Judith Lesnaw
October 2025 - Water Bears
Original
About the Image(s)
I returned to the pond yesterday and to my delight there were more sings of life. The rain we had added much needed water. I saw more turtles, one goldfish and a swirling school of water bears that captured my attention. I loved their smooth silver shapes and patterns they created in the water. I Captured the scene with a Canon R5 and Canon RF 100-500mm lens zoomed to 500mm and equipped with a polarizer filter and hand held. Camera settings were: f/8.0; 1/500 sec; ISO 800. I imported into LightRoom Classic, cropped and converted it to B&W. In LCR I also made basic adjustments, and denoised.
8 comments posted
Glad the pond is showing signs of life again after the rain. It seems it has good content for a photographer. Lots to look at in this image with the different positions of the Water Bears. Great job on capturing the ripples as they add to the contrast and the circular motion keeps my eye engaged. Nice black & white image. Posted: 10/10/2025 16:21:14
Thanks Ally. The pond is indeed a treasure of subject for image making.
Posted: 10/10/2025 18:01:30
Posted: 10/10/2025 18:01:30
This is an interesting image and I think presenting it in monochrome was a good choice. I am wondering about the identifcation though. I thought water bears were microscopic segmented creatures with eight legs. These look like little beetles to me, but who knows? I would suggest croping some form teh topo to leave only three of the rippples and create a more panoramic composition. Posted: 10/11/2025 16:14:16
Sharon, you are right! These are "Whirligig Beetles". Many thanks. Posted: 10/11/2025 21:35:55
Thank you for the clarification on the bug ID. I had never head of a water bear and was about to look it up. Your decision to convert to b&w was a good one as I think it adds more interest to the image. I agree with Sharon on the crop. Although the ripples add to the story the main focus is the beetles and the tighter crop will bring them more to the front. Posted: 10/18/2025 22:33:29
I enjoy the ripple pattern versus the elongated round shapes. I'm with Sharon in that they probably not water bears, maybe they are water beetles. Some cropping on the right side is worth a try. It is a perfect image for B&W, this is another clever and interesting image. Posted: 10/20/2025 17:22:31
I like your choice of B&W for handling this image. It does present a different concept of the muddy colored waters and the life present on the top. I do also believe that cropping some of the rings from the top as others have mentioned would enhance the image. You could also crop a little off the right side as there is a natural break between the whirligigs and not making it a pano. Posted: 10/23/2025 17:17:08
Nice metallic look and feel to the image. I agree with the cropping suggestions and don't have anything more to add. Always out of the box attention to details I would probably miss. Posted: 10/23/2025 21:50:01