The Cormorant, the Dragonfly, and the Bee: buds

Showing posts with label buds. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Macro Mardi

Macro Tuesday is not so alliterative, so I thought I'd throw in a little French to keep the theme going from yesterday's blog post. The Spanish "Martes" would have worked nicely as well. Thanks to Deb for the idea. Yes, though not a common event, we discussed the title of this blog post during breakfast this morning.

Bottom line is I have many more macro photos of spring buds and blossoms to share.

How about a lime green background! This is the way the "bokeh-ized" grass in the background came out of the camera. I understand lime green is this year's favorite designer color!

Purple Leaf Sand Cherry

Sand Cherry Blossoms

It has been fascinating to watch the progression of the Redbud buds: from red, to red and magenta, to red and magenta with white blossoms. Also, they are sparse no more.

Redbud Minnie Mouse Ears

Since deer love to eat tulips, Deb cut a few from outside and brought them in. This way we can enjoy them before they're suddenly gone. Turns out they grow and last just about as long inside as outside!
This next shot is indoors with regular room lighting at ISO 1600.

Tulip Colors

Back outside again...

Tulip Sex

Normally, I prefer a nice blue sky, but this day was completely cloud covered. These are cherry blossoms from a different cherry tree than the one appearing in my recent "Cherry Blossoms" post. I used an exposure compensation of plus 3 f-stops! This forces the sky to be solid white and brings in the shadow detail of the cherry blossoms.

Cherry Blossoms Against a Cloudy Sky

White on White

Crab Apple Blossom

Open Crab Apple Blossom

For these next two shots, I had the camera essentially on the ground in the grass.

Splendor in the Grass

Violet Attention

The Tickler

Upper Hand

Blossom Radar Dish

Monday, May 1, 2017

Macro Monday

The buds and blossoms of spring merit a closer look. Actually, a really close look.
Today's post contains some recent favorite shots taken with my 60mm macro lens, some at 1:1 magnification. All photos are taken with natural light and with no props to modify the light; all photos are handheld except for one taken with a tripod.

Our redbud tree is remarkably enjoyable to observe this time of year. Here's a sample taken after a recent rain.

Redbud Water Drops

Azalea Performance

Soaking Up Some Sun

Skywards

Paperbark Curl

While walking around the Ashland Reservoir, I met a woman walking in the opposite direction who told me to look for this turtle she saw a few minutes earlier on her walk. No way I would have noticed this small creature, an inch in length, had I not received a warning. She told me about it because she saw I was taking pictures. The turtle's color was extremely dark, so it made for an extra photographic challenge to take some of his highlights out of the shadows. Needless to say, the end of my macro lens was larger than the turtle and less than an inch away to take this photo.

Tiny Turtle

Fuzzy

On Fire

Do you see the three visiting bugs?

Botanical Creature

Botanical Creature Pose 2

Grape Hyacinth Forest

Grape and Blade

Daffodil Beacon

Back of the House Many Times

Drenched

Here's the same photo, cropped in closer:

Sunlight Below

Wet Redbud

Streamers

Upside Down Trees

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Cherry Blossoms

This post is a set of photos I took of one of our two cherry trees. These are all taken with the 75-300mm Oly telephoto lens, most at 300mm (600mm equivalent). I enjoyed that I was able to vary the background color by simply pointing to a different section of the tree. All achieved nice isolation of the blossoms simply because they are shot with a telephoto lens at max magnification.

Personally, I feel this lens is way underrated by the "photographic community." I love the fact that I can carry around a lens with this incredible reach, and yet it only weighs 14.9 ounces and is a rather short 116.5mm in length. It won't work quite so well in dim light, do its modest aperture ability, but that's a worthwhile tradeoff, as I prefer good light to make for more pleasing shots in any case. These are taken in the morning light.

Can you spot the bee in this first one?

Making a Bee Line for It

Greenback

Tree Top

Bouquet

Set Against Deep Green

Bright Blue Sky Backing

This is a cropped version of the next photo to follow it. I show both because I feel they both have a story to tell.

Mid Tree Blossoms

Mid Tree Blossoms 2

Framed Cherry Blossoms

Sweeping Vistas

Elegance

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Early Spring at the Res, plus Backyard Life

My walk around the res today was my third res walk this week. Spring has arrived! It is still early, but the signs of Spring are all around; the buds are opening on all the deciduous trees and shrubs. A very busy time of year for living things.

All of the photos in this post are taken, hand-held, with my Olympus 75-300mm lens. In addition, many of these have been cropped in post processing. I was quite far away from many of the subjects. Much of these details were not revealed to me until I viewed the photos on my computer screen.

Tips

Tips 2

Reflections

The Cormorant is Often on the Rock

Green Needles

Res Blue

Homage to Monet

The large field next to the Res was hosting several sporting events including a Cricket match.

Cricket Grounder

Caught just before the release:

Putting a Spin On It

After returning home, I took a few pictures in our back yard. Who doesn't love a Red Bud tree?

Red Bud

Just after photographing the Red Bud's buds (sorry, couldn't help saying that :), this next little guy decided to fly by and set for two seconds on a far away branch. He's a very small bird. But there is something very cute about the look of a Tufted Titmouse; do you agree?

Tufted Titmouse Among New Buds