Red dragon mating

Amazing Colossal comments on my 365 blip yesterday and also my back blips. So sorry that I had one or two of you twitching a bit with my absence, I really was not expecting the internet café to close for five days. After the third day, I started getting withdrawal symptoms and started searching, but could only find gaming houses that would not allow uploads. In hindsight, I should have gone in and at least left a comment, my bad!

What a year this has been, I have had a great time. My interest in photography has been totally rejuvenated and taken to new levels after stagnating for so many years, shooting BBQ's and beery birthday bashes.

I really had no idea what I was getting involved in when my friend Iain (Euphemist) joined blip and invited me to have a look. I thought it would become tiresome after a month, trying to come up with a new blip everyday. I also thought that there would be a lot of pompous prattle about equipment and technique, how wrong could a person be!

I found a closely knit, enthusiastic group of friends with BIG hearts, sharing their humor and tragedies with like minded people. The world wide web can be a cold hearted and brutal place, but under the umbrella of blip I have found an oasis of warmth and affection and my enthusiasm grows on.

A big thank you to all my regulars who keep my enthusiasm tank topped up with marvelous comments and drive me to do better. Looking back at my earlier stuff, it is plain to see the improvements. It is also very plain to see that I still have a long way to go, looking at some of the top quality journals out there. I will continue to try and bring you the bugs of Indonesia in as original a style as I can and try to maintain your interest and maybe the occasional humanoid blip too.

I would love to rattle off a few names for special mention but I would be afraid of missing someone, but Dave, I would not have made it without the D70, thank you my friend. The gift of the membership really opened my eyes to what this community is all about and I thankyou Tinks for that. Also a special thanks to all those members who have had the tenacity to stick with me since the first week, thankyou for your indulgence perseverance endurance.

So onwards and hopefully upwards I go and try and wear out this camera. I have taken more photo's with my new camera in the last two months than I did in ten years with the OM10. So, at this rate, the life expectancy of the D7000 is about three years, so I'd better slow down!

As for today's blip, Ha! Proof of how badly I got it all wrong yesterday. I honestly thought that both the male and female were red, DUH! So, the red male in yesterday's blip was actually trying to mate with the female that was laying eggs and all the red males were fighting with each other for territory (probably). It also shows that the male female ratio is a tad out of balance.

Today I did pick up a few egg laying images, but nothing that impressive. I need to get closer to the action and try to reduce the extensive cropping. I need more shutter speed and the rapid fire mode was a waste of time as it often shoots in between the egg dabs. I would say about 1 shot in 25 is half decent. So, single shoot and concentrate of focus and timing next time out. Still learning here!

Dave