I went to a wedding at an old Church in Upper Marlboro, MD.  I got there early enough to explore the church cemetery.  I had my W1 in my pocket and after taking a series of pictures, the last spot I checked out had some white horizontal stone tombs surrounded by a green hedgerow foliage.  I  spotted a large Praying Mantis on the top of the tombstone.  Having left my higher resolution DSLR in the trunk of my car, I took a series of pictures both in 3D and 2D cha cha of the insect. 

Sometimes he swayed back and forth as though the breeze might dislodge his grip to the surface of the stone.  After I decided I had enough captures with the W1, I walked quickly to the car to retrieve the DSLR from the trunk.  I hurried back to the grave plot but the mantis had disappeared. I checked the shrubbery and ground around the tomb but did not see the critter.

The W1 captures seemed to fair pretty well this time around and I'm pleased with the result.  Ironically, I had taken pictures of a praying mantis that had climbed onto my outdoor thermometer at home just a few days earlier.  I also found a bunch of small ones along the elevated wooden trail walk at Robert E Lee park in north Baltimore in June.  I've gone years without seeing them before and then all of a sudden they seem to be everywhere.

The mantises or Mantodea are an order of insects that contains over 2,400 species and about 430 genera in 15 families, by far the largest family being Mantidae ("mantids").

10 Fascinating Facts About Praying Mantids

http://insects.about.com/od/roachesandmantids/a/10-Fascinating-Facts-About-Praying-Mantids.htm


Cha  cha (using the 2D mode of the Fujifilm W1), PS-CS6, SPM, IrfanView.

Cheers,

Brian

My Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ur4chun8/

My photos according to "Interestingness"... http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/Brian,Wallace,3d

My FAA Web page: http://brian-wallace.artistwebsites.com/ or http://pixels.com/profiles/brian-wallace.html
My ArtPal Web page: http://www.artpal.com/Starg82343