Blue Mud Dauber

Blue Mud Dauber

I found a bunch of Blue Mud Dauber wasps in my garden sleeping on a dry vine. These Blue Mud Daubers, Chalybion bengalense are pretty common blue household wasps we encounter at home. Even though these are solitary wasps, males have a habit of sleeping in a group together. I was using my Canon EOS … Read more

Indian Queenless Ant

Indian Queenless Ant

Here is a capture of Weaver Ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) workers killing a Indian Queenless Ant, also known as Lesser Striated Bispinous Ant (Diacamma indicum). These Diacamma indicum ants are native to the Indian subcontinent. Since Diacamma species forage individually and they don’t have a queen in their colony they are also called Indian queenless ant. … Read more

Flat-head Leafhopper Nymph

Flat-head Leafhopper Nymph

I found this Flat-head Leafhopper Nymph belonging to Ledrinae Subfamily of diverse leafhopper family Cicadellidae in my garden. While photographing it jumped on to my trousers. I was not sure which was its host plant. The leafhopper also looked pretty transparent and was having a very good camouflage. To highlight that transparency, I decided to … Read more

Common Grass Yellow Caterpillar

Common Grass Yellow Caterpillar

I found this caterpillar of Common Grass Yellow on Peacock Flower in my garden. This looked like the 5th Instar of the caterpillar stage. I was using a Canon EOS 5DS R with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, illuminated by Godox Ving V860c E-TTL Li-ion Flash with LumiQuest SoftBox III to capture … Read more

Malabar Torrent Dart

Malabar Torrent Dart

Last Sunday during the Waterfall Photography Workshop I was conducting in Charmadi region of Western Ghats I spotted a damselfly. It was the Male Malabar Torrent Dart (Euphaea fraseri) resting on a stone under the waterfall. Malabar Torrent Dart is found only in the Western and Eastern Ghats in India. Female Malabar Torrent Dart was … Read more

Painterly Butterfly

Suffused Double-banded Judy with Topaz Glow & Impression

To create the above image I used two filters from Topaz labs – Topaz Glow 2 and the Topaz Impression 2. I used the first image used in my last blog – Suffused Double-banded Judy I combined two filters for the look. I wanted to enhance the look of the butterfly without distorting the feel. … Read more