We caught this male (I  think) praying mantis sunning itself on our deck.

This brilliant blue fly was buzzing all around us the other day, and I couldn’t resist trying to capture it. I had no tripod, nor was I prepared to shoot a fast moving nervous fly, but I got this shot out of the 10 I fired off. You gotta love blue critters.

I bent down into one of the beds the other day, and came up with a spattering of chigger bits. I also ended up with this weird shot, where the wide open 1.2 aperature delivered some unexpected goodies. This is a like some kind of bizarro bokeh.

Hey, have a look at this dead, ant-filled grasshopper. Spiky legs!