Gluttony or Greed?

Yesterday a friend in whose yard I was snapping pictures (several checkerspots and one white moth) said he was amused by my pleasure in learning about bugs. I reminded him that as a PhD himself, he knows the illness: the need to know.

I don't know what it is -- the sin of gluttony or greed -- that best describes my addiction to a daily amble with camera. Already this early season, I have published 85 photos of male and female Calico Pennants to my SmugMug site. Mind you, those represent a tiny minority of shots I have taken, some of which I disposed of and others of which are stored on an external hard drive.

I'm not sure what drives me to go out every day and visit the same haunts -- whether it's the brain-clearing walk and air, the challenge of finding something new, the desire to make a better picture, or . . . . I do know, however, that regular looking has meant more knowledge, even to the point that when I see something "new," it registers as new.

That happened today. While I was watching a Dionysian scrum of Calico Pennant males chasing and knocking a coupled pair, something HUGE zoomed past. All I saw was enormous size, green face, read abdomen. Happily, he zipped by twice more (as if revving a muscle car in a movie-set street), but far too fast for me and my camera. Here's what I saw, missed, and am determined to capture digitally next: Comet Darner.

I waaaaaaant him! BADLY!

Now I ask you: is that a sin?