Simon

Apparently this is what a storm drain looks like before it’s installed beneath a street. I prefer to think of it as an alien space pod that crash-landed near the parking lot.

This is one of two photos of this moth that I was able to capture (click the picture to see the other one in my Flickr gallery) and I had a difficult time deciding which one to post. I eventually settled on this one because even though there is more going on in the frame, I like the colors and somewhat larger depth of field. And that drop of water on its hindquarters is kind of cool too.

I got this shot last week in northern Iowa along I-35, and was originally a little bummed that I couldn’t find a way to shoot the storm cloud without getting the chicken houses and windmills in the frame. But the more I thought about the photo afterwards, the more I realized these elements capture a bit more about what midwestern life really is all about.

While we were driving home the other day my son kept pointing to the rear window of the car and saying “Beetle.” I couldn’t see what he was pointing at, but when we arrived and got out of the car we went around and found this giant yellow Cottonwood Borer who had apparently hitched a ride with us. He flew into a nearby pine tree and I ran inside to get my camera so I could take a few pics while holding my son with my other arm. Together we watched the beetle, which we later discovered was a Cottonwood Borer, wind his way around a few branches before taking off for other destinations.

We have these trees down in Oklahoma called Goldenrain Trees, and each year they drop little seed pods in the summertime.