Yesterday it was nice and sunny day and there was not a lot of wind. A perfect day to go out and shoot some macro photos in my backyard.
Macro photography is one of my favorite forms of photography. When going into nature (in my case this was my backyard 😀) you have to focus on all tiny creatures mooving around. Then you have to hope that they will stay where they are, which isn't always the case. Especially with flying insects.
But when you managed to get your subject sharp, the images can look really cool. You get to see all the details of those tiny insects.
And I even sometimes discover insects that I have never seen before. Even in my own backyard.

Running crab spider

My Oxeye plants often attract a lot of flying insects, but today this tiny spider as on one of the, stil unopened flowers.
As their name already suggests, these spiders can run very fast. And they need this, because they don't build a web to catch their prey.
They also have a nice camouflage, although that would work out a bit better on a tree than on a yellow flower 🤣

Ladybug

Until a couple of years ago I had never seen these insects before. It was when I started doing macro photography that I noticed we had quite a few of these in our backyard. I looked them up with my Obsidentify app (which is a great app for determining species by the way) and found out that it are larvae of ladybugs.

Here you see another one that is in the stage between larvae and ladybug. You can clearly see the distinctive red color and the dots being formed.

And here is a full grown ladybug. I really love these fellas in my backyard since they help me get rid of aphids. One ladybug can eat up to 5,000 aphids in its lifetime. They save my plants from being eaten by aphids.

Woodboring beetle

As I mentioned before, I sometimes notice insects I've never seen before. And this time it was this nicely camouflaged bug. My Obsidentify app came to the rescue again and told me it is the Hedobia imperialis. And ChatGPT helped met with telling me what that is; a woodboring beetle.

Hoverfly

Some of the flowers of my Oxeye have already opened up. The bright yellow color works like a magnet for all sorts of flying insects. The plant still has a lot of unopened flowers, so there is more to come.
This plant also attracts a lot of butterflies, but it is not going very well with the butterflies lately, so I hope I will get to see (and photograph) some this year.

Friendlymoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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