Something Unexpected

When a moth landed on the mossy forest floor, I got close as possible to it with a 65mm macro lens and built-in 5x variable extension. Then it did something weird. Appearing to look straight into the lens, it began flapping all its wings hard and fast. But, like a Chinook helicopter warming up on a helipad, it didn’t fly off. I wondered if it saw its own reflection in the lens, which was only an inch or two away, and experienced an involuntary, genetic reflex of some kind. To see the whole project click here.

Photo by Dan Bates / The Herald