Paper Wasp

This image was made at my regular Monday Night meetup. While photographing Monarch caterpillars, I noticed this Paper Wasp on this Butterfly Weed bush. He appears to be eating aphids or some kind of larvae.

This bush is covered with aphids, caterpillars, eggs and various sorts of minute creatures that can't be easily seen with the naked eye.

Even with the wind by the water, I managed to hand hold my 90mm macro lens in one hand while holding onto the stem of the bush to keep it still with the other hand. It was no easy feat, but I got the job done. I'm pretty proud of myself for that one. :)

Paper Wasps are much more tolerant of people and minor disturbances than are hornets and yellow jackets, which means they're less apt to sting according to the Audubon Field Guide to Insects and Spiders. All I know is I was pretty close to this guy, and he completely ignored me.

Settings used for this image ISO 400 to help get a fast shutter speed and to stop any movement, flash to get more light on the insect, and also to arrest movement, aperture priority, partial metering on the wasp, 1/250 at F9 for better depth of field--especially with a macro lens at 90mm.

Paper Wasp

This was made on our meetup night on the boardwalk rail at Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa, FL. Since I'm allergic to insect stings I try to keep my distance, but it's so hard when I love to photograph anything nature. I'm particularly partial to bugs of all sorts.

After I shot him and looked him up on the internet, I found out that they can sting, but they're not aggressive like most wasps, bees and hornets. They won't sting unless they feel threatened by you. I'm convinced bees sting for the heck of it. I've had them fly into my car and just sting me for no reason. Other times, I've been stung just sitting on my patio. It's ridiculous that bees can't find another way to commit suicide.

Anyway, I digress, since I couldn't get close, I shot him with my trusty 55-250mm lens. I chose to use F11 for more depth of field, which, as you can tell it just about covered it at that range. It was nearly 8:00 pm and getting pretty dark with all the trees above us, so I opened up the eV to +1/3 stop for just a little more light. With an ISO of 400, that didn't leave me with much of a shutter speed. It was shot at 1/25 of a second. I'd rather sacrifice the speed so I don't have to deal with noise in my photos. My lens has image stabilization (IS), but at that slow of a speed, I was pushing it. I shot a burst of 3 and this was the best one of the batch. I put my elbows down on the rail and used them and my face for a tripod.

I'm lost without my tripod. but I left it in my friend's car in NY not once but twice! He was here and I forgot it. Then he went home to NY and it was in the back of the car. I went to NY, we went shooting, and I forgot it there again! Don't get old... I'll have to make do without it until he comes back to Florida in September. I hope I'll remember it then.