Handsome little devils!

June 24, 2006 11:47 PM

Aweseome, but brief Russian photo gallery of macro (mostly) insect (with a little frog thrown in for good measure) photography.
posted by jonson (29 comments total)

Something tells me that no Industar lenses were harmed in the making of this gallery.
posted by b1tr0t at 11:56 PM on June 24, 2006

I think this may be a double - different site but same pictures.
posted by greycap at 11:59 PM on June 24, 2006

Curses! greycap's right. Searching for "macro" and "insects" to cut down on the number of results I got just searching for "insects" ended up not finding MMJJV's earlier version of this.
posted by jonson at 12:06 AM on June 25, 2006

Sorry - didn't mean to to snark! Just knew I'd seen them somewhere before. They are stunningly beautiful, though, so no harm in seeing them again.
posted by greycap at 12:07 AM on June 25, 2006

Well, so much for sleep.


Nah, I kid. This is good stuff! And some of the photos are different from the ones in the previous post, so no worries.
posted by kosher_jenny at 12:28 AM on June 25, 2006

Are these two both praying mantis!? Do they have wings? Or is it wings for lunch? Otherwise, what are they?
[Thanks jonson, I like your doubles. Brilliant shots.]
posted by peacay at 12:34 AM on June 25, 2006

Yep, they're mantises.
posted by wsg at 12:48 AM on June 25, 2006

many, many more macro insect photos
posted by pruner at 1:39 AM on June 25, 2006

Bravo, and merci.

What a frightening, if, terrible beauty that was.
Am I the only one creeped out by the eyes of the insects?

There is a definition for that, --being creeped out by eyes--in the primate homo sapien-- , however, I'm to drunk to look it up at the moment.
posted by Unregistered User at 2:14 AM on June 25, 2006

This one looks like the Slurm slug from Futurama...
posted by cardoso at 2:24 AM on June 25, 2006

If bugs ever figure out how to get just a little bigger, we're all lunch.
posted by pracowity at 4:24 AM on June 25, 2006

i'm with peacay: they fly?
posted by es_de_bah at 4:47 AM on June 25, 2006

Beautiful, cute and creepy! Thanks jonson!
posted by zerokey at 5:37 AM on June 25, 2006

OMG these are spectacular images! wow! I mean WOW! A macro wow. What a treat. Thank you both jonson and Madamjujujive. I never saw the first post and so appreciate seeing this one.

This is my fav but they're all wonderful. I'll never see a bug the same again.
posted by nickyskye at 6:44 AM on June 25, 2006

Isn't it amazing how we all get bogged down in the mundane details of our lives, while such a weird, mysterious world keeps unfolding all around us? We share a planet with some incredible creatures and we barely care about them.
posted by davebush at 7:03 AM on June 25, 2006

We share a planet with some incredible creatures and we barely care about them.

Amen. Folks with an urgent need to find life on other planets crack me up sometimes; I want to shake them by the shoulders and say, "Have you *seen* what's at the bottom of the ocean????"
posted by mediareport at 7:13 AM on June 25, 2006

Beautiful photos. Insects really are scary when they aren't tiny. Spectacular detail.
posted by Acey at 7:49 AM on June 25, 2006

Can't believe some of them are so hairy. Love this green punk do. This is the Dick Head bug.
posted by nickyskye at 8:25 AM on June 25, 2006

This is the Dick Head bug

Heh. That's exacly what I thought when I saw that picture.
posted by jonson at 8:45 AM on June 25, 2006

Not Russian - Bulgarian.
posted by Krrrlson at 9:11 AM on June 25, 2006

One of these photos has a pentacle with the Hellsing logo behind it, which forces me to wonder of some/many/all of the these images are actually models.
posted by SPrintF at 9:11 AM on June 25, 2006

Great shots. A lot of them seem to be posing, like that caterpillar with his arms crossed. Thanks for the pics!
posted by squirrel at 9:36 AM on June 25, 2006

Hehe, jonson, maybe this should be labelled NSFW.

And his face is sort of tilted, like somebody yelled, "Hey, dickhead!" and he looked up.
posted by nickyskye at 9:49 AM on June 25, 2006

Monkey Portraits
posted by squirrel at 9:52 AM on June 25, 2006

These pictures make an awesome screen saver, thanks.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:14 AM on June 25, 2006

SPrintF, I think that the picture in question is just this original picture, that someone photoshopped. I think it's real.
posted by MythMaker at 11:49 AM on June 25, 2006

Great pics! I just had to share these with my science-loving son. Very cool.
posted by annieb at 12:59 PM on June 25, 2006

squirrel, Those really are amazing monkey portraits, they seemed unreal.

Looked up the artist and she did some disturbing portraits of children crying. Made me feel queasy that she caused the kids to cry, manipulated them, didn't like that. All pop LA slick. Bubblegum nihilism.
posted by nickyskye at 3:50 PM on June 25, 2006

Was I the only one who couldn't actually make it through scrolling the entire page? One too many mantises in a row, with all their spiny claws in sharp focus - and I had to close the window. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

And they have wings? Double brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Way to make my phobia even worse.
posted by chronic sublime at 9:40 PM on June 26, 2006