Gallopingphotog

Wow. A completely marvelous set of photos. I've always believed that luck consists of knowing exactly what to do (and skilled enough to do it) when the right moment presents itself, and you sure were lucky on this! The Nat Geo selection is well-deserved. Look forward to seeing more of your work. Are you on Flickr?

Yea! I believe you got it, it's a lacewing. Yes, it was very small, and didn't hang around long, or pose itself very conveniently so I had to be a bit of a contortionist and challenge the ol' joints.
Thanks all!

Cool photos. I had a big possum show up in my barn's feed room several times, trying to get into the horse chow bins. Not wishing either to feed him or shoot him, I finally put on a heavy glove, made him play dead and then grabbed his tail. The tail isn't prehensile so he couldn't pull himself up to bite, so as long as I carried him at arm's length it was OK. Except he got really heavy by the time I got to the other end of the pasture and dumped him! By the 4th time, he didn't even seem upset to be carried like that, and after a couple more times, I didn't see him anymore.

Thanks for the comment on my cicada. Your salamander is really neat. I accidentally uncovered a tiger salamander just before a winter storm so I felt responsible for bringing him in from the cold! Did not know that he would fast become totally accustomed to hand-feeding and that I would have to find/buy bugs and worms for 8 years!

Latemeria: That is a beautiful creature.
I've seen lots of cicadas but not one with a "face" on it like the one I photographed. I let it crawl up on my finger so I could move it off the ground before it got squashed by my horses! And I realized it photographed much better on my finger than on the tree, where it was very well camouflaged.

I happened to be carrying my camera when I felt a tickle on my left elbow. It was a little tricky to get the shot because I couldn't turn my left arm around enough and get the camera far enough away to actually see what I was doing so I just had to hold the camera up, point in the general direction and shoot. As suddenly as it was there, it was gone!

On second consideration, possibly a cicada?

Some kind of locust? I let it crawl onto my finger and then let it crawl off up on the trunk of a pine tree out of reach of my dog. Its wings seemed to be still unfurling, as if it had recently hatched.