I decided I better have something that doesn’t have an insect in it or I will be thought of as the “Bug Lady”.

Have you heard of the bokeh (BO-kah) effect in photography? I hadn’t, although we have probably all seen it before.

It happens when you are focused on something close, with a wide aperture, and there are points of light or brightness in the out-of-focus background.  Those bright spots (bright sun reflecting off leaves in the photo above) can appear as circles.  It can either be a pleasing background or it can be distracting.

I added a button to my 365 Project on the right-hand sidebar.

Sue

Today’s photo:

A showy (but destructive) Japanese beetle on a cone flower.  What am I going to post pictures of when the bugs are gone???

I traipsed back to the wild flowers behind our house to see what I could zoom in on and snap into a photo.  Hmmm.  Not much.  The same kind of white-faced meadowhawk dragonfly that I photographed the first two days.  Some HUGE bumblebees, but they weren’t cooperating too much, preferring to hide behind the flowers.

Yesterday, I saw this huge black insect literally zooming above the wild flowers.  It was going so fast, I couldn’t see exactly what it was, except that it might be a dragonfly.  A medium-sized black dragonfly.  I was interested in seeing what it was, but it never landed.  Just zoomed.

Today it landed.  Yikes!  It’s the biggest wasp I’ve ever seen, and is appropriately named Great Black Wasp.  They are a burrowing type of wasp.  Supposedly, their sting is very painful but they don’t sting unless attacked.  I’m counting on it!  I really want a photo with their wings up, but this guy landed and zoomed off so quick, I was lucky to get this shot.

Sue