Beauty is on the eye of the beholder: 7. They were here before us... and they will be here long after we've gone...

Hello again, this post is for the bugs lovers. I always felt curiosity about bugs and always wanted to picture them. Spring and summer are the best seasons to catch them, they are everywhere! Even in my balcony on the 19th floor! And here in Chicago, nice time for walking (mainly spring though because summer can be very hot).

I love the sun and the outdoors and one of my favorites spots in the city is the Lincoln Park Zoo, it's a very beautiful place. It has an artificial lake just before the entrance surrounded by nature.

Around the lake you have a fence and the flies like to go there to warm up their wings and to say hello to the new day.

Nothing better than a sunbathe on early morning

Peek-a-boo

Golden fly

Some of the flies need a zip of water to wake up.

And then... ready to go!

Flying over the lake there's a lot of dragonflies and damselflies. How can you tell the difference between them? Well, you can tell the difference when they rest because the dragonflies hold their wings away and perpendicular to the body while the damselflies hold their wings together above the torso. This are some of the fastest insects in the world.

I can't tell you how hard was to take this photo! I was standing with my camera for about 3 hours until I could take a good photo! hehe but I enjoyed it! Which is the best part of all of this.

Inside the Zoo and besides of the animals, you also have a lot of nature like trees, flowers and insects. I was sitting on a bench just enjoying the view when I saw this beautiful green fly on a gorgeous leaf. The fly is a Green Long Legged and its fluorescent green body looked amazing under the sunlight. I wish I could have a close up to this fly but I didn't have my macro lens at that time, only a 50mm f/1.8 lens.

The following bugs were on the screen of my balcony's window, don't know how they got there but I really like to have them.

Striped cucumber beetle

Chrysopa chi

This colorful bug with cylinder body is a moth known as Ailanthus webworm.

I tried to find the name of this bug, but it was impossible! I thought it was a termite but it wasn't, so if any of you know what kind of bug this is I'd appreciate if you can let me know

I was in the living room and I heard a weir noise on the balcony and saw something landed there. I looked and I found a cicada on the edge of the balcony. I couldn't help it, I had to take some shots! It's not very common to find a cicada on the 19th floor! I run and grabbed my camera and slowly, very slowly went outside and tried to take a good shot (unfortunately I didn't have my macro lens on my camera that day and I didn't want to spend time changing the lens because you never know how long the bug is going to stay). I was a little afraid also hehe I know that it doesn't bite or anything but I just can't help it! I was afraid that it was going to land on me hehehe Luckily for me I could take this two photos before it flew away.

So close and yet so far

Or maybe not?

The following photos are from a macro workshop that I took (the primary subjects were bugs). It was very interesting and educational workshop because it wasn't only about how to take the photos, but also to know about the insects and its particularities. If you know your subject you have more chances to find it in nature and because of that to have more opportunities to take a great photo of it.

The person in charge was an entomologist (meaning is the person who studies insects). This guy was amazing! He knew so much about every kind of insect! And you could see his passion about bugs and photography as well. I was so tempting to take entomology classes to learn more about insects!

My first model was this tiny mantis (I said tiny because it was a baby, around 2 cm long) and she was happy to posse for the photos.