National Insect Week

Red Eye Fly, photo by Samantha Henneke, Seagrove, NC

Did you know that this is National Insect Week?

I follow a few bug twitterers and found out that this week, June 23 - June 29, is National Insect Week. The Royal Entomological Society of the United Kingdom organizes this week every two years in order to educate people of all ages to learn more about insects.

I like to take macro images of insects on the property and in the garden.  Inspirations come from the vivid colors, the textures, and abstract shapes that form because of the shadows and light.

Holding myself as still as possible, sometimes in an awkward position, knees bending, neck tilted, often waiting for the insect to land and hoping that we both will stay still at the same time.  If the wind is blowing, even the ever so slight breeze, images of insects become even more difficult and next to impossible to shoot with the camera.

It would be cool to have a photographer taking images of a photographer taking images.  Documenting the process of photographers out in the field would be a good learning experience for the audience looking at the images that the photographer has taken.  A couple of years ago Julie Galloway demonstrated (along with Peter Beasecker and Tara Wilson) at the North Carolina Potters Conference in Asheboro, NC. During her slide presentation she showed an image of a photographer immersed neck deep in a pond, and her comment was "being in the thick of it".  That is when you are really in the throws of creating your art.  A compelling place when you are just making, and everything around you is a blur. Bruce and I call this being "in the zone", a wonderful place to be.

Little Tiny Bug, photo by Samantha Henneke, Seagrove, NC

Dragonfly, photo by Samantha Henneke, Seagrove, NC