31 March 2010

Well it’s been one heck of a roller coaster ride.  I’m just now starting to feel better after another round of surgeries.  If you’re new here, click here to read the full account of my medical ordeal.  If you’re already familiar with it, click here to read the latest stuff.  Other news for me is I have founded a non-profit organization called The Butterflies of the World Foundation.  I’m really excited about it.  Click here to go to the website.  I still plan on keeping this website active, so keep checking back for updates.

23 October 2009

I’ve had a great time photographing over the last month since updating the site.  I was able to get two new species of butterflies, the Southern Pearly-Eye, and the Yehl Skipper, 2, 3, 4.  Besides these, I photographed a Common Wood-Nymph, Monarch, 2, Great Spangled Fritillary, Gray Hairstreak, Cloudless Sulphur, Blue-Faced Meadowhawk, and a pair of Soldier Beetles with a lurking Ambush Bug.  I also was able to photograph a series of a Banded Garden Spider, 2,3, wrapping a hapless cicada that blundered into the web.  And finally, if you have read my Testimonial and are familiar with what I’ve gone through over the last couple years, well it’s not over yet.  Since I had so many surgeries, my abdominal wall was weakened and now a huge hernia has formed.  Sometime in November I’ll have a surgery to fix it.  Hopefully, there will be no complications and the hernia will not return.  This will keep me from doing much photography or updating on this site for a while, but if you want to touch base, just email me.

18 September 2009

Well, another few months have flown by.  I’ve been as busy as ever and have many great shots to share.  The weather has finally cooled down a bit and we are currently getting a lot of rain.  A month or so ago, I took a short trip to the Dallas area.  While there I photographed Celia’s Roadside-Skippers, 2, 3, Clouded Skippers, 2, Queens, 2, 3, 4, Pipevine Swallowtail, Crab Spiders, 2, Superb Cicada, and a Cottonwood Borer.  Closer to home I photographed a Pipevine Swallowtail, Gulf Fritillary, Southern Broken-Dash, 2, Cloudless Sulphur, Little Yellow, mating pair of Carolina Satyrs, Viceroy, Ambush Bug with Snowberry Clearwing, Gray Tree Frog, 2, Green Lynx Spider, 2, Crab Spider, and a personal record Harvester.

27 July 2009

Wow, what a busy summer I’ve had.  We’ve had several weeks above 100 degrees and so I’ve been trying to catch up on office work.  I’ve scanned several thousand slides for my stock agencies, written a few articles, sent out many images to clients, and have gotten out a few times for photography.  I’m just past my two-year anniversary for the start of my medical crisis and I’m just now starting to feel a lot better.  If you’re new here, please read about my experience here.  I’ve been on a few outings since my last posting.  I took a day-trip to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge and had a great time photographing Collard Lizards, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.  I also went up to Kansas to help my friend Ray Moranz with a butterfly survey and photographed several butterflies including a Gray Copper, Great Spangled Fritillaries, 2, 3, Delaware Skipper, Crossline Skipper, Tawny Emperor, Silvery Checkerspot, and our target species the Arogos Skipper and Regal Fritillary.  Here, closer to home, I’ve recently photographed Delaware Skippers, 2, 3, Arogos Skipper, Southern Broken-Dashes, 2, Sachems, 2, 3, 4, Bell’s Roadside-Skipper, Monarch, Gulf Fritillaries, 2, Sleepy Orange, Coral Hairstreak, Pearl Crescent, Variegated Fritillary, Common Buckeye, Reakirt’s Blue, Gray Hairstreak, Southern Dogface, 2, 3, 4, 5, Dragonflies, 2, Wolf Spider with Hatching Babies, 2, Fishing Spider, 2, Trumpet Flower, Prickly Pear, Terrestrial Crayfish, and finally the shell pattern of a Three-Toed Box Turtle.  Thanks for stopping by, and keep checking back for the next update.

7 June 2009

I’ve just posted a few shots from my latest batch of slides.  This is the first year since settling in Oklahoma that I’ve been able to get some local wildflowers on film.  This latest batch contains some Green Milkweed, a Yucca, Toothed Evening Primrose and a Greenbriar pattern shot.  I also can never pass up photographing the butterflies, so here are some shots of a Gray Hairstreak, 2, one with a Sachem, and a Hoary Edge.  Other critters include an Assassin Bug 1, and 2, a Jumping Spider with Prey, and two Hover Flies 1 and 2.  I also have a quiz:  can you tell me how many and what kind of insects are in this photo?  What kind of plant are they on?  Email me with your answer.

31 May 2009

I’ve been getting some great feedback and because of your suggestions, I’m removing the flash gallery from the home page.  I guess for a lot of people, this really slowed things down when trying to navigate from the home page.  Many said they liked the slide show, but wanted to have the option of choosing it or not.  So, I’ve kept it, but now it’s on a separate page of the site.  Click here to view it.  Replacing the old flash gallery on the home page, are some of my best butterfly shots.  I will occasionally change those around just to keep things interesting.  I hope you like the changes and please keep the feedback coming.

19 May 2009

It’s been an extremely wet spring here in central Oklahoma.  For weeks it has been cloudy and wet making for muddy excursions in the field.  Not as many butterflies make an appearance on cloudy days, but the ones that do are usually more cooperative.  For example, here are some shots of a Falcate Orangetip, 2, 3, some Carolina Satyrs, 2, 3, and a few Little Wood Satyrs, 2.  The Southern Cloudywings have really popped out and here are a few shots 1, 2, 3.  The last new butterfly in this update is a Gray Hairstreak.  Other new images are a Green Lacewing, Sweat Bee, Jumping Spider, Box Turtle, Mesh Web Spider and a Cellar Spider with her egg case found in my kitchen.  I’ve appreciated all of the emails with suggestions and comments.  Please don’t hesitate to email me with more ideas.

5 May 2009

Well it’s been a few months since I last updated the site.  I’ve gotten many emails from people with very positive feedback which is very much appreciated.  Please don’t be bashful if you would like to comment or provide a critique.  I’ve also seen an increase in requests from photo editors which is also very nice.  As far as new images, I’ve scanned a few older shots from my files as well as some new stuff.  Some of my favorites are:  ichnuemon wasp, Festive Tiger Beetle, Oblique-Lined Tiger Beetle, attached tick, Eastern Hog-Nosed Snake, Feather-Legged Orb Weaver, Red Bud blooms, and red oak leaf vein pattern.  I was also able to add a new butterfly to my list, a Mottled Duskywing.

20 February 2009

It’s time for another update on the site.  I’ve been consulting with various experts in many disciplines as well as scouring my own identification guides to get as many scientific names of subjects as possible.  Many people have commented they would like more of this to help with their identifications.  Realize however, that many subjects cannot be ID’d from just a photo.  Also, be aware that taxonomy changes all the time and what was an accurate scientific name today may not be in the future.  Also, many subjects may have multiple common names such as Black and Yellow Argiope, Black and Yellow Garden Spider, Banana Spider for Argiope aurantia and so on.  Some of the recent photos include some from last fall and a few older images I found in my files.  Some of my favorites include an American Lady, Orange Sulphur, Question Mark, Crab Spider with Gulf Fritillary 1 and 2, female Variegated Meadowhawk, and a Hover Fly.  I’ve been appreciating your comments and suggestions and please contact me if you have any more.

12 January 2009

First I’d like to thank all the people who have emailed me with compliments.  Thanks also to those who have been providing suggestions, ideas and scientific names.  As time permits, I’ll be making minor modifications to the site based upon your feedback.  I’ve gone through some of my latest slides, scanned and then posted them on the site.  I posted many new butterfly images and some of my favorites are an arogos skipper on a sunflower, a sachem captured by an ambush bug, a cloudless sulphur on a cardinal flower, and a red-spotted purple laying an egg on willow.  For some reason, I have never seen or photographed many black and yellow argiopes.  I guess I’ve never really lived in areas where they were common.  This year was different and here are a few shots of them:  1, 2, 3, 4, and a close-up of the stabilimentum.  I also added a few new moth photos and one I especially like is the great leopard moth.  Here’s  a close-up of the wing pattern.  And finally, here are some new photos of reptiles and amphibians: 1, 2, 3, 4.  Thanks again for all of your feedback, if you notice anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact me.


17 December 2008

Welcome to my web site.  This is the second generation of my site and I hope it is much improved.  I have several goals with it including showcasing my images to friends, family and colleagues.  I also hope many editors and photo researchers frequent my site and find a good resource for them.  This has been a very ambitious project for me and it has taken months of hard work.  I still have more to do such as adding scientific names to my insects and spiders, but I’ll save some of that for a long winter’s day.  There is probably no way you will be able to explore the whole thing at once, so pick your favorite subject and branch out from there.  Remember, this is just a small cross-section of my photo files, so if you don’t find what you’re looking for email me.  Also, if you find any errors such as miss-identifications, bad links, miss-spellings, etc., or have any suggestions or feedback, positive or negative, please email me.  Check back often.  Now that I have full control of my site, I’ll be regularly updating it with fresh photos.  Look right here under the “What’s New” button and I’ll add news and links to galleries with fresh images.  Future plans include selling museum quality signed prints and an articles section.  And finally, thank you for checking out my web site, I hope you like it.