Devilish Monkery
These beetles have been having their season lately, showing up around the house at all hours, head down – hiding in plain sight. Not easy to get a shot of the face as they usually have their eyes down, flat to the surface.
There are a few individuals here. One from the outside light I leave on in the evenings, one from the front garden on some dead flowers, and another from a drinking glass from one of the rooms upstairs – I gave it a little honey on some dry leaves to pose for me – before I let it go, and it did for a little while. It had to be tricked.
It’s a beautifully streamlined shape with head tucked up, the kind we design in wind tunnels for fast and stable flight. Easy for it to pass unnoticed.
In one shot in particular I am reminded of a hooded monk with a devilish mask on – of course that’s its ‘real’ face.
But whatever it appears to be it is no less one more of nature’s amazing little wonders.
Thank you beetle, thank you nature.
*
The mask sticks, doesn’t it. The one we wear.
And then we search and search for how to get it off …
… or put on another one …… and call it the spiritual life. ((:
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Nature's Place 
“unless a seed fall to the ground…..” there can be no new life.
Unless one allows, without self-judgment, the unwanted, unsought break with the momentum (or inertia) of expectation/tradition/dogma/mind – the unknown – there can only be a repetition of the old in some form – no new life. But enough of that … unless someone will say exactly what they mean.
Excellent macro, Mark! These are truly amazing captures. the eyes! Great!
Thanks pf4a.
Quote [The mask sticks, doesn’t it. The one we wear.
And then we search and search for how to get it off …
… or put on another one …… and call it the spiritual life. ((: ] End Quote
I believe Jesus referred to it as being “born again”.
Mark,
Beautiful light in these photographs. Are you using your faithful diffuser, in addition to the 180 degree hood on the Raynox? Did you ‘stack’ the DCR-150 and DCR-250 for these shots?
Craig
Didn’t a man named Jesus say something like; You have to lose your life to find it. Trouble is we think we know what we are looking for so we are always finding what we know, another mask. When the ‘life’ we have lost is beyond knowing, but not beyond being – which is to be born again.
Thanks Craig. Still using the same gear, though maybe only the 250 and no hood on this creature, being so big at 5/8inch.
“losing your life to find it” will not work. How could it? No power there. BUT, losing your life for His sake, that’s the way.
thanks for sharing mark…
patrick
What you think you are is only what you think, another fiction, a mask of a different name. You have to lose what you think you are to uncover what you actually and really are, makes sense to me – because it’s the way it is. And no priests or religion are required, belief in another fiction – to me.
Love the eyes Mark!!
I hate the thought of the masks people wear. Why cant we just be ourselves and accepted as such? WHy do we think we need to pretend to be something/someone other than we are?
Not hate, I’m sure. Why? Because the mask or false is the norm we are born to. And taking off the mask is the noble endeavour. To return to the world of light and beauty, within.