Saturday, January 27, 2007

Pocket Bug


Click on photo to enlarge

This is a pocket bug. No, not really. Actually it's a "Rhaphigaster nebulosa". The german name is "Graue Gartenwanze" (grey garden bug).

So, why pocket bug? I'll tell you.

Some of my colleagues are aware now that I'm interested in dead insects.
Yesterday I heard that they "disposed" a dead bug out of the kitchen window into the freezing winter.
After work I searched and found a small grey dead bug on the window sill. I put the dead body it in a small box and stored it in the pocket of my jacket.
Tomorrow morning it was time to shoot some photos of the grey garden bug model. After opening the little box I realized that the bug wasn't dead at all. I shaked it on a piece of paper in front of my camera and it tried to run away immediately.
So I had a living bug in my pocket while visiting a friend in the hospital and while attending to a party. Very strange.

Well, I guess for the bug it was way stranger to spent the night in the dark card box.

OK, it wasn't dead and my intention was to shoot only dead non-moving insects but it was here and therefore I tried a little photo session with it. Believe me, it's damn difficult to shoot a moving bug with a macro lens. I had to block it's way and shoo it back to the camera all the time.
I ended up screaming to the bug things like "you freeze immediately you f**ing crumb". I tell you what: It helped. The bug climbed a little wooden cube and sat still for a minute.

I'm pretty sure that it was the most terrible day in the bug's life so far.

After 10 minutes of photo shooting I dropped it back in the box and released it in the basement in some old plant. Hopefully it will survive the winter but I don't think I'll see it again.
Actually it should be very grateful to me because I saved it's life by picking it out of the snow.

Maybe I should switch to macro photos of stones or similar things that are definitely not moving, though.

1 Comments:

At Wednesday, January 31, 2007, Blogger SOe said...

I love the story! And the picture too.

 

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