Software engineer by day, amateur nature observer and studious bug-identifier by night.

I hope I'm doing a good job. I can certainly be incorrect about my ID's, relying a lot on the auto-suggestions to get me in the ballpark if it's something completely new to me, then doing a deep dive into other observations, range maps, technical desciptions, and dichotomous keys if I think I can get more specific and understand the terminology well enough. I'm trying and learning, and that's thrilling to me.

I like to spend a lot of time outside; it's fascinating how many different creatures there are, many hiding just out of sight, on the undersides of leaves, or under logs.

I'm happy to live out in a rural area, where plenty of critters cross my path.

Most of what I tag here ends up being moths and whatever else shows up at my porch lights, but I'm on the lookout wherever I go.

I just want to keep seeing new things and find out what they are, learn a little along the way. Not professionally or academically trained in biology, but I've always had an interest.

My camera is just my phone, but for the really close-up/zoomed-in images I have a macro attachment I made from the magnifier of a junk thrift store film camera, part of a pop bottle and some rubber bands to hold it to the phone case. Works well, easy to put on and take off, and lets me keep my phone case on. I just camping headlamps for extra illumination. The rest is patience.