Back on October 29, I spent a lovely couple hours across town at Lincoln Creek Prairie. I arrived a little before sunrise and had a little time to scout before the light arrived. That meant that when the sun finally popped above the horizon, I had a couple different subjects picked out to put in front of it. After that, I wandered around trying to find insects (there were a few, including some I photographed but didn’t include here). In between insects, I challenged myself to find other interesting compositions.

I had a great time.

The sunlight quickly became intense enough that it was hard to do much with it. That bright light means extreme contrasts and less color saturation, among other issues. I wasn’t ready to head home, though, so I fell back on an old trick. I worked along the edges of the skinny prairie patch, using nearby trees as a kind of diffuser. The dappled light coming through those branches was softer and more pleasing and the scattered shadows helped provide clean backgrounds for macro photos.

Insects certainly weren’t abundant, but they weren’t absent either. Flies were the most common, but I saw several stink bugs, a milkweed bug, a little larva I couldn’t identify, and even a little skipper. I was seeing a lot of spider silk caught on plants but I didn’t find an actual spider until I was almost back at the truck and ready to go home. I got to watch it work on the beginnings of a small web. I wonder if it finished the web or caught anything. Given the scarcity of insects around, its chances of catching dinner seemed low.

There are insects and spiders active all winter, but not very many. Every time I go out this fall, I see fewer and fewer. This is a challenging time of year for photography, at least for the kinds of subjects I like best. In addition to a drop in insect numbers, the color of vegetation is fading from gold to a duller brown and there’s no been no snow yet, and precious little frost.

Even with all that, I spent more than two hours exploring a tiny sliver of prairie a couple weeks ago and am looking forward to doing it again soon. It’s supposed to be pretty cold this weekend, with temperatures getting down to about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not supposed to be windy though… Sounds like great conditions for a prairie hike! Who’s with me?