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Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category

Blue Dasher on a Lotus Pod

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, wildlife, tagged , , on August 18, 2012| 1 Comment »

My friend and photography mentor Cindy Dyer and I went out yesterday to photograph dragonflies at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA, a local garden that is my favorite place to go when the urge to shoot some photos overwhelms me. We were often taking photos side by side. I was really beneficial for me to watch how Cindy, an experienced professional, approached the  photographic task, what things drew her attention, and the way in which she composed her shots. At one point I even got to put my memory card into her camera, a Nikon D300 with a Tamron 180mm macro lens, and shoot for a while. It was definitely a big change from my Canon Rebel XT with a 55-250mm telephoto with which I was shooting at the time. Her set-up was a lot heavier but had a much brighter, bigger viewfinder, and faster focusing.

We were both excited when one Blue Dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis), the most common dragonfly that we saw all day, decided to use a lotus seed pod as his home base. He would periodically fly away, but always seemed to come back to the seed pod. She and I were both able to get shots of this dragonfly against the backdrop of a lotus leaf. The light colored circular object you can see is the center of that leaf. I love the crimped edges of this particular pod—it reminds me of a home-made pie crust.

This photo came out so good that I though it probably had been shot with her camera. However, when I checked out the RAW file information I realized it was from my camera. For those who might wonder about the exposure, it was shot at f11, 1/125 sec, ISO 800, at 163mm of the 55-250mm zoom lens. If you are interested in checking out Cindy’s comparable shot (her’s is even sharper) as well as some other wonderful shots she’s taken of dragonflies the last couple of days, check out her blog postings.

Blue Dasher dragonfly on a lotus seed pod

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Frog hiding in duckweed

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 18, 2012| 9 Comments »

Yesterday I was at a nearby pond photographing mostly dragonflies. After shooting them I decided to make a quick walk around the pond (it’s only a small man-made pond) to see what other subjects I could find. I managed to find a colorful butterfly, a small green heron, and some lotus flowers that I will post later, assuming the photos came out ok.

The subject that really caught my attention, though, was a frog. Really? Yes, really.

I was leaning over the green-colored pond water, gazing at a distant dragonfly when I happened to glance down to my right. There, almost camouflaged in what my friends say is duckweed, was a semi-submerged frog. I was able to get my camera’s lens down pretty low and got in close and captured an image I really like. The frog’s gold-ringed eyes shine out clearly amidst all of the individual particles of duckweed that cover much of his expressionless face.

There are a couple of blades of grass that were partially blocking my view to the frog but they blurred out and are not really much of a problem.  After I took some shots, though, I decided to try to carefully remove one of those offending blades. As I made the effort,  the frog, who had remained motionless up to then, literally leaped into action. He sprung powerfully into the air and skipped across the surface of the water, like a rock throw by a dad showing his son how to skip rocks.

I was so startled by his sudden motion that I almost fell over into the water. Later in the day I did end up getting wet when I belatedly noticed that one foot was planted in the water while I was intently focusing on composing a shot. I guess that’s the price of being a photographer.

Hiding frog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Green Heron Sentinel

Posted in Birds, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 17, 2012| 1 Comment »

After I got home from work today I rushed to a nearby garden to get in a few shots before the light disappeared totally. I was happy to spot a green heron (I’ve photographed them before at the pond area of this garden) and managed to take a photo of him that I really like. The green heron is standing the edge of a rocky cliff and appears to be keeping watch.  (In reality it’s more like a rock wall).

Green Heron Sentinel

I decided to add one other photo of the green heron that I managed to take before he flew across the little pond to the rock wall. It is a little more of an unposed shot than the first one, which almost looks staged, and captures him in his more natural environment.

Candid shot of a green heron

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Skipper and friends

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Almost everywhere that I have seen flowers the last few weeks I have seen skippers. One of the few varieties that I can identify is the Silver-spotted Skipper butterfly (Epargyreus clarus) which I feature in my first photo.

Silver-spotted Skipper

Many of the other skippers, however, look almost the same to me. Wikipedia says that there are more 3500 recognized species of skippers, so I don’t feel too bad about my identification difficulties. Here’s a photo of one of the 3499 non-Silver-spotted Skippers on a sunflower.

Unidentified skipper on a sunflower

This must be the season for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), because I see them almost everywhere too. I’ve posted lots of photos of swallowtails recently, but I figure that the bright color of the swallowtails will complement the more muted tones of the skippers. Besides, the different lighting and angles of the shots makes them very different photos for me, even when the subject is the same.

Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail against the sky

Looking downward at a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Unusual pattern inside a flower

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on August 15, 2012| 9 Comments »

I have to admit that I am really challenged when it comes to identifying flowers. I just don’t know where to start in researching them. So I apologize in advance for not knowing the name of this flower.

I spotted this distinctive small flower when I was shooting with some friends at a local botanical garden. The outside of the flower was not really that unusual, but I was immediately attracted to the inside of the flower. The shape and unusual pattern on the inside reminded me of a pleated curtain installed by a designer who was color-challenged. The color and pattern of the inside did not seem to  go well with the outside (or maybe I just watch too much Home and Garden TV).

I like that I was able to isolate and photograph this unusual flower which for now remains nameless for me.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Face to face with a lady

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

Prior to this past weekend I had never seen an American Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) and now it seems like they are everywhere, if you define “everywhere” as two separate locations within a few days.

Previously I posted a photo of the American Painted Lady butterfly in beautiful soft light in a shot taken from the side. On Sunday, just as I was getting ready to leave Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia, I saw a flash of color and realized that it was a beautiful butterfly. Upon closer examination I recognized the now familiar coloration of the American Painted Lady.

She settled onto a plant and seemed to pose for me, as though she could put aside the normal activities of feeding for a moment. The late afternoon light was behind her and was still bright, causing some of the highlights to be blown out. However, the light also gave her a glow, partially illuminated her wings, and highlighted her reddish hair. The angle of he shot provides an unusual, but pleasing, view of this butterfly.

The shot may not be perfect, but you can’t help but admire the beauty of this American Painted Lady.

The lady is a redhead

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Industrial growth

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 13, 2012| 6 Comments »

I was photographing my typical assortment of flowers and insects at a local garden yesterday when I came upon a scene that grabbed my attention. A delicate vine was starting to wrap itself around an industrial-looking pipe. I was struck by the juxtaposition of the new life of the tiny leaves and the rusty, scuffed-up decay of the pipe. The scale of the two subjects and their very different colors also provided a sense of contrast.

I did not fully manage to capture the image I had in my head. However, I decided to share my favorite image of the pipe and the vine. Usually I crop at least a bit, but in this case I decided to use the full image as it came out of the camera, with some minor adjustments to the exposure. I composed it in the camera pretty much the way I wanted it to look (and yes I know I’m supposed to do that all of the time).

This was an interesting experiment in shooting something totally different, all part of a learning process as I seek to express myself in my images.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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American Painted Lady

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2012| 4 Comments »

Today I photographed an American Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis), which is also know as an American Lady.

At first I thought it was a Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui), a type that I had previously photographed (see my posting from 3 August). A closer examination and some internet research showed it was not the same butterfly.  You can find more information in Wikipedia but the easiest identification features for me were the eyespots on the ventral side—the American Painted Lady has two large eyespots and the Painted Lady has four smaller ones.

I learned a good lesson today too about the need to carry a camera with me as often as possible. I took this photo at the outdoor sales area at a local Home Depot store.

American Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis)

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Do you come to this plant often?

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2012| 5 Comments »

Every now and then when I am focusing intently on an insect and trying to set up a shot, other insects creep into the frame. Only later, when I am looking at the photos on my computer screen, do I realize that they are there. My friend, Cindy Dyer, likes to call them “bonus bugs.”

This morning as I was looking at some recent wasp photos, I realized that there was a black shield bug in one of them. The shot is not that great technically, but I think that the combination of the two very different insects makes for an interesting photo, particularly because the wasp seems to have noticed the shield bug.

To me the moment is reminiscent of the bar scene in the Star Wars movie in which all kinds of different alien creatures are interacting. Click on the link to a You Tube video if you’ve never seen this classic piece of film history.

This photo really is begging for a clever caption and I’d welcome any suggestions.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Wasp with an attitude

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2012| 6 Comments »

Bees and butterflies seem to get all the love. Where is the love for the lowly wasp? Maybe wasps need a public relations firm to give them a new image.

This photo from a recent shoot suggests one approach to that new image—an edgy, radical image. The wasp already appears to be sporting a mohawk hairstyle and large, dark sunglasses. Some piercings and a few tattoos and the new image would be complete.

The result—a cool new image for the wasp to match the attitude he already possesses.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bee on salvia flower

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2012| 3 Comments »

Whenever I am shooting flowers of any sort I am inevitably drawn to bees. I love watching them flying and hovering, back and forth and in and out of the flowers.  Sometimes a bee seems to be systematically covering a group of flowers and other times he seems to be choosing randomly where to touch down before moving on, relentlessly in motion.

Here are a couple of recent shots of carpenter bees on a plant that I have been told is called salvia. I love its deep purple color and simple flowers. The first shot is a closeup of a bee. The second one gives you a better idea of the shape of the flower. Note that in both cases the bee is getting the nectar from the side of the flower and is therefore not pollinating it.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Unmistakably basil

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on August 9, 2012| 3 Comments »

It was after 7:00 pm yesterday evening and my urge to take photos was still not satisfied. I had wandered through the garden of my neighbor, Cindy Dyer,  whose photographs and flowers are a constant source of inspiration, but had come up empty, except for some shots of a striped cucumber beetle.

I decided to check out her front porch herb garden to see if there were any interesting bugs to shoot, but there were none. My hope was fading along with the day’s light when I glanced down at a container next to her front door and saw some tiny pink and white flowers growing against a backdrop of darker leaves. I had a subject, though I was clueless about its identity.

I doubted that I would be able to capture the beauty of the little flower, but my tripod and macro lens came to my rescue. I was so excited when I pulled up the images on my computer that I immediately called Cindy to ask her what kind of pink flower she was growing on her porch. She seemed a bit confused by my question, because she couldn’t recall any flowers growing on her porch.

Open laptop in hand, I walked over to her house to show her the image and pointed out where I had shot it. All at once her eyes lit up as she realized what I had photographed. It was basil that had started to flower. I was a little incredulous, because I didn’t know that basil had flowers. Cindy then crushed a leaf and held it to my nose.

My nose revealed what my eyes and my mind had not—it was unmistakably basil.

Tiny basil flower

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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The hole truth, and nothing but the truth

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on August 9, 2012| 6 Comments »

Last month I first encountered the Striped Cucumber Beetle (Acalymma vittata) in a neighbor’s garden. I was immediately taken by his cool, sophisticated, man-about-town look. The black and light yellow stripes down his back make him look like he is dressed formally. The translucent orange high collar, though, adds a splash of color to his ensemble and causes him to really stand out in a crowd. This well-dressed dandy, however, has a deep dark secret. Beneath the surface of this Dr. Jekyll lurks a Mr. Hyde.

I ran into him today in my friend’s garden. Previously, the garden had been green and flowering. Now the garden looked like a war zone, with signs of devastation everywhere. The leaves of the plants had all been ravaged and looked like the image below.

So I confronted the striped cucumber beetle about what had happened to the leaves. I asked him to swear an oath to tell the hole truth, and nothing but the truth. Initially he resisted and then he admitted to a hole in one. Finally he confessed and named the other beetles who had participated. The judge, however,  may be lenient with him because he took personal responsibility for his actions and acknowledged that the hole thing had been his idea.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail pattern

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on August 8, 2012| 4 Comments »

Usually my photos are realistic, almost hyper-realistic in their macro details. Sometimes, though, I get excited by a portion of an image and the patterns and lines contained therein.

Yesterday I took some close-ups of a male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. Thanks to my telephoto lens the butterfly more than filled the frame. After a bit of tweaking I ended up with an image that is almost abstract, with lots of interesting lines and shapes. You can still tell that it is a butterfly and a flower, but it has a different feel than my other butterfly shots.

I find it fun to try something completely different from time to time.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail ladies are not all the same

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 8, 2012| 10 Comments »

One of the coolest things about female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus) is that they come in two distinctly different colors, black and yellow. According to Wikipedia, that characteristic makes them dimorphic. I’m no scientist, so I had to do some research  to see what “dimorphic” means. If I understand it right, it means that there are two different phenotypes (called morphs) that exist in the same population of a species and they have to be in the same habitat at the same time to qualify.

I was thrilled yesterday to observe and photograph both variants at a local garden. The yellow ones resemble the male, although the male is only yellow and black and has no additional orange and blue markings. I have seen a lot of the yellow female swallowtails this summer. The black swallowtails, which have black bodies as well as black wings, seem to be more rare, or at least I have seen them only rarely this summer.

Which one is more beautiful? I’ll leave that call to each of you.

black_swallowtail1_6x8blog

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (black variant) UPDATE in 2020: I think that I misidentified this as an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and now think it might be a Black Swallowtail, though the angle keeps me from being sure about the identification

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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I’m a little teapot…

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2012| 6 Comments »

As I was wandering this past weekend through the local garden where I take a lot of my photos, I came across an enchanting scene. A child-sized wrought iron table and chairs were set in the shade, with a multi-colored teapot in center of the table. In the spout of the teapot was a single red, trumpet-shaped flower.

Had a child placed the flower there earlier in the day while serving tea to real or even imaginary friends? I like to think so. For a brief moment I was transported back to the days of my youth, carefree days when summers were full of dreams and exploration.

I captured this image as a reminder of the feeling of that moment, as a reminder not to let the “serious” cares of my adult life extinguish that child-like spark of innocence, sensitivity, and creativity. It is still very much a part of me, even if it struggles to find a way to express itself.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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I need a trim (or at least a comb)

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2012| 4 Comments »

Some bees are hairy and some bees are really hairy.

Seriously, this bee looks like he could use a beauty makeover. At a minimum he needs a trip to a barber or hair stylist to trim away some of that excess hair. Look at his legs, his forehead, and his neckline. Yikes! The worst area may be the swirly hair on his back. I haven’t seen anything that bad since the days when the comb-over was a popular hair style.

Maybe he is wearing his hair long to conceal the fact that he is going thin on his back. If that’s the case, I have news for you, Mr. Bee. “You’re not fooling anyone.”  It’s time to get with modern styles, perhaps, and shave it all off.

What would a bald bee look like?

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bee…

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Getting into and out of a tight spot

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 7, 2012| 7 Comments »

Does a bee ever get stuck when he flies (or climbs) into a flower with a narrow opening?

This question arose this afternoon when I watched a bee enter a flower so deeply that only his legs were visible. He remained in that position for some time and then he somehow was able to get back out of the flower. I am still not sure if he was stuck or how he was able to extricate himself. From my perspective, it was a feat worthy of an insect Houdini.

I shot a series of photos that illustrate the whole process. In this case the old adage is true about a picture being worth a thousand words. You will notice that I changed my vantage point part way through the shoot. (I had plenty of time while the bee was inside the flower.) I would also draw your special attention to the details of the last photo in which the bee has to act like a contortionist to get his legs out of the tight spot.

Who knew that bees were so flexible?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Raindrops on roses…

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , on August 6, 2012| 5 Comments »

Wait a minute, that’s not a rose! You got me there, but raindrops on flowers are still one of my favorite things. Can I help it if I love “The Sound of Music?” The word “raindrops” immediately conjures up visions of Julie Andrews singing “My Favorite Things,” including “raindrops on roses.”

This photo is a couple of months old but is intended to be a response to the rainy weather we are finally having.  It is also a response to Another Perspective Photography’s posting asserting that she is not a bug photographer.

I am proud to state that I am a bug photographer who often shoots other elements of nature and only occasionally photographs people. That may change, but for the moment it’s where my interests lead me. This photo, however, is intended to be evidence that I am not “just”a bug photographer.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Reflections on a bee

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2012| 4 Comments »

You might think that I am going to talk philosophically about a bee, but my title is meant to be taken literally. If you click on the photo, you can actually see reflections of the sky and bushes on the shiny surface of the abdomen end of this bee.

I am pretty sure that this is a carpenter bee for two main reasons. First, the abdomen area is shiny and hairless, unlike a bumblebee who is more hairy. Secondly, the bee is sucking nectar out of the side of the flower rather than going in from the front, a process sometimes referred to as “nectar robbing.” Carpenter bees are notorious for circumventing pollination in certain plants by slitting open the side of the flower.

Perhaps others can see more reflections on the bee. It’s like looking at clouds and trying to see shapes—it’s a lot of fun and everyone sees something different. Life is like that sometimes.

Click the photo to see more details

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Against the odds

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 6, 2012| 7 Comments »

Is it really possible to find inspiration and motivation in an insect?

Take a really close look at this photo of an male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus).

Do you see the delicate beauty of his colors and shapes or are your eyes drawn immediately to his infirmity? His wings are virtually shredded and there is a large portion of one of them missing.

Somehow, despite all of those limitations, he can still fly. He can defy gravity and the laws of aerodynamics.

I don’t know how he does it, but he is able to overcome adversity.  Some of the lyrics of the song “Defying Gravity” from the musical “Wicked” come into my head as I think about it.

“I’m through accepting limits ’cause someone says they’re so. Some things I cannot change but til I try I’ll never know….I’d sooner buy defying gravity. Kiss me goodbye I’m defying gravity and you can’t pull me down.”

Inspiration and motivation can come from many places, I would posit, even from insects.

Take these broken wings and learn to fly…

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Damselfly on a limb

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 5, 2012| 6 Comments »

I came across this tiny damselfly yesterday when I was visiting a local garden in the late afternoon. Initially I spotted her when she was flying and I was thrilled when she chose to land in a spot where I could photograph her. I apologize to the experts for not identifying the type but I find it impossible to identify damselflies (and even dragonflies are not easy).

Damselflies are particularly challenging for me to photograph because they are so long and skinny. If I photograph them from the side, the eye is often out of focus and if I try to shoot head-on, depth of field is an issue.

I ended up with a photo that I shot from above and to the side. Somehow I managed to reduce the composition to the damselfly, the branch to which she is clinging, and a couple of leaves.

I find special beauty in that kind of simplicity in nature and in my photography.

Unidentified damselfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Shadowy insects

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2012| 2 Comments »

I have always been fascinated by light and shadows.

Shadows often hide or mask details of a subject, although they also may reveal elements of a subject that might otherwise be concealed. Sometimes shadows are an accurate reflection of the subject (like a silhouette), but other times they distort reality. Shadows intrigue me too because they often pick up characteristics of the surfaces on which they are cast in addition to those of the subject.

My musings on shadows were prompted by this photo of an unidentified wasp (I think it is some kind of wasp) that I shot yesterday morning. The wasp was back lit by the morning sun, causing a hidden part of his body to be revealed in the shadow.

A few months ago I decided to photograph the morning light coming through a small flower in my neighbor’s garden. As I getting ready to shoot, an ant started walking across the back of the flower. It’s not a technically good shot but I like the effect that was produced by the ant’s shadow.

Folks who follow this blog know that I love dragonflies. In early June I took some photos of dragonflies on a sunny day, resulting in lots of shadows. The dragonfly’s shadow makes me think of the position of a person hang gliding and it even looks like the dragonfly is wearing a little helmet.

The undulating surfaces on which the shadow falls really make a difference in the shape of the shadow. I especially like how the shadows of the wings fall on a separate leaf from the shadow of the main body. The shadows of the leaves themselves make this image even more interesting for me.

In this final photo a dragonfly literally is casting a long shadow. The distortion caused by the angle of the sunlight causes his legs to appear much longer and I find that this dragonfly looks much more menacing than is typical of a dragonfly.

Can a dragonfly actually look menacing?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Painted Lady

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 3, 2012| 3 Comments »

Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) photographed today at Green Spring Gardens, Alexandria, Virginia.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Insects on an orange poppy

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 3, 2012| 9 Comments »

Do you ever get in the mood for a single color? This evening I am in an orange mood. (As a disclaimer I should mention that I drive an orange car, so orange plays a larger role in my daily life than it probably does for most others.) To scratch that itch, I decided to post some photos from late May of an orange poppy and some of the insects that visited it.

May was the month when I first started getting more serious about photography and these photos were an early indication to me that I was improving. I still enjoy looking at them, remembering some of the early twists and turns of the photography journey on which I have embarked.

As I think back, I feel like I was just learning to walk. Now I can walk with much greater confidence. I look forward to being able to run.

Visiting bee

Visiting hoverfly (flower fly)

Visiting ant

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Return of the Creature on the Lavender Plant

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2012| 21 Comments »

This evening after work I returned to the site of yesterday’s adventures with the creature that I think is a bagworm caterpillar. Despite some heavy rain last night his sticks-and-silk abode was intact. I stood and waited, wondering if he would reappear.

After just a few minutes of waiting I watched as the bag started to shake and the caterpillar began to emerge from the bag. Unlike last night when he seemed a little coy, tonight he seemed to have shed all inhibitions (or was really hungry).

He rather quickly extended himself more than halfway out of the bag and began to chew on the lavender blossoms. That answered one of my questions from my last posting about whether lavender was a suitable host plant for a bag worm.

I managed to shoot him from a number of different angles to show some details of the caterpillar and the opening in the bag. I think that a couple of my shots captured the texture of the bag. My shooting time was really limited because after his brief snack the caterpillar returned to the comfortable confines of his sleeping bag.

I am sure that I will move on to other subjects eventually, but for the moment I remain utterly fascinated with my creature on the lavender plant. We are developing a relationship but I have not given him a pet name, at least not yet.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Creature on a lavender plant

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 1, 2012| 9 Comments »

This evening I spotted something unusual hanging from a lavender plant in my neighbor’s garden. I like to visit her garden when I come home from work in the evening because there are always flowers and insects to photograph, many of which she photographs and features in her blog.

The strange object looked a little like a misshapen pine cone and seemed to be covered in pine needles and little twigs. It was hanging from the lavender plant, swinging in the gentle breeze.

Suddenly in front of my eyes the “pine cone” thing began to shake a little, an opening appeared in the top, and a caterpillar (I think that’s what it is) began to emerge. Fortunately I had my camera in my hand because I had been taking some shots of bees.

The caterpillar emerged only partially and then returned to the homemade structure. The opening closed shut, leaving no evidence that there was a living creature inside.

My preliminary research suggests this is a kind of bagworm, although it seems a little unusual for it to make its home on a lavender plant. Wikipedia indicates that there are many species of bagworms, including one whose pupae are collected as a protein-rich food.

I don’t know if you noticed the claws on this caterpillar in the close-up photograph, but I may now have nightmares about giant clawed caterpillars (to go along with the soul-sucking robber flies of a few days ago).

Close-up of bagworm caterpillar emerging

Stepping back to see the whole “bag”

Caterpillar has gone back inside

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Not a tiny dragonfly

Posted in Bugs, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, tagged , , , , , on July 30, 2012| 6 Comments »

My eyes were so attuned to dragonflies yesterday that my first thought when I stumbled upon this insect perched at the top of a plant was that it was a tiny dragonfly. The pose especially looked familiar.

The more I looked at it, however, the more I realized that the legs and winds were all wrong and the head, which in this profile shot looks a bit like a dragonfly’s, was really different. From another angle it sort of looked like a fly, but not any fly that I had ever seen. What is it?

I think that what I have here is a robber fly (from the insect family Asilidae). So far I have not been able to get any more precise in identifying this guy’s species. The description of robber flies in Wikipedia, however, is pretty. scarey.

“The short, strong proboscis is used to stab and inject victims with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied meal through the proboscis.”

Yikes! That description alone is enough to bring back flashbacks of alien movies and zombie thrillers.

I may not sleep well tonight.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A damsel and two dragons

Posted in Bugs, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on July 27, 2012| 4 Comments »

Perhaps I am going through a blue period for my favorite members of the Odonata family this weekend (one damselfly and two dragonflies) all turned out to be different shades of blue. I photographed the dragonflies in a marshy area where I expected to find them. I didn’t at all expect to see the damselfly in a garden setting but was able to get a shot when my friend Cindy Dyer pointed her out to me. (I’m calling the damselfly a “her” because it seems strange for me to refer to anything with “damsel” in its name as a “him.”)

It’s easy for me to identify the dragonfly in the middle as a Blue Dasher but I have not yet been able to identify the other two insects by name.

For now they will have to remain strangers, nameless but beautiful.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Destructive beauty

Posted in Bugs, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 26, 2012| 3 Comments »

What do you want to emphasize in a photograph that you display to others? It is a creative choice that each of us faces every time we take a photo or manipulate an image.

I enjoy shooting subjects with friends and comparing our results. Earlier in the week I was with Cindy Dyer, my photography mentor, and spotted an interesting looking little beetle on a plant in her garden. I did not have my macro lens on my camera and suggested that she photograph the little striped beetle, a type she had never previously encountered. She later identified the beetle as a Striped Cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittata).

Cindy took a wonderful photo of the beetle staring over the edge of a leaf and entitled her posting “The Abyss.” Her photo is graphic and colorful and full of a sense of mystery and contemplation. I took some photos this evening of what is possibly the same beetle. I tried to convey the same impression that Cindy did in my second photo below, but that was not really what I wanted to stress. This first photo shows my “take” on the subject.

I decided that I wanted to contrast the beauty of the beetle with its destructiveness and chose to include the damaged leaf in the initial photo that is most prominently featured on the blog. The rest of the photos are variations of the themes of beauty and destruction, sometimes depicting only one of the two themes or juxtaposing them both in a single frame.

Our choices influence how our viewers are likely to react to our photos.  It is liberating to have that kind of creative freedom. It is who we are and what we do.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Pearl Crescent Butterfly

Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on July 24, 2012| 2 Comments »

Here are a couple of shots of a Pearl Crescent butterfly (Phyciodes tharos) that I took yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia. The Gardens With Wings website cautions that the Pearl Crescent resembles several other butterflies and the patterns of Pearl Crescent butterflies are variable, according to Wikipedia. I apologize in advance, therefore, if I have misidentified this butterfly, but I think we can all agree that he is amazingly beautiful.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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