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Bink Photography

@_binkphotography_

1.3K

followers

856

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📍🇨🇭/ 🇺🇸
👀 exploring the extraordinary
🪲 entomologist / zoologist
📸 mostly macro, sometimes .. not macro?

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I have a handful of new followers and since I want to actually commit to posting (new years resolution?) my photos - I thought I would do the cringy traditional “this is me!” post and then pay IG to get you to follow me, hopefully.

This is me!

I have loved insects and arachnids and all forms of life since the 1900’s. By trade, I am a zoologist with a degree in Animal Behavior, Ecology and Conservation with a minor in Anthrozoology - and I also hold an associates degree in Entomology through the USA!

I started taking photos of insects and arachnids around 2010, but like all hobbies I am not instantly good at - I gave up. A year or so after, I came back to it, and started a blog called “Rachel the Bug Whisperer” which lasted maybe 6 months 😂

Over the course of the next several years, I started to get more “serious” about my photography and have really tried learning more about my camera and various equipment alongside with editing. I still have so much more to learn, but seeing a little progress helps me move forward!

My two homes are Buffalo, New York and Wengen, Switzerland - you will find me traveling between them several times throughout the year - I need macro friends, let’s meet up!

My ultimate goal is to make people less afraid of bugs - Why?

Big picture: we need them to survive!
Small picture: I get really sad when someone kills a spider or insect (or any animal) in front of me and I would like less of that in my life

if you made it this far please share or possibly force one or two friends to follow me - it will make me feel special but also so I have more than 215 followers 😬

thankyoubyeee

#followme #photographer #bugs #insects #biology #science #ecology #macrophoto #nature #switzerland #nys #wengen #lauterbrunnen #bern #canon #ineedfollowers #macrophotographer #spiders #arachnids #outside by @_binkphotography_

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10 months ago

I decided to hoist this ground beetle up to the heavens (approximately 13 inches from earth) for an underneath photo since it wouldn’t stay still for me 🙌

Not only was this at the beginning of my 17th attempt at sticking with photography and had zero idea what I was doing, I had to balance my camera in one hand while holding the beetle in the other while trying to stay still in a weird squatting position 😂

Beetle carapaces can have a natural tendency to be “slippery” so it would also sloooowwwwwllllyyyy loosen from my fingers as well.

In the end, I was able to get this photo, and even though I have learned so much more about photography and editing since I took it, it remains one of my favorite photos I have taken - neon colored, grainy, and out of focus areas just add personality 😉

Beetle was returned safely to the ground after its unprompted visit to the sky 😀

ID: Ground Beetle (Carabidae sps)

#beetle #groundbeetle #macro #bug #insect #outside #nature #art #entomology #insectphoto #macrophoto #bugsofinstagram #natgeoyourshot #canon #wildlife #portrait #bugsarecool #biodiversity #insekten #käfer #foto by @_binkphotography_

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10 months ago

‼️ My first stacked photo (58 photos!!)

For years I have wanted to get into photo stacking but I always became frustrated and never really looked into why I couldn’t do it and honestly thought as a photographer I wasn’t good enough anyway

BUT I finally found a macro photographer close to me who said he could give me an in person lesson! A month ago I met up with @xanadu.macro and turns out I just needed someone to guide me through my equipment and see everything in action! 🤩 He is a great photographer, mentor, and now friend!

I still have a long way to go with my editing, being conscious of background coloring, getting *both* antennae in the photo, and many other things but I am so happy with this first stack! 🥳

I have come so far 🥹

ID: Soybean Looper Moth (Chrysodeixis includens)

#moth #macrophoto #insectsofinstagram #bugs #bugsarecool #canon #macro #ecology #biology #wildlife #nature by @_binkphotography_

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a year ago

I found a tired paper wasp inside my house yesterday so I carried him out to some white asters in the garden.

Once settled I noticed there were a few others slowly making their way around the blooms. So after a few weeks of zero motivation to pick up my camera, this little face changed my mind.

Thanks friend 🥰

ID: Northern Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus)

#wasps #insectphotography #pollinator #bugphoto #nature by @_binkphotography_

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4 hours ago

Do you love the National Parks in the US? If so please read!

This photo is the first photo I took and where I actually thought to myself “wow, this photo doesn’t suck!” and to this day it remains one of my favorites

The backstory: I was driving with some friends and saw a few coyotes off in the distance. Woo! Naturally, I forced my friends to pull over so I can take a few (2837) photos. For those 20 minutes it was just the coyote and myself in all existence and nothing else mattered. I have always felt this when I am out exploring, camera in hand or not, just, connected to nature. I know I am not the only one who feels this way.

Nature owes us nothing, but gives us everything. 🌳

Why I am posting a coyote and not an insect or arachnid?! It’s because this photo was taken in Yosemite National Park in California.

Some of our national parks that, as a nation we have come to love and cherish, have been severely shrunken to make way for logging, development, and other things. Now Yosemite has been threatened. More will likely follow.

As a nation we should ALWAYS support to conserve our national parks. For the plants and animals that call it home, for us, and our future generations.

If you are in the US, please call your local representatives and tell them we need so save our parks, because that’s what they are - ours.

#saveourplanet #yosemitenationalpark #wildlife #photography #coyote a portrait of a brown, tan and white coyote stares to the side off into the distance by @_binkphotography_

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2 months ago

I have a few nightshade plants around my yard and every year I can guarantee two beetles and their larvae occupy it: the false potato beetle adult and their larvae (pictured) and the green tortoise beetle and their larvae. While editing this photo I couldn’t help but see not only a tiny alien thing but how their body looks so much like a galaxy ✨

Don’t tell the potatoes that the tortoises are my favorite between the two though 😉

ID: False Potato Beetle Larva (Leptinotarsa juncta)

PS: I’ve been wanting to post more but in recent months it’s just really hard to focus when the world is on fire both physically and metaphorically 🥹 by @_binkphotography_

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3 months ago

I am still a beginner when it comes to stacking photos, and I honestly don’t know how you guys choose what hairs to bring forward and how to get rid of blurred hairs and oh my god the fuzzy in between spaces does it take everyone 2854 hours to edit? 😵‍💫

ID: possibly Forage Looper Moth (Caenurgina erechtea) - corrections welcomed

#moth #macrophoto #insectphotography #wildlife #insectportrait by @_binkphotography_

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6 months ago

I always love finding inchworms that mimic as tiny twigs! This is one of them, even though this photo doesn’t portray that 😬 It’s so crazy how many rolls and bumps that have, along with a bald head and like 7 hairs. Sounds like some people I’ve seen in my travels.

ID: Porcelain Grey (Protoboarmia porcelaria) - I think*

#caterpillars #insectphotography #macrophoto #wildlife #bugs by @_binkphotography_

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6 months ago

‼️GUYS I AM SO EXCITED TO HAVE GOTTEN THIS PHOTO BECAUSE EVERY TIME I SEE BEE FLIES THEY NEVER LAND OR STAY STILL AND THE ONLY OTHER ONE I HAVE TAKEN A PHOTO OF WAS ON DEATH’S DOOR AND COULDN’T MOVE SO IT FELT LIKE PHOTO CHEATING 😅

This Bee fly was 100% alive but was very slow due to the cooler temperatures in the evening! Their giant proboscis (narwal looking horn) doesn’t retract, and they are completely harmless unless you are a host insect they choose to lay their eggs into AREN’T THEY CUTE 🥹

ID: Bee Fly (Bombylius major)

#macro #insectphotography #bugsofinstagram #beefly #wildlifephotographer by @_binkphotography_

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6 months ago

it’s almost spittle bug season! there is nothing like frolicking through fields and accidentally destroying hundreds of spittle houses - I always try putting it back for them though 🥹 Those houses serve as protection, temperature, and humid control for them!

After a bunch of molts, these pixar looking larva will become froghopper adults!

ID: Spittle Bug/ Froghopper larvae (Cercopidae sps)

#insectphotography #macrophoto #wildlife #nature #spittlebug by @_binkphotography_

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7 months ago

remember guys, these are NOT spiders - but they are arachnids! they won’t bite you and they aren’t venomous, they help with pest control and are actually really pretty when you stop to look at them! please don’t kill them…. looking at you Samantha 👀

who is Samantha you might ask? when I was around 10, a girl I knew stepped on a harvestman right in front of me for literally no reason besides the fact she’s a moron and didn’t really like her in the first place but that stupid move solidified my thoughts and I’ve disliked her ever since and to be honest she isn’t a great adult either so my judgement was correct 🙌

may your shoelaces always come undone and may you always find water with your dry socks, Samantha 🥰

(P.S. one day I’ll be able to get all appendages in the photo 😅)

ID: Harvestman, Daddy Long Legs (Opiliones sps.)

#arachnid #portrait #bugs #nature #wildlife by @_binkphotography_

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7 months ago

I dug through my dogs 💩 for this photo

Lots of people don’t realize that there are more dung beetles than the ones you see on TV rolling balls of poop around!

In North America, we have a bunch of different species including the one pictured, and only certain species actually roll their dung around. Others will nest right under big piles of dung and other species live IN it! 🥴

nicknamed Rollers, Tunnelers, or Dwellers

As gross as you think they may be they are soooo beneficial as they help with soil health and pest reduction!

ID: Scooped Scarab Beetle (Onthophagus hecate)

#ecology #insectphotography #beetles #wildlife #nature by @_binkphotography_

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8 months ago