Wild Light

Pollen heavy, a honeybee worker flies to meet me, leaving invisible little whirlpools of air behind.

Experience ultra-cool bee noir in the underbrush.

Wings tattered and torn from harsh conditions and the demands of flight, I love the fierce and confident look of this feisty sparrow.

See the claws that catch.

My friend Kris Spencer has a cool new book out, Film And Television Scores, 1950-1979.

Kris say’s: If you’re a movie buff, love all kinds of music, and enjoy books about popular culture and art, you may find my book interesting. Each chapter is devoted to a genre (crime, sexploitation, western, sci-fi, horror and rock ‘n’ roll), with multiple sub-genres (blaxploitation, spaghetti westerns) mixed in.

A slug hurries around the edge of a Pennsylvania grass blade, perhaps speeding toward a local invertebrate political rally.

See a real vampire.

A fly finds time to preen, its throne a rust-colored fallen leaf.

An early fall micro-landscape.

See the original Imperial Walker

Mark Heath, cartoonist extraordinaire of Spot the Frog fame, has a new site, nobrowcartoons.com.

In addition to being the place to license Mark’s cartoons, it also features the panoptical steampunk gadget “Dr. Mueller’s Cartoon Engine“.

One of my favorite insect images, an Assassin bug on a leaf in a composition about as abstract as I’ve managed so far.

Taken (appropriately) near H.P. Lovecraft’s grave in Providence RI on a damp, gloomy September morning. Not unlike one of the elder gods, assassin bugs liquefy the insides of their prey with their beak, suck it out and move on.

Assisted by my friends Deb Newton and Paul Di Fillipo.

See the Night of the hunter

Aerial Acrobats is now available, in time for the holidays. Aerial Acrobats is my first collection, a 40 page hardcover book (7×7 inches with dustjacket) of some of my favorite images of birds in flight.

From the introduction by Kathe Koja:
Because they are so lovely, and seem so fragile - they *are* fragile - we tend to think of birds as delicate creatures, literally above the fray of the earthbound existence the rest of us live. But in these photographs, we can see the bird’s-eye view for what it is, and how tough and resilient these animals are, and have to be.

A preview of some of the page spreads:

A softcover edition is also available. More information and reviews here.

My friend Al Bogdan was one of the winners of the Writers of the Future Contest with his story “The Girl Who Whispered Beauty“:

“Etelka whispered upon the orchid a soft melody that blended with night sounds: a twitter of tree crickets, the singsong of the long-billed pecking-moles, the trill of spider-frogs . . . Petals uncurled to reveal themselves, like an albino butterfly unraveling wings. Pistils quivered within the trumpeting cup as it swelled and opened.”

Here’s a review of the Writers of the Future Volume XXIV anthology and Al’s story.

A 50 foot high mechanical spider, La Princesse, climbs a building in Liverpool last month, operated by the French company La Machine. See her on the BBC.

Photo courtesy Peter Wakelin.

Two sparrows conspire on their next move, almost glowing in the late afternoon sunlight.

See a bickering goldfinch couple.