St. Aloysius Chapel HDR 1

For this HDR image of St. Aloysius Chapel I used 3 shots taken at 2 stop bracketing and used Photoshop to do the HDR.

St. Aloysius Chapel, or the chapel of St. Aloysius College, is a Christian chapel in Mangalore in the state of Karnataka in southwest India. The St Aloysius Chapel in Mangalore was built by the Italian Jesuit Antonio Moscheni in 1884, during the Mangalore Mission in 1878. The Italian Jesuits played an important role in education, health, and social welfare of the Mangalorean Catholic community and built the St. Aloysius College in 1880, St Aloysius Chapel in 1884, and many other institutions and churches. St. Aloysius College Chapel is an architectural marvel that could stand comparison with the chapels of Rome. What makes this chapel unique compared to the other chapels in the country is the beautiful paintings that virtually cover every inch of the walls. Bro. Moscheni from Italy is the creator of such a master piece. One portion of the chapel paintings depicts the life of Aloysius Gonzaga to whom Aloysius College and chapel are dedicated. Saint Aloysius gave his life in the service of others.

Edit: I have updated the image which was bit too bright, with an which is now corrected.

Hang Me Not!

Culex Mosquito hanging from Touch Me Not (Mimosa pudica) leaf. This was shot on my Canon EOS 40D using Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro and 12mm Kenko extension tube hand-held with Canon MT-24EX macro twin light flash.

Black and Yellow Mud Dauber

Black and Yellow Mud Dauber (Sceliphron caementarium) like all sphecids are more closely related to bees than to the vespid wasps. They are solitary insects that build nests out of mud in sheltered locations, frequently on man-made structures. These nests are not aggressively defended, and stings are rare. Mud daubers make use of spiders to provision their cells. The black and yellow mud dauber’s nest is comprised of a series of cylindrical cells that are plastered over to form a smooth nest that may attain nearly the size of a human fist. After building a cell, the female wasp captures several spiders. The captured prey are stung and paralyzed before being placed in the nest, and then a single egg is deposited on the prey within each cell. The wasp then seals the cell with mud. After finishing a series of cells, she leaves and does not return. Eventually, the hatching larva will eat the prey and emerge from the nest. A common species of cuckoo wasp, Chrysis angolensis, is frequently a cleptoparasite in Sceliphron nests, and is only one of many different insects that parasitize these mud daubers.