Praying Mantis,,,,eating!!

[drschurch]

OMG,,OMG, look what I got today!!! Not the best in the world, but wow for me. I was using my 80-200mm with some tubes and my sb-600 off camera. It was very hard shooting as my zoom ring likes to slide around This is why I love to take pics!!
He/She just eat a bug!! I got to watch the whole thing go down through the lens!! I was like OMG little bug,, you are about to die!!

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And just a pose.

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What a great day for me!!

 

[tojor]

Excellent shots.

 

[Bolts]

Hey, good for you! Praying Mantis' are the coolest little creatures. I'm sure they are smarter than the average bug. In fact, in that second shot, she's looking at you like she's still hungry!

BTW, a couple of years ago, I found a large seed pod (about the size of a baseball attached to a twiggy branch) up in North GA around Memorial Day. I took it home and gave it to a biologist at work who had no idea what it was. A week or so later, he called me into his office and asked me if I saw anything strange. When I said I didn't, he told me to look closer. Well, the seed pod was apparently a baby mantis pod, which had hatched 100s of babies in his office and they were all headed up the wall like a tiny little swarm. They were the cutest little things!

 

[drschurch]

Hey thanks guys. Last time I even saw a mantis was when I was a kid, working at this go-kart track. We got swarmed by 1000's of them!! They were splattered all over the track. Karts were sliding all over the place!! We had to stop the racing and get water hoses and shovels out to clean the track. It was really amazing. Thanks for looking guys. These pics really made my day, was totally worth playing hookie from work today:tongue:

 

[TomP]

Hey thanks guys. Last time I even say a mantis was when I was a kid, working at this go-kart track. We got swarmed by 1000's of them!! They were splattered all over the track. Karts were sliding all over the place!! We had to stop the racing and get water hoses and shovels out to clean the track. It was really amazing. Thanks for looking guys. These pics really made my day, was totally worth playing hookie from work today:tongue:

Nice shots, scenes like that are so cool to capture.
Swarming Mantis!!! I have never heard of that, nice to learn something new.

 

[Duncan C]

My mantis eating shot

OMG,,OMG, look what I got today!!! Not the best in the world, but wow for me. I was using my 80-200mm with some tubes and my sb-600 off camera. It was very hard shooting as my zoom ring likes to slide around This is why I love to take pics!!
He/She just eat a bug!! I got to watch the whole thing go down through the lens!! I was like OMG little bug,, you are about to die!!


And just a pose.

What a great day for me!!

Cool pics. Mantises are sooooo fascinating. A couple of years ago I found a large mantis in our garden and was able to follow it for quite a while. I was able to watch it catch several unfortunately skipper butterflies, and even get a couple of shots of it eating. I'm glad we're not small enough to be their prey!

Here's my shot of a mantis having a very messy meal:

(click the image to see a larger version with EXIF data)


Regards,

Duncan C

 

[drschurch]

Wow thanks for sharing that Duncan. Looks like you used the lens I have been lusting over. Exif data say no falsh was used,, is that correct?

 

[Duncan C]

Wow thanks for sharing that Duncan. Looks like you used the lens I have been lusting over. Exif data say no falsh was used,, is that correct?

No, I used flash. For some reason the EXIF data from my cameras is usually wrong about flash.