2020 Devils coach-horse beetle,Fall,Geotagged,Netherlands,Ocypus olens
    The Devil's coach-horse beetle
  • Hazelnut weevil. 8mm. Ready to take off, took this shot today in my hometown Wijk bij Duurstede the Netherlands. 9-7-2020 Curculio nucum,Geotagged,Netherlands,Nut weevil,Summer
    Hazelnut weevil. 8mm.
  • Sphinx pinastri - Teneral pupa gaining colour Found the caterpillar below in prepupa state (clearly ready to become a pupa) unprotected on the ground under a pine tree:
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/102499/sphinx_pinastri_-_prepupa.html
Decided to take it home and give it shelter until next spring. Upon arriving at home it had already moulted to a fresh pupa, probably an hour or so earlier, so I documented the rest of the process of the colour turning brown from 18:00h to 14:00h the next day.  4K UHD,Lepidoptera,Netherlands,Pine hawk-moth,Pupa,Sphingidae,Sphinx,Sphinx pinastri,Teneral,nl: Dennenpijlstaart
    Sphinx pinastri - Teneral pupa gaining colour
  • Green Immigrant Leaf Weevil - frontal, Heesch, Netherlands The tiny (6mm) Green Immigrant Leaf Weevil. This is basically a black weevil with colorful pearl-like scales. As they age, they become increasingly dark as they lose more scales. 
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/94621/green_immigrant_leaf_weevil_-_side_view_heesch_netherlands.html
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/94623/green_immigrant_leaf_weevil_-_diagonal_heesch_netherlands.html Extreme Macro,Extreme Macro Portraits,Polydrusus formosus,WeMacro
    Green Immigrant Leaf Weevil - frontal, Heesch, Netherlands
  • Daphnia This is a daphnia or water flea. This one is carrying eggs.  Cladocera,Daphnia,Geotagged,Netherlands,Spring,water flea
    Daphnia
  • Mosquito larvae and pupae lifecycle - extreme macro, Heesch, Netherlands Here's a prime example of a pretty bad idea achieving a goal I didn't even know I had. Or let's just call it luck.

In another post, Christine encouraged me to look for mosquito eggs/larvae in still waters. So I took the lazy approach, one of my two small ponds in the garden is in the shade and wind-free, and I actually found some there. 

I just poured some of them into a glass. That was the easy part. Next, extreme macro poses a huge challenge here since the water moves, subjects move, which again causes the water to move. Surely the scene isn't static enough to do a deep stack, which typically takes at least 5 minutes to run and require the subject to not even move by 1 mm, or even 0.1mm.

Out of desperation to at least capture something, I went for it anyway, and the outcome I think is pretty hilarious. To describe what's going on:

- There's 3 larvae in the scene. One is in the bottom half of the image swimming around, the stack process creating multiple exposures of its movement.

- The other 2 larvae are attached to the water surface. They use siphon tubes to breath, hanging upside down. You can see the multiple exposures hinting at their movement when attached.

- There's 1.5 pupae in the scene, the big creature hanging upside down. In this phase it doesn't feed yet it's not immobile. When disturbing the water, it instantly sinks to the bottom. And back up again when it's safe.

- In the top right is a single water flea interacting with a mosquito larva.

This entire scene is just about 1cm wide, a tiny section of a glass. As a casual observation, in the few hours I was busy with this glass, 3 pupae transformed into adults and flew away. 

More to come later :) Culex pipiens,Extreme Macro,The Netherlands
    Mosquito larvae and pupae lifecycle - extreme macro, Heesch, Netherlands
  • Araneus quadratus Nice phat specimen, around 25mm... Arachnida,Araneae,Araneus,Araneus quadratus,Four-spot orb-weaver,Geotagged,Netherlands,nl: Viervlekwielwebspin
    Araneus quadratus
  • Black-necked Grebe. Found this beauty with his chick on the Emerplas near Breda, the Netherlands Black-necked grebe,Geotagged,Netherlands,Podiceps nigricollis,Summer
    Black-necked Grebe.
  • Oxyptilus chrysodactyla  Jane's garden,Oxyptilus,Oxyptilus chrysodactyla,Pterophoridae,Pterophorinae,nl: Havikskruidvedermot
    Oxyptilus chrysodactyla
  • Sri Lankan Leopard portrait  BestZOO,Geotagged,HDR,Panthera pardus kotiya,Sri Lankan Leopard,The Netherlands
    Sri Lankan Leopard portrait
  • Common Dandelion, Heesch, Netherlands Our backyard lawn is currently full of dandelions. Early in the season, it's good practice to let them be for a while as they are a reliable source of nectar for many species of bee at a time when few other flowers are blooming. 

This is a 70 image stack at 2.5 x macro. It turned out more interesting than I expected. The individual seeds with plume attached are too big for extreme macro, so instead I plucked a few to make a small opening to the core of the flower, where you can see how the seeds attach. They have an interesting hooked appearance, supposedly to make them attach to wherever they land after wind transported them. The same is true for the plumes, they too have a hooked appearance:
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/93274/common_dandelion_-_plume_heesch_netherlands.html Common dandelion,Extreme Macro,Taraxacum officinale,WeMacro
    Common Dandelion, Heesch, Netherlands
  • Lilioceris lilii - Larva showing Larva showing more of itself from under the poo-camouflage Camouflage,Chrysomelidae,Criocerinae,Larva,Lilioceris,Lilioceris lilii,Lily leaf beetle,Scarlet lily beetle,nl: Leliehaantje
    Lilioceris lilii - Larva showing
  • Dicyrtoma dorsosignata, Heesch, Netherlands Update: Matty Berg has confirmed this is indeed a new species report for the Netherlands. We're discussing if specimen collection is possible, and possibly the find may be included in a new article.

Update 2: Specimen collected and confirmed successfully:
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/105252/dicyrtoma_dorsosignata_specimen_netherlands.html
Two weeks ago, I photographed my first springtail:

https://www.jungledragon.com/image/104612/dicyrtomina_ornata_heesch_netherlands.html

...which I found on the water surface of a mini-pond in our back yard. A few days ago, I checked it again, and this time found 10 individuals. I first speculated perhaps wind got them into the pond, but now think they walk or fall into it from the edge, with no way to crawl out of it again. This morning I added some branches and leafs so that they do not get permanently trapped.

As before, I collected them into a petri dish for inside photography.

To my joy, the 10 individuals showed some diversity in appearance and size: probably multiple species as well as singular species at multiple instars. To solve the puzzle of which individual is which species, I contacted Frans Janssens, the man behind http://collembola.org/. This seems to be the ultimate in-depth springtail taxonomy reference that Frans has been working on longer than I exist, since 1976.

I'll be sharing a series of photos from this session over the coming days, yet this particular one has some priority. It is speculated to be Dicyrtoma dorsosignata. According to Frans, this is intriguing as it is known thus far as a mediterranean species, typically reported from France, Portugal, Malta, etc. Now that it is online, we hope Matty Berg (the authority on this group in the Netherlands) will confirm it as a possible new species for the Netherlands.

I'll conclude with some "making of" notes, for the interested. From the earlier session 2 weeks ago I learned that handheld 5:1 photography is extremely difficult, as is obvious. So for this 2nd session I experimented a bit with a proper support system:
https://ibb.co/YNg8RXN

The metal frame in the bottom is not a tripod, it's a light stand, the Manfrotto 003. You can't adjust the height of it, it's just a super solid stand. Very heavy, and stays in place. It's shockingly inexpensive given the material and quality. Normally, you'd put an extension pole into the stand, and then add lights or light shapers (umbrellas) to it. 

Not this time. I added the spigot (the golden-colored connector, Manfrotto 013) after which you can put anything to it that accepts a standard thread size. In this case, I added a super heavy duty tripod head, the Manfrotto MHXPRO-BHQ2. I normally avoid recommending gear in this place, but gladly make an exception for this jewel. This ballhead tripod head allows for a massive 10kg of load. And it takes it effortlessly. Even when under heavy load, you have fine grained control over movement and friction, in any direction. The ball is fully enclosed and therefore there is no grease. Given the class it competes in, this product is inexpensive and an absolute top performer.

With this support system in place, most of my own movement is negated. Not to mention that it takes a lot of weight out of my hands, making possible a longer session. Focusing at the proper depth still is a challenge. My main method here is to use focus peaking via the live view screen. This paints a red overlay at the area in focus. Yet is tiny in this situation. I've learned that the beginning of their antennae is the proper focal point. Combined with f/8, there's a reasonable chance the head is in focus. Still about only 1 in 8 shots are passable this way, so the strategy is to just shoot lots and hope for the best.

The last challenge is light. With the end of the lens almost hitting the water, it's tricky to light the front of the animal. In this case I used the Godox AK-R11 Dome and positioned it to the side of the petri dish. I don't even own a Godox flash, this is just a cheap yet useful accessory. Next, I place a very strong flash unit in front of it. This effectively floods the scene with light that is strong yet spread. At 5:1 combined with f/8, the effective aperture is f/48. This means the Speedlight needs to fire at full power. Since no speedlight can sustain that for any length of time, I used a flash power pack.

For now I have tentatively identified it as Dicyrtoma dorsosignata. I will update this post once experts have confirmed/rejected this proposal. Dicyrtoma dorsosignata,Europe,Extreme Macro,Fall,Geotagged,Netherlands,Springtail,World
    Dicyrtoma dorsosignata, Heesch, Netherlands
  • Hypnoteyes - Barn Owl Who could resist eyes like these? ;) Barn Owl,Tyto alba,birds,kerkui,owl,portrait,vogel
    Hypnoteyes - Barn Owl
  • Eurydema oleracea - Eggs  Eggs,Eurydema,Eurydema oleracea,Hemiptera,Heteroptera,Jane's garden,Ovae,Pentatomidae,Strachiini,nl: Koolschidwants
    Eurydema oleracea - Eggs
More photos.. (7,126 total)
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