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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by Tim F|  November 4, 200912:00 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Photo Blogging

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Hokuto, Baby grasshopper on Clematis. Olympus E-300 + ZD50mm f2 macro

grasshopper-on-clematis

cleek, Happy moth.

happy_moth1

Email me a link to your one or two favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put up favorites in open threads. Send a short caption if you want one.

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Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    General Winfield Stuck

    November 4, 2009 at 11:07 am

    Two outstanding macro shots. Love the macro.

    Kudos — Hokuto and cleek.

  2. 2.

    Cat Lady

    November 4, 2009 at 11:08 am

    I don’t know. I think the moth might be pensive.

  3. 3.

    General Winfield Stuck

    November 4, 2009 at 11:10 am

    @Cat Lady:

    Looks like a tiny Cousin It.

  4. 4.

    Cris

    November 4, 2009 at 11:12 am

    Cleek is a fantastic photographer. His blog is worth having on your RSS feed for that alone.

  5. 5.

    Lee from NC

    November 4, 2009 at 11:20 am

    The moth is beautiful. Odd to think how ugly I usually think they are when they are flapping around my porch light at night. But those eyes and the soft “fur” just look beautiful in that pic. Nice job.

  6. 6.

    Brick Oven Bill

    November 4, 2009 at 11:28 am

    Hey Cleek, your moth looks very nice. Perhaps we could introduce him to Larry. Larry is a happy little guy too. They might get along great.

  7. 7.

    R-Jud

    November 4, 2009 at 11:28 am

    @Cris: This. I enjoyed the shots of bell peppers he did a while back.

    Moths have freaked me out ever since a huge luna moth decided to hang out on the window next to my bed when I was a young’un. For several nights running. Eyyyaaaagh.

  8. 8.

    Miriam

    November 4, 2009 at 11:40 am

    Tim, thanks for doing this. These photos are really beautiful and amazing.

  9. 9.

    WereBear

    November 4, 2009 at 11:43 am

    @R-Jud: I once read, in one of those Alfred Hitchcock short story collections, a story about a little boy who collects a moth in his killing jar… and something bad happens. Very bad.

    Danged if I can find it, my brain says “John Collier,” but my google fu is weak.

  10. 10.

    r€nato

    November 4, 2009 at 11:44 am

    great stuff Tim

  11. 11.

    General Winfield Stuck

    November 4, 2009 at 11:46 am

    White-lined Sphinx Moth

    or Hummingbird Moth

  12. 12.

    sstarr

    November 4, 2009 at 11:48 am

    Wonderful photos, but everyone has failed to acknowledge that moths and grasshoppers are good news for conservatives.

  13. 13.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    November 4, 2009 at 11:50 am

    @Cris:

    Cleek is a fantastic photographer. His blog is worth having on your RSS feed for that alone.

    Word.

  14. 14.

    Uloborus

    November 4, 2009 at 11:56 am

    I’ve avoided open threads until now, but something is nagging at me, and it’s not these lovely photos that remind me why my degree is in entomology.

    Are we, as liberals, aping the wingnutters? Obviously, I’m opening with a shock statement, but listen. We make fun of the wingnuts for shooting themselves in the foot because they can’t stand a candidate who only votes with them 95% of the time.

    But then we turn around and go ‘I will never forgive the Democrats for:’ and I’ll just throw in the one I heard last, not properly supporting the Maine referendum thing. Last I checked, while they drop the ball occasionally, the Democrats in general were the ones in government pushing for gay rights. People do this to Obama ALL the time, sure. But in general, I hear a lot of ‘The Dems in power are useless because they’re not as liberal as I am.’

    I dunno. What do you guys think? I mean, I see counterarguments just typing this out. There IS a place for advocacy, for pursuing better candidates who do support our positions more completely. A lot of people here are just venting, and heaven knows these issues are frustrating as Hell. And it’s not like there aren’t some damn all legitimate complaints you can make about the guys who ended up in our corner of the ring.

    At the same time, though, really – we laugh at the wingnuts, and I think justly, for being so obsessed with their own little version of right and wrong that they kick moderates to the curb and destroy their own agenda. Last I checked the Dems WERE the big-tent party that painfully suffers even the Blue Dogs, but when do we start being guilty of the same sin?

  15. 15.

    Scott H

    November 4, 2009 at 11:58 am

    @General Winfield Stuck: it’s just a hummingbird moth who’s acting like a bird that thinks it’s a bee

    tmbg

  16. 16.

    General Winfield Stuck

    November 4, 2009 at 12:03 pm

    @Scott H:

    Yea, something like that./

  17. 17.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    November 4, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    @Uloborus: I will continue to support individual Democrats. But marriage equality is important. Until the DNC, DSCC, DCCC stop giving money to people who will not get rid of Joe Lieberman or they continue to support candidates who vote against marriage equality and vote for DOMA and DADT they don’t get one penny from me. Nothing.

    Would you support a candidate who wouldn’t turn the clock back on race based discrimination? Would you give money to the above leadership groups if they supported or tutned a blind eye to race based discrimination?

  18. 18.

    slag

    November 4, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    Awesome pictures! I always like getting a detailed view of things I usually don’t get to see up close. It brings whole new dimensions to the world.

    Also, Brian Beutler wins today for most ironic headline:

    Yesterday’s Overwhelming Historic Republican Victory Makes Democratic Health Care Reform Just A Bit Easier

  19. 19.

    Dreggas

    November 4, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    Dragonage…the morning after. So i created a new character after trying it out. It’s a lot like KOTOR gameplay wise so that’s a good thing. Also since I had the pre-order I have all the available downloadable content already set, plus the other goodies.

    Have to say the game is amazing. The dialog is excellent and i can run everything maxxed out with no lag or anything. Yeah there is lots of blood splatter but that is as it should be given you are hacking off limbs etc. Bioware really outdid themselves with this one.

  20. 20.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    November 4, 2009 at 12:14 pm

    Tim, can I just say I’ve really needed these beautiful picture threads. They have really relaxed my days. Thank you.

  21. 21.

    jeffreyw

    November 4, 2009 at 1:14 pm

    Phooey! I missed this on account of doing some grocery shopping. 1st Wednesday of the month at Kroger is old folk’s discount day so I stocked up.

    I was fooling around with shots of the moonrise last month and took this shot offhand. And no, the vibration reduction doesn’t work well with a nearly 4 second exposure. Didn’t get the effect I had in my mind but the capture I did get kinda tickled me, looks like a painting of an alien horizon.

    One of these days I’ll capture a shot on purpose that is as interesting as the few out of hundreds that I catch by accident.

    All the shots I see here are very good, this is a great use of open thread technology.

  22. 22.

    Captain Goto

    November 4, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    Re photos: I have a bunch of (I think) cool stuff on the hard drive, which I am enough of a show-off to want to blag about…and with the weeks I’ve been having, I’m too damn busy to set up a flickr account!

    Too bad the world will be denied the fruits of my genius…

    [ducks]

  23. 23.

    Little Macayla's Friend

    November 4, 2009 at 2:35 pm

    @Uloborus:
    If it’s “appeals to the base” you’re referring to, the front page of GOS right now could read that way.
    Whatever the similarity in means (limited in my view, ‘truer’ grassroots vs. more authoritarian, etc., etc.), the ends are very different. My optimistic view is that progressives’ goals, being more compassionate, are where more and more votes are growing, while pushing hard right loses votes. I hope.

    My question for you is whether you have favorite websites at hand with high quality insect pictures for identification purposes, especially insects preying on ornamentals and vegetables in the Pacific Northwest?
    /I’m IPM by nature, so I didn’t say pests.

  24. 24.

    Aunt Moe

    November 4, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    Wow. Just wow. Thanks.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 4, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    Add my thanks. I love looking at these photos and am in awe of my fellow Juicers’ skill and art.

  26. 26.

    Atanarjuat

    November 4, 2009 at 6:04 pm

    Echoing what the others have said above and in the other photo open threads:

    Thanks, Tim, for helping to showcase the photographic work of some of our fellow BJ’ers. The shots posted so far are phenomenal, to say the least.

    -A

  27. 27.

    Dan

    November 4, 2009 at 6:30 pm

    Wow, these photos are definitely very good news for conservatives.

  28. 28.

    Hokuto

    November 5, 2009 at 1:31 am

    One good turn deserves a couple more, –dunno how much it’ll help the conservatives, though ;) : a couple of frames from a private show I did last year.

    Dolomedes sulfureus (syn. hercules) ♀
    Fishing spider, aka running spider, Chinese nursery web spider. (Jp. iou-iro hashiri-gumo = “sulphur-color running spider”)、 enjoying a mid-day snack.
    Wasp Spider
    Olympus E-3 + Sigma 150mm f2.8 macro

    “Green crab spider,” Oxytate striatipes (Thomisidae), in Japanese called wakabagumo.
    Green Crab Spider
    Olympus E-3 + ZD 50mm f2 macro

  29. 29.

    Hokuto

    November 5, 2009 at 1:32 am

    Oops–that first tag goes to the right image, but the labeling is wrong; it’s not a wasp spider, but the fishing spider.

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