My son took our dog out back night before last and yelled from the back deck that there was the biggest moth he had ever seen out there. I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures of it. It was still out there the next morning, laying eggs (supposedly they are non-destructive, so maybe I can track a few as caterpillars and get some shots of them as well).
I looked it up online and found it was an Imperial Moth. It is a really cool little beast and I was fairly happy with the detail of the hairs. Not so happy with the color, but this was a Coolpix on a dark back deck with a yellow "bug light" illumination. The flash shots were too blue and the non flash shots were too yellow (and noisy). I'm still playing with the colors, but I wanted to share what I had so far...
This one shows the size -- these are 6" deck planks, so it is in the upper end of the species size (said to be 4-5.5" in wingspan). It also shows the color fairly accurately -- bright yellow with lilac details and legs:
This one was without a flash, so the color is a bit off (and noisy), but it shows the beautifully thick shaggy hair on the back:
Here is the leg detail:
The other few shots and the full size versions are here: http://cmpalmer.smugmug.com/gallery/661054
I looked it up online and found it was an Imperial Moth. It is a really cool little beast and I was fairly happy with the detail of the hairs. Not so happy with the color, but this was a Coolpix on a dark back deck with a yellow "bug light" illumination. The flash shots were too blue and the non flash shots were too yellow (and noisy). I'm still playing with the colors, but I wanted to share what I had so far...
This one shows the size -- these are 6" deck planks, so it is in the upper end of the species size (said to be 4-5.5" in wingspan). It also shows the color fairly accurately -- bright yellow with lilac details and legs:

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This one was without a flash, so the color is a bit off (and noisy), but it shows the beautifully thick shaggy hair on the back:

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Here is the leg detail:

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The other few shots and the full size versions are here: http://cmpalmer.smugmug.com/gallery/661054