Magnifying Glass Monday

In memory of my childhood, when the only way to see an insect close up was to borrow a book from the library or to look at it through a magnifying glass. Of course there were always horrid children like my brother who preferred to use a magnifying glass to fry ants, but I found that distasteful, which probably accounts for my being unable to kill anything much bigger than an aphid. If such a thing as macro lenses existed back then we were blissfully unaware as most of our photos were pretty dreadful, usually taken with a Kodak Instamatic or similar. It makes me laugh when all these photo programs available now offering all sorts of special effects give you the option to turn your fabulous digital photos back into something like that. All I can say is why on earth?! Do they not realise how long it takes to clean up a scanned in photo from that era in the first place?!! 

Over the decades technology has changed so much and digital cameras are the norm, so here are a few insect shots I've taken which, although I don't have fancy photographic equipment (a Sony Cybershot compact camera), I am very pleased with, as I get to see far more of the detail of these insects sitting comfortably at my computer!

Cricket on a Sedum plant

A teeny tiny fly (?I think) on a teeny tiny Speedwell flower

Gendarmes in French or Firebugs in English, on the bark of a Lime tree

Hornet on Pieris shrub

Ant on Euphorbia myrsinitis

Swallowtail caterpillar feeding on Dill

Bee on Aubretia

Ladybird on the bark of a Lime tree