Posts in Category: flowers
Rose Chafer Beetle
The Rose Chafer Beetle is no friend to those who treasure roses. They travel in packs and can decimate a cultivated Rose Bush in a matter of hours. Taken on its own merits, however, it is a rather handsome creature, in that very other way that insects have. This specimen was one of several working over a Multiflora Rose in the overgrown fields at Laudholm Farm on Saturday. As you can see from the photo the Rose Chafer is interesting, among other things, for having a carpeted caprice. It’s whole upper shell is covered with fine hair.
Sony NEX 3N with ZEISS Touit 50mm f2.8 macro. ISO 200 @ 1/250th @ f14. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Cropped on the left for composition.
Wild Rose. Happy Sunday!
I took the loop down to the beach and back through the woods via the boardwalk at Laudholm Farm yesterday. The overgrown fields on the hilltop above the farm buildings are full of roses…both the common wild New England pink rose (probably Virginia Rose) and the invasive Asian Multiflora Rose with its delicate white blossoms and overpoweringly sweet smell. The wild roses were buried well down in the tall grasses, but were no less beautiful for it.
I shot this with the ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8 wide angle lens. One of the things I like about the lens is the ability to get in close and frame something like this rose in its habitat. The depth of the wide angle, combined with the amazingly crisp image quality, produces a unique rendering of the scene.
Sony NEX 5T in Superior Auto. ISO 100 @ 1/125th @ f13. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought. I had an interesting week, starting on Monday with a heart catheter test which showed that I had indeed had a heart attack, probably back in April, which left an artery blocked and significant damage to the heart muscle. That was followed by what was probably just a panic attack, some chest and upper arm pain and shortness of breath which inspired me to call 911. I was in the hospital for two days, and they did a treadmill stress test and echocardiogram to make sure that the heart is still functioning up to its ability. It is. I have a whole pharmacy of new medications to adapt to, and lots of follow-up, which I am sure will include diet and exercise, to look forward to.
And that last phrase is the key: to look forward to. It could have been different. I could easily have died, apparently almost did die, in April. And, during my episode this week, even if it only was panic, I had to seriously consider the possibility, as they loaded me into the Kennebunk Rescue Ambulance, that I might be living my last day. And it was okay. I am by no means “ready to go.” There are still a lot of roses, life birds, sunsets, and other wonders left to see, to enjoy, and to celebrate. There are people, I think, who would miss me. There might even be yet some good I am meant to do. But I live by the will, by the grace, of a loving God, who has promised in Christ to bring me to the last day, whole and upright, completed and complete. And I found, somewhat to my own surprise, that that faith is sufficient, even in the face of death. To live is Christ. To die is Christ. And I am good with that.
One of my Facebook friends commented that I was one of the people she hoped would hang around this planet longer. I thought of replying: “I don’t know. If they offered me posting to another planet, I might just have to take it. Think of all the new lifers…birds, flowers, landscapes. Think of the wonder.”
And I do think of the wonder. Many people find a renewed purpose in their lives after a heart attack. For me, I intend to go on as I have started…finding and celebrating the beauty in this world, on this planet, that is living testimony to the love of a creator God. I have a lot to look forward to, and I intend to spend every day looking for it! I am not sure what it is, but, as always, I expect to know it when I see it.
Even if it is only a wild rose among the tall grasses. Happy Sunday!
Foxglove!
The light was lovely late yesterday afternoon in the yard, and the Foxglove is still in full bloom. This is the ZEISS Touit 50mm f2.8 macro again, pulled back for more of a telephoto macro effect, which the Touit is fully capable of, with an equivalent focal length of 75mm.
Sony NEX 3N with the ZEISS Touit 50mm macro. I used Aperture preferred to stop down for extra depth of field, which I think is effective here. F14 @ 1/80th @ ISO 640. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Blue-eyed Grass
Blue-eyed Grass has to one of the perkiest flowers in the field. They are not so easy to photograph, however, because they do tend to hide well down in deep grasses, where, I suppose they hope their purple and yellow colors will better pass for blue. 🙂 And, of course, the sheer intensity of both purple and yellow, and the subtle satin texture of the petals, can be difficult to catch.
Here the ZEISS Touit 50mm f2.8 macro on the Sony NEX 3N does the trick very well with this flower from the meadows at Emmons Preserve in Kennebunkport Maine. And look at the bokeh! I don’t know if I am going to be able to part with this lens when the time comes to send it back!
Lens and camera as above. Hand-held natural-light shot. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Smileworthy!
I am not sure why, and I am not sure I can even figure out why…but this image makes me smile. It just does. It ought to have one of those clever, inspirational, aspirational slogans on the bottom and be sold as a poster. I can see it on a dorm room wall. “Take the higher view.” or “Things always look better from the top.” or “Stand on a Buttercup and the whole world similes with you.” Or something like that. If you have a better idea, let me know.
So I just looked to see if this bug happens to be in Kenn Kaufman’s excellent Field Guide to the Nature of New England, my go to reference for a quick ID, and unless I am much mistaken, this little bug is actually a Firefly! And now I am really smiling! Firefly on a Buttercup in the afternoon sun…what could be better than that!
The image is from a late afternoon Sunday dragonfly prowl at the meadows at Emmons Preserve. I found few dragonflies (though one new one for me), but this image makes the whole trip worthwhile. Again, I don’t know why, but it does!
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Mousam Old Falls Bouquet
On my dragonfly prowl the other day, out to Old Falls on the Mousam, I got out the Touit 50mm f2.8 macro for a few wildflowers. I think we have Fringed Geranium, Self-heal, Owl Clover, and Sheep-laural, all growing along one 100 yard stretch of stream-side.
Sony NEX 3N with ZEISS Touit 50mm macro. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Perspectives. Happy Sunday!
I stopped by the Kennebunk Plains yesterday on the off chance that the Wood Lilies were in bloom. They weren’t. These tiny little complex purplish flowers on tall stems were in bloom. (I think it might be Blue Toadflax.) I have tried to photograph them every year for several years now. They are incredibly hard to get in focus. I have been using super-zoom Point & Shoot cameras, where manual focus is difficult to use (at best), and these flowers are just too small for the auto focus to lock on to, even with the best P&S macro modes. I have many pictures of fuzzy purple blobs in front of sharply focused grass. 🙂
This year I am shooting these kinds of subjects with Sony NEX cameras (Alpha E mount, Compact Mirrorless System Cameras). ZEISS Camera Lens division lent me a full set of the Touit E mount lenses for The ZEISS VICTORY SF Experience Event in Europe, and I have been particularly enjoying the 12mm f2.8 (18mm equivalent) and the 50mm f2.8 Macro (75mm equivalent macro). Both are wonderful and share the ability to produce the sharp, clear, vivid images that ZEISS lenses are famous for. They have very different perspectives though.
I have used the 12mm Touit mostly, as you might expect, for landscapes, but I have also enjoyed using it inside, for casual shots of people doing stuff. However, shots like the top panel above might just be my favorite use of the extra-wide lens. With the 12mm you can move in very close, within inches, of foreground objects, and still maintain relatively sharp background focus. I find this unique perspective to be particularly effective with wildflowers. If I get down low, using the flip-up LCD on the Sony, I can frame the wildflowers in their environment. With an interesting sky for backdrop, this can produce some very interesting shots.
I have two NEX bodies, so I can carry both the 12mm and the 50mm mounted and ready to go. Switching to the 50mm macro for these same wildflowers produces very different images. Focus is still a challenge, by the way, even for the CMLSCs. I had to get down low enough to frame the flowers against the sky before the NEX could find focus…but then, once found, I was able to reframe against the grass. Again, it is a matter of perspective. Flowers against the sky produces a very different effect than those same flowers framed against the out-of-focus grasses.
These three panels, then, demonstrate the differences in perspective that are possible with the two different lenses. Each of the images is, I think, successful in its own right, while each is very different from the others.
And for the Sunday Thought. Well, yes, often in the spirit, it is also all about perspective. I find peace (which I take to be the experience of being centered in the spirit, focused, moving effortlessly with the flow of loving intention in every moment toward a future full of promise) to be particularly sensitive to changes in perspective. The fact is, from the right perspective, I am just about always at peace, since it is actually quite difficult (perhaps even impossible) for anyone who lives by faith to get far out of the flow of loving intention. When I experience anxiety or confusion, un-peace, it is generally because I am looking at my situation from the wrong point of view, the wrong perspective. It is not the situation that needs to change. It is a little like the the 50mm macro and auto-focus. To bring everything into sharp focus, I just need to find another point of view…and then, once I have achieved that first clarity, everything else becomes clear, and whatever restrictions and frustrations I was experiencing simply no longer apply. Or sometimes it is like the 12mm wide-angle lens. Sometimes I am so focused on the particular in the situation that I fail to find focus. Taking the wider view, putting the particular back into its larger landscape, is all that I need to do to find peace. The particular does not change. Only my perspective.
In the spirit, it is not, of course, different lenses that do the trick. In the spirit it is simply the eyes of faith. It is trust in the loving intention of a creator God who is the very definition of good, and whose love insures my (and your) future of promise. We just have to switch to the eyes of faith to find the right perspective…and then all is peace. Happy Sunday!
A Rose by any other name…
The Hapsburgs…The Royal family of much of Europe at one time…evidently enjoyed roses. The place grounds at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna are full of roses…flocks of huge rose bushes set in ornamental gravel, long rose trellis tunnels, islands of rose and stone in the lawns…roses, roses, everywhere. And red is the predominate color, though some of the plantings have more variety. (I am sure there is some history there that might illuminate the gardeners’ choices.)
One of the things I really like about the ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8 is the ability to shoot very close to the subject, using the great depth of field and the wide angle perspective to to capture flowers, in particular, in a unique way against their backgrounds. I have used the technique here on roses hanging from one of the trellis tunnels.
Sony NEX 5T with ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8. f4.5 @ 1/160th @ ISO 100. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Blue Flag Iris!
While hunting for dragons and damsels at Emmons Preserve on Sunday, I came across this stand of Blue Flag Iris growing among buttercups at the edge of a tiny pond. I had both the ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8 and the 50mm f2.8 macro with me on my Sony NEX 3N and 5T, so I worked my way from a close in wide shot using the amazing depth of field of the 12mm, to various close-ups and macros with the 50mm. Both lenses are brilliant, each in its own way, but they share the particular ZEISS look, which combines clarity and contrast to, as I have said before, almost add another dimension to images. These are not studio quality images, with controlled lighting and black mat backgrounds, but for field work, I find them very satisfying.
Sony NEX 5T with ZEISS Touit 12mm f2.8 and NEX 3N with ZEISS Touit 50mm macro. Superior Intelligent Program on the 5T. Aperture preferred on the 3N. f16 @ 1/250 @ ISO 200 on the macros. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Aurora Damsel (on Buttercup)
It is always exciting for me to find a new bug…especially one as beautiful as this Aurora Damsel. It is a member of the Pond Damsel family, along with Bluets, Dancers, and Forktails, but in this pose (typical) it looks more like a spreadwing because of the way it holds its wings. It’s markings are so unique though, that, once identified for the first time, it is hard to mistake it for anything else. It is simply one of those bonuses of photographing nature that it landed on the buttercup, and stayed long enough for me to capture it. 🙂
(The red dots on the back of its head are reflections of the sun, not part of its pattern.)
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 1200mm equivalent (600 optical plus 2x digital extender). Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.