Tobacco Hornworm

A tobacco hornworm ravaging one of my pepper plants. A comparison of my two pepper plants, one that had hornworms and one that did not, shows that the plant damaged by the hornworms yielded a mere 5 peppers, while the plant without hornworms yielded 14 peppers. Clearly, this illustrates the importance of catching these leaf munchers early on in the season. August 2016.

Apple Iphone5

Bee on Flower

Denver Botanic Garden, July 2013.

Nikon D300 | Tamron SP AF 180mm f/3.5 Di Macro Lens

Lily

Lily. Denver Botanical Gardens, 2013.

Nikon D300|Tamron SP AF 180mm f/3.5 Di Macro Lens

The Heart of Nature

I was pleasantly surprised to find this heart shaped flower in a random travel file. I don't remember seeing the heart shape at the time I took the photo because had I realized it at the time there would certainly  be many more photos in the file than just this one. I'm guessing Mother Nature gave me this surprise with a little gust of wind just as I snapped this photo. It still amazes me to see this photo and as simple and silly as it is, it just makes me smile. I think I'm fortunate to be able to extract so much joy from such a small gift from nature, but I hope you enjoy it too!

Nikon D300|Tamron SP AF 180mm f/3.5 Di Macro Lens

Bee on Coneflower

A Bee on a cone flower - shot at 50mm.

Nikon D300|Nikon AF-S18-55 f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

Rose of Sharon - Bumble Bee

Bumble Bee on Rose of Sharon. Back yard, July 2010.

Nikon D300|Nikon AF-S18-55 f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

Lycoris squamigera - surprise lily

A beautiful surprise lily welcomes me at my front gate August 2013.

Commonly called surprise lily, resurrection lily and magic lily for their sudden appearance in mid summer.

Nikon D300|Tamron SP AF 180mm f/3.5 Di Macro Lens

Lily - Missouri Botanical Garden

I lily, lily love this flower. Missouri Botanic Garden, St. Louis, 2010.

Nikon D300|Nikon AF-S18-55 f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

Spanish Lavender

Spanish Lavender at Chicago Botanic Garden, May 2013.

This story has nothing to do with Lavender or Chicago but I know some of you can relate and will enjoy. I Went to the grocery store yesterday with a friend and as we exited the grocery my friend realized she had forgotten eggs and ran back into the store leaving me with a full cart of groceries and her car keys. So, I amble out into the parking lot with wobbly wheeled cart in tow, walk right up to my friends car, push the unlock button and nothing! Push unlock button again, nothing! So, I step back, look at the car - Yep! Got the right car! Push button again, jiggle car handle several times....nothing! Push the button again, wiggle, wiggle, jiggle ...... Nothing! Wiggle, wiggle, jiggle! ...... Nothing! As I was standing there totally befuddled, scratching my head, watching my ice-cream melt in the sweltering heat and pondering why the key wasn't working I look up and notice...... the exact same color car, same make, same model, with same tinted windows just on the other side of the car I've been wiggle, wiggle, jiggling for the last three and a half minutes.......the only difference between the two?  Any guess? Yep - you guessed it! The other car was unlocked!!

Canon EOS 50D| Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM Macro.

Raspberry Leaf

Raspberry leaf June 2013.

  Nikon D300|Tamron SP AF 180mm f/3.5 Di Macro Lens

Pink Tulips

One of my favorites from a recent trip to Chicago.

Canon EOS 50D| Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM Macro.

Just Bee-cause

Bees have a long proboscis (complex tongue) they use to extract nectar and pollen from flowers, like the bee in this photo is doing.

Tulips! Tulips! Tulips!

Pink Orchid

It is so hard to resist orchids!

Pink Flowers - Denver Botanical Garden

I often keep a short list of photo posts saved in the draft file for future publication to the blog. This was one of several in that file. I was told that today was the perfect day to post flowers, considering the ground is entirely white with snow again. I have no idea what kind of flowers these are, but here you go! This was shot at the Denver Botanical Gardens, Denver Colorado (2008).

Orchid +2

Nikon D300 | Nikon AF-S VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 IF-ED | Hoya 67mm +2 magnification Lens

Garfield Park Conservatory and Sunken Gardens.

Hoya +2 magnification lens, photo of an orchid.

Garfield Park Conservatory and Sunken Garden.

Nikon D300 | Nikon AF-S VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 IF-ED | Hoya 67mm +2 magnification Lens  

Garfield Park Conservatory and Sunken Garden.

I wanted to try out a new close-up lens set yesterday, so I took the camera to Garfield Park Conservatory and gave the Hoya 67mm +2 lens a trial run. The Hoya close-up lens set comes with 3 lenses (+1,+2,+4) that thread into the end of your lens and can be stacked to increase magnification. A nice, affordable alternative to a macro lens, at less than 10% the cost.  It is definitely going to take some time to master using a magnification lens, as most of my images were blurry. A tripod would have been useful, but not permitted in the conservatory!  However, I was pretty pleased with this photo and I know someone had wanted to see a photo shot with a magnification lens, so here you go. I love the depth of field achieved with the +2 lens at f/4.5. This is the full image, it is not cropped. Image was resized and resolution reduced for web publication. I have no idea what this plant is. If anyone knows, please post in comments or text message me:) Thanks!

Something in Pink

I think this is Hibiscus. Nashville, Indiana. 

Nikon D300 | Nikon AF-S VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 IF-ED