Shortly after waking up this morning, I walked over to my neighbor Cindy’s garden to see what was in bloom. The last time I checked, about a week ago, there were lots of flowering day lilies, but I suspected that the recent heat had caused many of them to wilt and die. I am not sure if lilies close up at night, but I did not see any lilies in bloom in the early morning light—I was there about 6:15 today.
However, there were plenty of purple coneflowers and Shasta daisies open and I did my best to capture some their beauty with the short macro lens that I was using. I was delighted to spot a tiny insect creature crawling around on one of the daisies, as you can sort of see in the second photo. The limited light available forced me to open the aperture of the lens and created such a narrow depth of field that I could not get both the insect and the flower in focus.
Most of you know that I enjoy photographing wildlife and nature in more remote locations, but it is reassuring to know that I do not always have to travel far to find subjects—beauty is everywhere.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Delightful photos, Mike.
Thanks, Jet. We are still in the midst of a brutal heat wave, so I have been sticking close to home. It was nice to get out a macro lens and do a little flower photography, while waiting to return to my usual subjects.
Gorgeous picture 👌
Hey Mike! Sorry you’re burdened with heat, must be frustrating. Hopefully it’s eased by now. Just seen a beautiful UK dragonfly and thought you might like to see it as it struck me as quite unusual. See what you think … you have to scroll way down but you can’t miss it as it’s big in the photo (and naturally a big fat thing!) … https://adcimages.substack.com/p/yorkshire-arboretum
Thanks for your wonderful comments. It’s always cool to see dragonflies from different parts of the world. Although we don’t have broad-bodied chaser dragonflies (Libellula depressa) where I live, it looks a bit like our Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia). Perhaps they are distant relations. 🙂