Man in Conflict

I noticed this guy while walking at Bay Walk with my grandson. He seems to have some kind of problem, judging by what he's wearing, or he's protesting something. This is just a grab shot, but I've never seen anything like this before and I wondered what he's all about.

His pants, if you can call them that are made of various patches from different types of material, either sewed, strung or tied together wrapped around his legs.That vest, and his unkempt hair says the rest. Conflict, disorder, partisan, and that drawing makes me wonder what on earth he's protesting or trying to say.

I caught up with him again and wanted to take a photo of his face, but he gave me this mean look before I could even lift my camera. I didn't dare try. He looked so mean or angry. His face was split in half, sort of like Michael Jackson's black and white video, but one side of his face had a long, thick, black beard and a thick mustache, while the other side was clean shaven. I guess it takes all kinds.

I won't give you all the technical details on how this was shot since it was only a grab shot, or a snap shot. I didn't have much time to think. I just shot it the way the camera was set for the previous photo.

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.

Gorilla

I went to Busch Gardens again; this time in pursuit of a Chimpanzee photo that one of my stock agencies was looking for. Unfortunately for me, the Chimp never struck the pose the art director was looking for (head and shoulders profile with hand on chin, like he was thinking).

I did get some great shots anyway--especially of this magnificent Gorilla. I was standing next to 3 other female photographers and this Gorilla posed for us for a good 15 minutes or so. As you can see, he was looking right at the camera and kept changing positions as if he was modeling. I swear any minute, his keeper was going to ask us for a modeling fee.

Once he got tired of showing off, he moved to the side of his habitat where he's separated from the people by some thick glass. I'm sooooo glad that glass was thick! Someone in the crowd ticked him off--big time. Just as we were trying to inch our way up front for more shots of this amazingly powerful Gorilla, he spotted something in the crowd he didn't like. He walked back a few steps, then charged at the glass. I was so glad that glass held him because he wasn't a very happy camper. Get a look at those forearms!

Spider Carrying Leaf

This spider was working really hard trying to carry this leaf up through his web. We watched him for a while and he eventually dropped the leaf.

This photo was taken 12/11/07 during an early morning walk through Sawgrass Lake Park in St Petersburg, FL.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to identify the species of this spider.

If you enjoy my blog and want to see more of my work, check out my website at http://LoyceHoodPhoto.com.

Thanks for looking,
Loyce