Even more cool looking pictures from my Instagram feed.

Previous post of this series:

	How To Create Black Background Photos Like An Amateur 😎👍

In my last post, I started sharing/cross-posting some of my pictures from Instagram to Steemit in the upcoming days/weeks. Instead of making an extra Steemit article for each Instagram post, I lump them together and create overview articles for similar themes, topics or styles. I also try to provide some additional value/information here. If you like my stuff, please consider following me on Steemit and Instagram ❤️🖖.

Live insect photography

Fascinating creatures. Attention, trivial, pseudo-wise motivational text incoming: 😅 There are so many things happening in the world around us. They happen whether we know about them, see them, are interested in them or want them to happen or not. 🧐 Every once in a while, stop for a minute and observe 🐜. Be aware of your own mind and your surroundings. 🌎 Realize that the world does not revolve around you. 💪 Acknowledge that you are lucky to be alive and relatively well. 🏠🚿🌽🍽️ Appreciate how easy it is to survive as a human on this planet. 🐺 To exist outside the food chain, not having to fear being eaten by predators at any moment. Be thankful. 🤔 Then ask yourself what you can do to give back. 😍🖖❤️

Aaand some quotes on top 😉😂.

Leave part of the yard rough. Don't manicure everything. Small children in particular love to turn over rocks and find bugs, and give them some space to do that. Take your child fishing. Take your child on hikes. - Richard Louv

🐜 I think the 'Terminator' idea is a reasonable one - that is that one day the Internet becomes self-aware and simply says that humans are in the way. After all, if you meet an anthill and you're making a 10-lane superhighway, you just pave over the ants. It's not that you don't like the ants, it's not that you hate ants; they are just in the way. - Michio Kaku

🍎 Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why. - Bernard Baruch

Photography Tip

I only have one photography tip this time... - "Shoot from the hip": Most of my shots were in broad daylight, so I could, fortunately, get away without using a tripod. Due to the short exposure time, the free-hand shots are still very sharp. Otherwise, these little buggers would be too fast to capture anyway. Only rarely will they allow you to set up "camp" and patiently choose the best settings for a shot...depending on their respective behavior, of course. - No tip, but something I've noticed. My early shots with manual camera settings were fine quality-wise but suffered in the composition department. I was more focused on setting the correct f-stop and shutter speed than on the actual photograph, the subject, composition or the final outcome. At least for me, that happened in the beginning.

Up for a game?

🧐 If you like, you can try to guess for each picture: - 📸 Did I take it with my compact camera (0 points) or with my DSLR (1 point)? - Bonus point: If DSLR, did I shoot JPEG (0 points) or RAW (1 point)? 🤓 This one is a little harder. 💪😅 - Sum up all points and post your overall result in the comment section. Feel free to ask if you're not sure for a specific picture. There are also some hints in the text, but not for all pictures.

🤓 Good luck and have fun. 🖖

Save the best for last? Nope. 😅 Starting with one of my favorite pictures right off the bat! 😍 Map butterfly 🦋 (Araschnia levana) . Captured this one (on photo) during a peaceful trip to the woods. Quite a good result for an unedited JPEG shot with macro mode preset of my Canon EOS 400D. 📷😎👍

Two older butterfly pictures, taken with a compact camera 📷 (Casio EX-H10) instead of my "current", used DSLR (Canon EOS 400D). The quality difference is huge and also your options of post-processing are limited in JPEG compared to RAW. Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) 🦋 on white tiles and on a wooden doorframe.

🐝Bee on 🌸 Wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare) 🌸. Plenty of it growing on our brick terrace and around the whole garden, the bees love it. 😍
📷 Automatic macro preset & JPEG

📷 Manual & RAW 😊👌. Notice the difference to the previous shot. I like the composition of the above one more, but the sharpness, colors and overall quality of this one is better.

🤔 Have you ever heard anyone complain about TOO MANY BEE ON DANDELION PICTURES 🐝🌼? 😂 Me neither! 😍 One of my favorite subjects for a photograph. ❤️

🐝 Bee on dandelion 🌻. This one was actually already featured on Steemit once, in my gardening post "Small things can be sensational, if you let them". 📷 Another one of my early, non-DSLR pictures.

🐜 Ants are one of the most astonishing animal families to me. The way they behave and communicate is just beautiful to watch 🧐 and so interesting to think about. 🤓 I also like the natural yellow saturation of my zucchini flower. ❤️😊

Probably some kind of assassin bug nymph, claiming my zucchini plant as its hunting ground.

🐞 Imagine the sweet round ladybug that will develop from this rough and edgy looking larva 🐉. They seem to like it in the shadow of my pumpkin's leaves. 😍

...here you go, you don't have to imagine any longer 😅. 🐞 Ladybug on blooming apple tree.

Wasps on windfall apple.

European glowworm larva (Lampyris noctiluca) and an ant on windfall apple. 🐜

🐝 Wasp feasting on leftover 🍎 apple scraps on the compost pile. There's plenty for everybody. "Every body", whatever shape or form their respective bodies may have. ❤️😍🖖 I hope that's politically correct towards wasps. Say no to speciesism! 😅🤔😂

Fly on the compost pile, eating an apple.

...and another compost pile photo. How many flies do you see in this picture? 🔎

Fly on a plum in the sun. Sick rhymz, right? 😅🤔😂

Hoverfly (family Syrphidae) on wild arugula (Diplotaxis tenuifolia). ❤️ 👌🙃 Its weight pulls down the flower quite a bit, giving it a beautiful bend. 😍👍 Good old gravity, eh? 😏😅🖖

Gravity may put the planets into motion, but without the divine Power, it could never put them into such a circulating motion as they have about the Sun; and therefore, for this as well as other reasons, I am compelled to ascribe the frame of this System to an intelligent Agent. - Isaac Newton

🧐🤓 Turns out this wasn't the only thing Newton was wrong about... 😏😅🖖

Wasp (Vespinae) on white clover (Trifolium repens) 🍀 ...it was crawling around, presumably unable to fly for whatever reason. Can you spot the bee? 🧐 🐝

I didn't kick the hornet's 🐝 nest, neither literally nor figuratively. Makes for a good pun though. 😅 Its cause of death, however, shall forever remain unknown. This is an old picture, amateurishly color graded with Paint.NET...seeing this motivates me to do similar style photo editing again, but with higher quality this time. 🤓😍🖖

Dragonfly. Also an old capture from my compact camera.

😍🦋 Mating damselflies on water plant leaf and a Red Damselfly on a wooden gangplant. I actually already published these on Steemit in my post from May 2018, Dragonflies and other Pond Dwellers.

☠️ Dead dragonfly in the shadow. Found with a severed head.

Yes, I said live insects, but I just wanted to include this one too. 😅

Yes I know, I said live insects 😅, but I thought this spider was still kind of fitting here...despite being arachnid and not insect.

Grasshopper. 🍋 If life gives you lemons...and on top of that you are missing a leg plus your remaining hind leg is covered in spider webs...at least you can still make lemon juice. 🍋 And, more importantly, follow @spreadfire1 😅😎

Original quote by yours truly, feel free to apply in any situation in life where it may fit. 😅🖖🤗❤️

Any feedback is highly appreciated! Let me know what you think...general thoughts, tips, tricks, questions, advice, funny comments, disses, bashes, whatever!

Thank you to everybody 😘.

Have fun and stay awesome! ❤️ 🖖

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Insect Pictures: My Photography Progression, Cool Stories, A Tip and A Game

Previous post of this series:

Live insect photography

Photography Tip

Up for a game?