Today's Digital Image Archive

Select "medium" to view a larger image. Full size images are available on request. The links to them are no longer functional; there was too much unauthorized copying.

September 2001
30		medium	Magnolia seed cones will never have to apologize to orchids in the exotic department.
29		medium	Sunlight streaming though a dogwood leaf.
28		medium	There are a couple of astonishing things about this cast off cicada shell: the fact that the shell of antennae and the bristles on his snout are intact and the sheer horror of the beast.  Aliens III, now opening in the soil beneath your lawn.
27		medium	The holes in this poplar leaf are a mystery.  Looks like a stealth stingray or some sort of appropriately deflated KKK hood.
26		medium	What it lacks in mass, it makes up for with velocity.  The needles falling from the tall pines wreak havoc on the shrubs, and even the magnolia leaves.
25		medium	Another new hatchling today.
24		medium	Continuing in the passion flower patch, here's a fritillary chrysalis about four days old.  There's a coiled antenna at the bottom of the frame and the texture of the wings is visible.  I'm wondering whether the S-shaped flaw in the shell is going to be reflected in the adult butterfly.
23		medium	While I was shooting photos of the spider, he got spooked and scooted down a strand of silk to the sidewalk and adopted a defensive posture with his legs bunched together.  Most spiders have eight eyes; I'm not sure where the other four are on this one.  There may be a pair of large ones outboard of the lower row.   Detail
22		medium	The pattern on this spider's abdomen looks very much like the face of a leopard.  Monster movies could be filmed quite easily with a macro lens and few special effects.
21		medium	Nature draws both straight and curved lines.
20		medium	Back in the passionflower patch.  I have no idea what these are.  They're very delicate, barely a eighth of an inch high, and aligned in a perfect row.   Eggs of some sort?  Why on stalks?
19		medium	Another view. I'm wondering about the two droplets of red on the aft end of his head.  Do insects leak?  Any entomologists looking at this?
18		medium	If they traveled in packs, this one would definitely be the alpha stinkbug.
17		medium	The empty chrysalis, suspended from the underside of a passionflower leaf.  The outline of the wing structure is visible in the shell, in miniature.  When the butterfly emerges, it pumps fluid into the wings to fill them out.
16		medium	The first flaps.  (Another case where there's no word that really describes the motion.  It's slower and more stately than a flap. Not at all a flitter, either.  Suggestions?  Floop?)
15		medium	The gulf fritillaries are hatching in the passion flower vines again this year.  This one had just emerged and hadn't yet flown.  This fall, the event seems much more significant and wonderful than usual.   A small celebration of fresh, vibrant life, grace, and beauty.  Fragile, but tenacious and enduring.
14		medium	I suppose the sugar in the sap of these sweetgum logs supports a more colorful and ornate fungus.
13		medium	A spider's web in the wood pile.  It seems like the whole neighborhood is overrun with webs of all kinds.  It's a tough time to be an insect on McConnell Drive.  I adulterated this scene just a bit.   The web needed a few shots of mist from a spray bottle to reflect the late afternoon sun.
12		medium	I hope we will have the wisdom and the courage and the restraint to react in a way that distinguishes us from the people who attacked us.
11		medium	September 11, 2001.
9		medium	Shrimp, just the way I like them:  fresh, large, and in my kitchen.
8		medium	Pilings and pier, with pines on Deer Island.
7		medium	Grits.  Just grits.  .
3		medium	Inverted image of the reflection of a wader on the beach.
2		medium	Wavelets on Front Beach.   Luminosity and viscosity at play.

All images copyright 2001 by D. W. Abrams.  Unauthorized duplication or use is prohibited.