Finally, after about 5 weeks, the cacophony of the cicadas has finally subsided. We have endured many days where the air hung thick with the loud raucous mating calls of these strange looking red eyed bugs, whose life cycle seems almost pointless. Check out our earlier post to see what I mean! Now, life, and the sweet sound of summer, is finally back to normal! We can once again drive around town with the windows rolled down and hang out in the backyard with packing a tennis racket for protection. Oh, and Chris no longer squeals and runs for cover as she legs it for the car!

It seems the cicadas have had their fun, laid their eggs, and have recycled themselves back into the circle of life. Peace is restored!

Its amazing to watch them emerge from the nymph stage

What are you looking at?

However, it doesn’t work out for all of them. Image this, you spend 17 years underground in total darkness just waiting waiting for this 5 week period that your whole life depends upon. Where you crawl out of the ground, sing, fly, mate, and lay eggs to find out you stumble at the first hurdle and your wings won’t grow! Now that’s a Bummer!

And these nymph shells are still hanging around over a month later!

But when it does work out. Bow-chica-bow-wow! More cicadas in 17 years.

Until then …

After a 17-year hiatus, the cicadas are back and more are coming - by the thousands.

A few weeks ago, we started noticing these strange nickel-size holes all over our front lawn. Some friends told us it was likely the Cape cicadas, otherwise known as Brood XIV Magicicada septendecim.

Large, ugly creatures with big beady red eyes and clear inch-long wings, cicadas look somewhat like locust or grasshoppers, but are taxonomically closer to shrimp, spiders and millipedes. The Cape cicadas last came out in swarms 17 years ago, before we moved here. Covering houses, cars and buildings for a few weeks during the month of June, they mated, laid their eggs and died off, while their offspring hatched from the trees where they were laid and promptly headed back underground.

I had hoped this was all just some kind of urban myth, that Andy was actually making the holes to freak me out and there was no such thing as swarming cicadas here on the Cape. Then the noise started. About a week ago, we noticed this loud humming sort of buzzing sound that reminded us of our vacation last year in the Nicaraguan jungle. And it hit us, the cicada are really coming!

This morning, I went outside to check the mail, and resting on our front porch in the shade, while its new adult shell hardened, was an adult cicada covered in fine powdery pollen. I hate bugs, so this was a big deal for me. I grabbed my 105mm macro lens, got down close and took a few quick pictures, before scurrying off like a scared dog.

Meet the cicada:

I very cowardly slid a quarter in next to it to give you perspective on how big they are.

Keep your veils handy ladies as they could be useful in the next couple of weeks if these buggars really swarm like they say they do. I’m still holding on to hope that it won’t be as bad as some are predicting.

In Massachusetts, cicada typically don’t emerge any further north than the Cape. For some reason, Mashpee and Sandwich have been local hot spots for cicada citings….our house in particular has loads of holes strewn across the lawn. For the record, they’re reportedly harmless. They don’t bite or sting and really just live to love!

The cicada life cycle is a true wonder of nature. For 17 years the immature cicada live underground, sucking on tree roots. Then, towards the end of their life, when the ground warms up to about 64 degrees, the light brown colored nymphs emerge from the depths of darkness, shed their shells (and inhibitions) and go out in search of a mate or two…or two thousand.

Cicadas only live as adults for about three weeks, during which time they sing and shag like crazy. They lay hundreds of eggs on trees - proud markings of their zealous love-making. And when they can’t shag anymore, the adults die off, littering the ground with their spent corpses. And several weeks later, the fruits of their labor hatch from their eggs and a new generation makes its way back underground for a long hibernation.

Kind of a crazy life, but definitely something worth celebrating, since it’s unique to this area and happens only a handful of times in our lifetime.

Stay tuned for more cicada updates as I have a feeling this is just the beginning of their emergence. We’ll try and record their buzzing noise too. It really is quite loud. Andy is definitely the nature freak in our family, but I have to admit, even I think this is pretty cool! Creepy, but cool!

If you spot any cicadas in the next couple of weeks and can muster the courage to get close enough for a photo, please feel free to e-mail us your pics and we will happily put them on our blog to share.

Viva La Cicada!

Drum roll please………By a mere ONE vote, Shaleen Revotski is the winner of our Bello Plastic Bag Photo Contest. Congratulations Shaleen!

Shaleen is the photographer behind the fabulous image below (Image #4). For her efforts (both behind the lens and in rallying the troops to cast their votes) Shaleen has won a complimentary Bello portrait session here on Cape Cod. Yeaaah!!!

A great big thank you to Shaleen and all of our kickin’ photographers for taking the time to get out there and shoot plastic! Thank you too to everyone who voted! You all ROCK!

This was such a fun contest for us! I don’t think I’ll ever look at a plastic bag the same way again! Stay tuned as we hope to sponsor another contest in the not-so-distant future. So, keep your cameras handy!

Happy shooting!

While it certainly seems hip to “go green,” that wasn’t what inspired our recent post about plastic bags.To be honest, I just got really frustrated one day when I tried to grab something I needed from underneath the kitchen sink and couldn’t because I had to fish through a sea of plastic bags.

I’ve always felt too guilty just throwing them out after emptying the contents I bring home from the supermarket. So, I stuff them under the sink and we reuse them when we can. Lately, though it’s not just the bags under our sink that drives us crazy. Driving down the highway or walking through the city it’s hard not to notice those little polluters covering the ground like a rustling plastic blanket or snagging like forlorn ghosts on bare tree branches.

One day at the beach last summer, we noticed a few bags stuck in the tall beach grass, and even one in the water, floating like a drunken jellyfish. So, we took a few photos. And then we thought, hey, let’s post these on our blog, thinking to ourselves, “I wonder if these bug anyone else as much as they bug us?” And then, when it seemed we weren’t the only ones annoyed by plastic bags popping up in places they shouldn’t be, we decided to hold a “Down With Plastic Bags.”

We asked you, our faithful blog readers, to submit photos of plastic bags you saw in places where they shouldn’t be. We admit, we didn’t get quite the response we had hoped for, but a few of you did submit some images and we wanted to give you props for your efforts, so, we thought we’d post the photos we received.

Here’s where we need your help again…

We’re asking you to take a minute to vote on your favorite photo using the comments section below. The entry that receives the most unique votes will receive a complimentary Bello portrait session here on the Cape. Don’t worry, we won’t make the winner pose with plastic bags!

So, please let us know what you think. Voting will end on Saturday, May 24th and we’ll announce the winner on Memorial Day. Only one vote per computer will be counted, so no cheekiness please!

Reusable bags rock! They hold way more stuff! Check out these cool sites: Reusable Bags and One Bag At A Time.

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For the second year running an Eastern Screech Owl has taken up residence in exactly the same tree hollow as it did last year. The difference being that last year the tree hollow was occupied by a family of four; Mom owl, Dad owl, and two little ones. I was fortunate enough to see the little ones take their first flight out of the tree. A very sketchy affair that was! These owls are usually monogamous and remain together for life, so i am hoping that the owl pictured below - not sure if it’s mom or dad - is one of the pair from last year coming back to have more kids!

Look at him/her peeking his head out!

And here he/she is -taken last year. What do you think? The same owl?

It’s hard to believe we’re into mid-April already, but here we are. And with the start of spring comes Earth Day. It seems Green is very in right now, and that’s definitely not a bad thing. We’ve always been big fans of recycling and hate waste.

Not long ago, we became obsessed with the abundance of discarded plastic bags that we kept noticing everywhere…on the side of the road, stuck in trees, blowing across the street, even in the ocean. One day at the beach this summer, (the only day we actually made it the beach without a bridal party in tow) we whipped out our little point & shoot camera we carry with us everywhere…the big guns only come out for big events…and took a few shots of some bags. While we were having fun with our little self-imposed project, we started thinking it might be more fun to see what other people might come up with. So, we decided to solicit your help and ask for submissions of photos of plastic bags in some really bizarre places, or anything related to the subject (we’ve already got a couple of cool shots of reuseable bags).

The plan is to put all of the photos we receive on our blog and have you vote on your favorites, with a prize going to the winning entry. The last day for entries is Tuesday, April 22, Earth Day. To up the ante, we’ll reveal that the prize for the winning entry is a free portrait session….maybe a trash the dress session for one of our existing clients…or how about an engagement session for a prospective client who wants to try us out. Family session anyone? We do babies and maternity sessions too people!!!

The contest isn’t limited to clients, so get out there and start shooting. We know there’s plenty of material out there! Here’s a shot we took a couple of weeks ago from along the edge of a supermarket parking lot in Cohasset. This is why we hate plastic bags.

And here are a couple of entries we’ve received to inspire you!

So we did have a whole bunch of beautiful tulips in our back yard. Not anymore! Now we have a whole bunch of green stems! All the heads are missing! We have a daily visitor that particularly enjoys this flower. I am not happy about this at all, but how can you get angry when you look at this cute little cottontail trying to hide in the grass! Bless his little cotton socks!!!

This week has been gorgeous spring weather - mid 50’s and 60’s - but it seems the nights are still chillingly cold. If you don’t believe me take a look at the state of the cranberry bog near our house. Taken early this morning. Brrrrhh!

Okay, so this is kind of an off-topic post for us, but it’s been something we’ve both been thinking about for a while and I saw an article today that I just had to share. (Hang on; we’ll get to that!)

Have you ever been driving down the highway and suddenly become aware of the alarming number of discarded plastic bags you see caught in trees or just blowing across the interstate? Ever go swimming at the beach and get spooked by what you think is a giant jellyfish only to discover it’s a plastic grocery bag? How about lose your cool trying to close the cabinet door under your kitchen sink, but you can’t close it because it’s overflowing with all of those stupid plastic bags that don’t really seem to serve a very useful purpose because they inevitably end up with holes by the time you unload your groceries from them, but, you don’t have the heart to throw them away so they get stuffed in a cabinet?

Well, we’ve been there and it got Andy & me thinking about how we can do our part to cut down on the usage of plastic bags. I swear those darned baggers at the supermarket have stock in the production of plastic bags because they refuse to put more than one or two items in a bag. And, after a week’s worth of shopping you end up with dozens of the flimsy little good-for-nothing polluters.

Our first step in cutting down on our plastic consumption was to purchase some of those reusable cloth bags at the supermarket and use any leftover plastic bags we still have under our kitchen sink for household trash rather than buying new trashbags. We also decided it might be fun to make an art project out of it (no, not a plastic bag sculpture….we don’t have quite that many bags saved up). Instead, we thought it would be fun to put together a photo series showing all of the places that these menacing bags seem to find themselves.

I admit, we haven’t progressed very far with our photo project and we sometimes forget to bring the cloth bags with us to the supermarket, but, we’re trying. And so is China. Yesterday, China’s State Council announced that starting this summer all shops can no longer provide free plastic bags to their customers and production of the super thin plastic bags is strictly forbidden….I think they might be on to something. Of course, they use lead paint to make children’s toys, so they don’t earn huge points from me, but still…it’s a start. Here’s the story:China Bans Plastic Bags

As for us, we’re still working on gathering photos for our plastic bag project, but we thought it might be fun to get some help. If this is something you’ve ever thought about, or even if you haven’t but it sounds interesting to you, help us by sending us some cool photos of plastic bags you see in places where they shouldn’t be and hopefully later this year we’ll have a cool collection to show you.

Here’s a couple to get us started….we took these with our little point and shoot camera on the one day we made it to the beach this past summer. It was a really windy day and in the first shot this tattered bag was hanging on to the lifeguard chair for dear life.

The beach grass made for a great net for several bags, but we choose to photograph just this one…What really struck me was that the bag appeared to be new and unused. I imagine someone brought it to the beach to collect all of the trash they accumulated, but the wind took it away and they either didn’t notice or couldn’t be bothered to run after it.

Don’t worry, we picked up all of the plasic bags we saw and took them home with us to throw away. Let’s just hope they don’t end up blowing off the trash truck they’re carried away on!

** ADDENDUM **

Since at least a few of you (thanks Sandee, Patrick, Linda & Andrea for your comments…you guys rock! Can’t wait to see what you capture Andrea!) seem to have some interest in our plastic bags photo project, we thought we’d up the ante and make it more interesting by turning the project into a contest. Contest means prizes and who doesn’t love free stuff!

We need at least 20 submissions to pull this off, so all you photo lovers grab your cameras and get out there and start shooting plastic. Here’s what we want…send us your best photo of a plastic bag found in a place where it shouldn’t be and we’ll put all of the entries on our blog. Then, we’ll let you, our loving blog readers, vote on the one you like best. The shutterbug behind the winning photo will receive a free portrait session. The contest isn’t limited to clients, so have some fun people! And depending on the response we get, we may add additional prizes.

Well, get out there and start shooting. The contest ends on Earth Day, April 19, 2008, so you have plenty of time. Please e-mail your photo submissions to contest@bellophoto.com and don’t forget to include your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address so we can contact you if your photo is chosen! And, have fun!!! Can’t wait to see what you all come up with!

Living on Cape Cod it’s hard not to be near a cranberry bog. We are fortunate enough to have one at the end of our street. The bog near us is actually a working bog, operated by Brian Handy, who grows some 180 acres of cranberries in the towns of Falmouth and Bourne that he sells to Oceanspray. Every fall, we see the delicious berries ripen to a glowing red. Cranberry juice just happens to be one of my favorite drinks so it’s pretty cool to know that the juice I like so much may have come from right down the road. Even cooler is being able to watch how the berries are harvested before they end up as juice in our fridge.

Every October, like clockwork, we notice a more prominent redness to the bogs. A few days later, the workers are out there gathering their harvest and we think to ourselves, “We should photograph this.” But, it happens so fast and life is so busy, we inevitably miss it saying, “Next year!” Well, this year, we finally made it out there and spent a couple of hours documenting the process. The guys we spoke with at the bog said this year’s harvest was less abundant than in years past thanks to the dry weather we had in August and September.

The method of collecting the cranberries has changed quite a bit over the years. The days when workers had to hand pick the cranberries from the vine on their hands and knees are gone! Today, only a few workers using large machinery are able to harvest several hundred square feet of bogs in a fraction of the time. These changes have led to some unrest in the town and as a result this bog may not harvest cranberries next year, which made us feel ever better about finally getting out there.

We hope you enjoy the show as much as we did!  Happy Thanksgiving!