Surprise Bug Macro!!!!

I may have envisioned many possible outcomes, but when the cool-looking green bug I had been photographing jumped right ONTO my camera lens, I admit I was VERY surprised!

Had I been paying closer attention to reading the bug's eyes, I might have guessed its intentions in the shot just before this one. Yeah, the one where the green bug was shrewdly sizing up the distance between the deck railing and my camera lens. THAT one.

And when the bug landed, I admit I flailed. I think I was trying to shake it off. But somehow I snapped two shots, mostly out of instinct. And sensing the bug was walking up the camera right toward my hand, I flailed some more.

But then I saw the green bug sitting on TOP of my camera, and I sat them both down: camera, bug. And I thought how cute it was - and wished for another camera to take a picture of the (*ahem, sorry, but somebody's gotta say it*) shutterbug.

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

And how did it all make me feel? This photobombing by a bug? Well, it was awesome! I was tickled pink! Far from being horrified, I was delighted. Once we got past the initial flailing phase, I couldn't believe my good fortune.

I reviewed the photos, and then I sat giggling like a fool, marveling at the bug's cool, green, segmented legs. I was seeing the bug in a new way; a way I'd never seen it before. Every single thing in the world looks different when viewed from underneath.

And I admired, in retrospect, the fluid grace of the bug, for its leap required grace, strength, and agility. Stillness. Contemplation. Then the sudden LEAP! And there it was, pirouetting across my lens! Not unlike a ballet star, I thought.

And so I shared the photo of the bug with friends, and we tried to come up with a worthy name for it. A name that would recall its ballet glory days. A name that would celebrate the bug's choice not to jump down off the deck railing and away into obscurity; but to jump right up into the lens of life, to enjoy its fifteen minutes of fame! (And here I am stroking its ego. Next it'll want a pair of tiny Ray Bans, a luxury yacht, and its own record label.)

So . . . bug names. Alexander? Bugryshnikov? Verdi? Bugsmertnova? Was the bug a Natalia or a Nikolai? Who knows the answers to these questions? (Having said all of that, I think Nikolai Bugsmertnova has a definite ring to it; don't you agree?)

And in the aftermath, we who are left with this single strange image can only guess as to the why's and wherefore's. The fact that it happened is good enough for me!

The song to accompany this image is Bruce Springsteen, with Surprise Surprise.

Focal length: zero. :-)