Praying Francis a Praying Mantis with city lights in background.

After an evening out at our favorite LoDo places, we poured a couple glasses of Italian red Piedmontese wine and moved outdoors to our balcony.  David felt the lightest touch from something landing on his hand and he moved just enough for it to walk onto the railing.   It turned out to be this Mantis or Mantid.  We had never seen such a wonderful critter high up on an urban skyscraper before.

“Mantids are unique among insects in their ability to turn their heads a full 180 degrees. ”

http://insects.about.com/od/roachesandmantids/a/10-Fascinating-Facts-About-Praying-Mantids.htm

I grabbed two of my fast lenses (a 1.7 – 50mm & 2.8 – 100mm macro) and captured the distinctive silhouette against a background of circles of confusion from the lighted D&F Tower nearby.  Using all manual exposure and focus + handheld was possible since the insect hung out almost 30 minutes at 11:30 PM.

With Pope Francis trip to the USA, naming this image “Praying Francis” was immediate.  We wish them both an inspiring visit!