Kip’s Comments - July 21, 2023

Cooling Off?

While studying the minute details of a swamp milkweed plant I spotted a house fly blowing a bubble. Of course that made me curious. I grabbed everything I had with me to capture the activity as close to or larger than real life as possible. Without a tripod I was forced to handhold my camera. As a result, I recorded only a few images acceptable for sharing.

According to what I have found (which wasn’t much), many insects blow bubbles to cool off. I am not sure this was accurate in my fly’s case. This image was recorded early this morning, during the coolest part of the day. Is it possible the fly just likes blowing bubbles - much like humans?

Fly with Bubble - Image 830365

Near the bubble-blowing fly was this hover fly on dew-covered grass.

Hover Fly - Image 830375

A few ironweed plants decorated the area.

Ironweed - Image 830399

At home I tried a new technique to add blur to images while maintaining sharpness where it is wanted. So far, I think this will work, assuming I practice more.

Yellow Day Lily - Image 830418