Monday, June 22, 2009

Mmmmm ... blood

Mmmmm ... blood

They're heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere! A mama skeeter tanks up on some O-positive so she can make some more skeeters. We've had lots of rain over the past several weeks here in northern Illinois. Now we have the by-product of all that moisture -- mosquitoes are beginning to emerge. And they're hungry.

I was out looking for insects to photograph over the weekend and several mosquitoes found me first. This one was tapped into my elbow and was nicely engorged when I discovered her.

I had my macro rig with me, but it's heavy (camera, two lenses, metal bracket and flash unit) and requires two hands to keep it steady (one to hold it and the other to trip the shutter). Since one hand was unavailable, I set the self timer and moved the camera into position within the ten second time frame, resting it on my upper arm to steady it and get a low angle on the blood-sucking bug.

No mosquitoes were harmed in the making of this photo. After I had snapped a couple of shots, I flicked her off my arm and headed home. No sense making a mess.

Photograph © 2009 James Jordan.

5 comments:

Laurie said...

OH MY!!! Makes me itch just thinking about it. Cool shot but EWWWWW!!!

Dawning Inspiration said...

Incredible shot. It's got me grimacing at the icky-ness of it "gorging!!"

Amber said...

This image is *intense*!

Terry H. said...

Nice to see a man that will risk getting West Nile for the sake of his art. Wonderful shot and love the funny write up.

Anonymous said...

Very nice macroshot of not so nice phenomen. Every summer those bloodsucking females are on your backs, necks and whatnots. Great pic, never the less!