Posts in Category: macro
Bee in Beach Rose
Bee in Rugosa Rose (Beach Rose), Back Creek, Kennebunk ME
It rained off and on most of yesterday, but about 3 pm I decided to go for a photoprowl on my bike anyway. I pushed through what turned out to be a thin band of light rain and got to the marsh behind the beach in time for the sun to come out. I had some fun chasing bees in the Beach Rose along the road (among other things). The wet flowers, and the freshly washed bees, made for vivid images. I did some tele-macro, and then switched to actual macro as the bees were so busy feeding that they did not seem to mind a close approach. This one was captured at about 80mm equivalent field of view in Close Up Mode.
Nikon P900. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f3.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Pink Lady Slipper Orchid
Pink Lady Slipper Orchid, Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters Trail
Yesterday I posted a panel of May wildflowers from Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge that included a cluster of Pink Lady Slipper Orchids. It was afternoon when I found them, and by then the sun was off the little glade where they grow. I went back yesterday morning to see if I could catch them in the sun. It takes a warm morning sun to bring out the richness in the pink flesh of the bulb…or late afternoon if you can find a patch with the right light.
Nikon P900 in Close Up Mode at 80mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ f3.5 @ ISO 100. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
May Wildflower Smorgasbord
Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters Trail
I took a turn around the trail at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters yesterday afternoon, looking mainly for spring wildflowers. We have a later-than-normal spring this year in Maine, and flowers that are normally blooming the first week in May are just now coming into flower. Here we have, top left clockwise around the outside, Wood Violet, Star Flower, Geranium, Two-bead Lily, Painted Trillium, and Pink Lady Slipper. The inset is Spring Beauty, with Wood Violet in the background.
Nikon P900 in Close Up Mode. Mostly at about 100mm equivalent field of view. Auto exposures. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage. Coolage makes this kind of panel relatively easy to assemble.
The Physics of Ice?
Ice covered cobble at the beach.
I have been trying to get my head around the physics of this ice covered cobble, found on our local beach, yesterday. If you look closely you will see that the whole cobble, which was about the size of a grapefruit, is coated in a smooth shell of ice about 3/8 of an inch thick…very uniform…very tight. Though it appears clear at first glance, as though the stone had been dipped in poly-carbonate or liquid glass, looking even closer shows that the shell is made up of a lacework of tiny ice bubbles fused into the tight shell. This was not the only one. The stone had to be within a certain size range…not much bigger or smaller than this…and it had to be pretty much perfectly round and relatively smooth itself. As you see from the photo, other stones near this one were not effected the same way. I still can not imagine the mechanics of the process. It was very cold the night before…but, still, how did the receding tide produce this effect? (If you know the answer, feel free to post it in the comments.)
Sony HX400V at 45mm equivalent field of view and macro. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure (Program shifted for greater depth of field) ISO 80 @ 1/1000th @ f6.3. For scale, the snow drift at the edge of the sand is at least 5.5 feet tall. 🙂
Icy Fantasy
Ice coating moss and grass in the front yard
We woke yesterday to a layer of ice over everything. I hurried my breakfast to get out as soon as there was light enough, and before the layer melted. I might as well not have hurried. When I went out at 6PM to run an errand I still had to chip a half inch of ice off the car before I could go. 🙂 I took lots of subjects, lichen covered branches, leaves, etc…as I walked around the front yard, but I particularly liked this set of macro shots of grass and moss.
Sony HX400V at about 60mm equivalent field of view from inches away. Using Program Shift, I dialed the f-stop down for greater depth of field and counted on the image stabilization built into the lens to cover the resulting slow shutter speeds. I also took a burst of images on each subject to ensure I got at least one critically sharp.
Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Photastic Pro on my Surface Pro 3 Windows tablet.
Milkweed!
”
I know it seems odd, but I have been waiting patiently for the Milkweek pods to burst. There were great fields of them at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm. They have, as of yesterday, only preserved one small section below the house. The rest have been mowed before the pods could burst. It will be another week before they all ripe and ready for release, but I captured this early pod, just in case they get the mower down there in the next few days. I love the fine silky fibers and the way they catch the light. The seeds themselves have an interesting shape and texture, and the wind is always making new patterns. What is not to love?
Sony HX400V at 55mm equivalent field of view. Macro. ISO 80 @ 1/400th @ f7.1. I used Program Shift for greater depth of field. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Madrone Curls
”
I love the bark of Madrone. I only get to see it when visiting California, but it is always a treat. It is such an unlikely bark for any tree to have. I can’t believe it is actually very functional, but there it is.
Sony HX400V at 38mm equivalent field of view. Macro. ISO 80 @ 1/60th @ f4.5. Program shift for greater depth of field. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro tablet.
Flower Crab Spider on Blazing Star
When I checked the Blazing Star bloom after getting back form a week in Tucson, it was looking well past prime. There were still flowers in bloom, but they were smaller, and somehow drier, than the week before. I was on my way back to the scooter when this well posed Flower Crab Spider caught my eye. I might not have seen it but I was pretty much checking every remaining bloom for Clearwing Moths, since I had a fleeting glimpse of one taking nectar at a flower just before heading back. Serendipity! I am still amazed by this particular color contrast.
I love just being able to zoom in for a macro like this with the Sony HX400V. At 80mm or so you can get to less than 5cm. As it was I only got the one shot before the spider scuttled down over the shady side of the blossom. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Summer Azure
The Milkweed Meadow at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm is now dominated by Goldenrod, and will be until the Milkweed pods burst this fall. And it seems there is nothing quite like Goldenrod for attracting a wide variety of insects. This Summer Azure Butterfly was uncharacteristically cooperative, well above ground level and sitting still for long enough for some macro shots.
Sony HX400V. About 70mm equivalent field of view. Macro. Program with Program Shift. ISO 80 @ 1/250th @ f4.5. Processed in Handy Photo on my tablet. Cropped slightly for scale and composition.
Blazing Star Visitation. Happy Sunday!
I went again to the Kennebunk Plains yesterday to check the Blazing Star bloom. It is not much more advanced though we had a couple of sunny days at the end of the week. I leave for a week in Tucson on Tuesday, and hopefully it will not be past when I get back. I did manage to catch a number of Insect visitors on the blossoms that were showing…Wood Nymph and Sulphur butterflies and a Skipper, as well as innumerable Bumblebees, and this Flower Crab Spider.
The last Flower Crab Spider I found was white. My references say that the females can change from white to yellow for better camouflage depending on the flower they are using as a hunting perch. I am certain there is actually no thought involved, but clearly whatever automatic mechanism that controls the color change was totally confused by the intense Purple of the Blazing Star. 🙂
Sony HX400V. 60mm equivalent field of view. Macro. ISO 80 @ 1/400th @ f6.3. I used program shift for greater depth of field since the flower was moving in the wind and precise focus was difficult. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought: I did a little poking around on the Web in reflecting on why this spider might be so yellow and found that most insects have much more limited color vision than we do, and those that have similar vision to ours actually see higher into the ultraviolet. So, in fact, I have no idea how a bright yellow Spider on purple Blazing Star looks to any of the spider’s prey. It might be perfect camouflage. We humans tend to assume, until we are reminded otherwise, that our own vision of the world is the only one. Even among our own species that is demonstratably erroneous. It is safe to say that no two creatures see the world exactly alike. We are enriched by both what is common to our vision and, if we allow ourselves to be, by what is different. The common vision can be a good indication of truth. If we all agree on something it must be actual and true, right? Except when it isn’t. And that is where our differences come in. Our differences point to aspects of the truth which none of us see clearly. Literally point to. It is sometimes possible to sense the unseen truth they are pointing if we look at enough of them and take each one seriously as a pointer.
This is nowhere more true than in Religion. Most of what we know, or at least what we can say, about the spirit falls in the “pointing at the truth” category. And that is where we most need to value our differences. I am confident that there is only one spirit and one truth, one spiritual reality. None of us see it clearly, but taking our differences as pointers, we can perhaps more perfectly sense the truth that embraces us all.
It will never be as obvious as a yellow Spider on a purple Blazing Star, but then it does not have to be. 🙂