July 18, 2012 by Mike Powell
Yesterday I took this shot of a bee on a purple cone flower.
The subject matter is pretty ordinary; everyone with a camera has probably taken a similar shot. Somehow, though, the different elements of the photo—the colors, the shapes, the background, and even the bee—worked together to create an image that I really like.
What it beauty? In this case, I find beauty in the simplicity of a photo like this one. The photo is not perfect. That does not bother me, however, for my experience has shown me beauty too is rarely flawless.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography | Tagged bee, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, flowers, purple cone flower, simplicity | Leave a Comment »
July 17, 2012 by Mike Powell
One evening this past week I was photographing lotus flowers at a local pond in a quasi-meditative state, enjoying the calm after a thunderstorm had passed.
The life cycle of the lotus, from bud to flower to seed pod
Suddenly a woman screamed out in my direction, “Snake, there’s a snake right behind you.” My first reaction was one of disbelief, because I was standing on a flat rock partially surrounded by water that was flowing rapidly between two man-made ponds. All at once I saw the submerged snake swimming strongly against the current. Then to my surprise the snake lifted his head out of the water.
My next reaction was to spring into action to take his picture. My camera was already on my tripod and I swung it around and snapped a couple of shots without having time to adjust my exposure or shutter speed. The image below is far from perfect but it gives you an idea of the cascading water and the snake poking his head above the surface.
Swimming snake lifts its head above water
After that brief photographic opportunity I returned to my peaceful pursuit of the lotus flower.
Sidewards-facing lotus (a variation of the lotus position)
It was only much later that I wondered whether I had encountered a poisonous snake. An article entitled “Snake Mistake” by Christine Ennulat in Virginia Living helps readers distinguish between the harmless brown water snake (Nerodia taxispilata) and the venomous water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus). I am pretty confident the snake I saw was “only” a brown water snake.
Maybe I will react more quickly the next time someone tells me there is a snake right behind me. I might even get a better photograph!
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Nature, Photography, Reptiles | Tagged brown water snake, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cottonmouth, green spring gardens, lotus, lotus bud, lotus flowers, lotus seed pods, nature, Nerodia taxispilota, peace, reptile, snake, tranquillity, water, water moccasin, wild | 11 Comments »
July 16, 2012 by Mike Powell
Stereotypes of a heron’s appearance
This past weekend I visited a pond at a local garden and encountered this interesting bird. He looked a little like a heron but had a totally different body type—he was shorter and squatter than the herons I was used to seeing. I have photographed blue herons and white herons and have a mental picture of what a heron looks like. They are tall and slender and posses a fashion model’s elegance. Could this really be a heron?
Surveying the situation
Playing and posing like a child
I was alone with the bird for quite some time for the gardens were deserted after a thunderstorm. The beautiful bird, later identified as a juvenile green heron, seemed to be unusually willing to remain as I attempted to photograph him. At times he even seemed to be posing for me. Like a child he was enjoying himself, running around and playing in the water. He definitely was not intent on adult-type tasks such as catching food.
Full body shot. Don’t I have great legs?
Is this enough of a smile for you?
It’s a green heron
I am pretty confident that this bird is a green heron (Butorides virescens). Wikipedia helped me determine that he is a juvenile because of the brown-and-white streaked feathers on his breast and the greenish-yellow webbed feet. (The adult green heron has a darker bill and a more pronounced chestnut-colored neck and breast.) NatureWorks has some summary information if you want to quickly learn about green herons.
This grass feels really good on my bare feet.
A tool-using bird
My favorite website for information on the green heron, however, belongs to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which includes range maps and audio files. It also noted the following truly amazing fact about green herons, “The Green Heron is one of the few tool-using birds. It commonly drops bait onto the surface of the water and grabs the small fish that are attracted. It uses a variety of baits and lures, including crusts of bread, insects, earthworms, twigs, or feathers.”
Ready for my close-up
Maybe the green heron should have its own reality television show, “Fishing With a Green Heron-Choosing the Right Bait. You Don’t Even Need a Hook”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Gardening, Nature, Photography | Tagged birds, blue herons, Butorides virescens, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cornell lab of ornithology, fishing, green heron, green spring gardens, heron, nature, nature photography, ornithology, outdoors, photography, wading birds, white herons | 7 Comments »
July 16, 2012 by Mike Powell
The world seems changed after the rain. The falling rain stripped some of the delicate petals from this lotus flower but left behind a glistening trail of water.
From the perspective of beauty it seems like an equitable trade—the transformed flower still takes my breath away.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, poetry | Tagged beauty, calm, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, change, flowers, green spring gardens, loss, lotus, lotus flowers, peace, rain, raindrops, serenity | 2 Comments »
July 15, 2012 by Mike Powell
After some thunderstorms yesterday evening I went a local garden with a pond (Green Spring Gardens) and encountered this very large snapping turtle (at least that is what I think he is). He was just lying there on the grass.
I started creeping up on him with one eye in the viewfinder and the other on him. I was pretty cautious because previously I had read what Wikipedia says about snapping turtles, “Common snappers are noted for their belligerent disposition when out of the water, their powerful beak-like jaws, and their highly mobile head and neck.” There were a few blades of grass in front of part of his face and I would have liked to remove them to improve the shot, but there was no way I was going to risk my fingers for a mere photo.
I decided to share this medium range shot because it shows the mud and dried grass that made up his “camouflage.” It reminds me a little of the ghillie suits that snipers wear to blend in with nature. Eventually I hope to do another blog posting showing the progression of my shots as I got closer and closer to him, ending up with shots in which his face alone fills the frame.
Stay tuned for coming attractions!
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles | Tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, green spring gardens, nature, nature photography, reptile, snapping turtle, turtle | 2 Comments »
July 15, 2012 by Mike Powell
I simply love the beauty of the lotus flower. I feel a sense of tranquility when I look at this image showing the lotus flower in dramatic lighting with a fully exposed seed pod.
I shot this image last weekend at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC, a wonderful location of the National Park Service.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged beauty, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, flower, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, lotus, nature, tranquility | Leave a Comment »
July 14, 2012 by Mike Powell
Bees were the very first insects that I tried to photograph close up when I got interested in macro photography a few month ago. (You might say I followed the advice of Julie Andrews as Maria in The Sound of Music when she said, “Let’s start at the very bee-ginning, it’s a very good place to start.”) It was a challenge without a macro lens but I managed to get some pretty good results by shooting at the extreme end of the focusing capability of my digital SLR.
Since that time I have “graduated” to a macro lens and to more exotic insects, but from time to time I am drawn back to the bees. Today, for example, as I was reviewing images from a session that included colorful butterflies and dragonflies, I realized there were also a few images of bees that I wanted to share.
Most of the time I try to feature a single photo in my postings, but tonight I couldn’t make up my mind. Like Shakespeare’s Hamlet I was caught up in an internal struggle, “Two bees or not two bees, that is the question.” I’m including them both—I don’t want to decide which is better.
As I end this post, the words of an old Carly Simon song come to mind, “Nobody does it better…bee-bee you’re the best.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged bees, brookside gardens, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, flowers, gardening, insects, macro photography, nature, photography | Leave a Comment »
July 14, 2012 by Mike Powell
I have always admired my friend Cindy D’s photos of an unusual dragonfly that she has featured in her postings. He is called a Halloween Pennant dragonfly (celithemis eponina).
Wikipedia has some interesting information about this dragonfly including the fact that, “Sexual activity normally occurs between 8 and 10:30 am.” Who knew? I imagine there are scientists somewhere keeping track of the mating habits of the different species of dragonflies using stopwatches.
Today I was happy finally to see a Halloween Pennant dragonfly at Brookside Gardens and take some photographs of him. I love this shot but his wingspan was really wide. I decided to crop out part of the wings so that you can see the details of his face and his wings. I find that dragonflies have wonderfully expressive faces and didn’t want you to miss this face. How can you not love such a face?
I’ll soon be on the lookout for new dragonflies to photograph. Do they have one named for all of the American holidays?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dragonflies, halloween pennant, insects, macro photography, nature, nature photography, pond | 2 Comments »
July 13, 2012 by Mike Powell
Focus on the eyes! That’s one of the first tips that I was given to improve my shots and I tried to follow that advice when photographing this red milkweed beetle. (One of my earlier blogs chronicled my obsession with these little creatures.)
I like the way the antennae turned out in this photo. They remind me of a Texas longhorn steer’s horns which, according to Wikipedia, can extend to 7 feet (2.1 meters) tip to tip.
Can you imagine a red milkweed beetle with an equivalent antenna span?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged bug, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, close-up, green spring gardens, insects, milkweed, nature, plants, red, red milkweed beetles | Leave a Comment »
July 13, 2012 by Mike Powell
What’s a harvestman?
a. A man who harvests. like a farmer or a migrant worker;
b. A pocket electronic device made by International Harvester (like a Walkman or Discman);
c. An insect related to a spider; or
d. Spiderman’s adversary in the new Spiderman movie
Until earlier this week I might have responded with selection “a” if I had been posed this question—it is the most obvious answer. I would have been wrong. The correct answer is “c.”
As I was finishing up a photo shoot in a local garden one of my friends excitedly pointed to a bush and exclaimed, “There’s your first harvestman.” I did not have a clue what she was talking about. All I could really see in the bush was a bunch of long legs connected to a body. (My friend Cindy D. has some photos of the entire body of a harvestman in one of her blog postings in case you are not familiar with this insect.)
I shot some photos anyways and when I looked at them on my computer I was shocked. There appeared to be two eyes on a stalk in the middle of the insect’s back, with the eyes looking sidewards in completely opposite directions. Could they really be eyes?
Here is one of my photos of the harvestman. It is not a technically perfect photo but it gives you a pretty clear view of the unusual eyes of this strange insect. If you want to learn more, check out this page, which is full of fascination factoids and photos.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged arachnid, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, eyes, green spring gardens, harvestman, insect, macro, nature, opiliones, spider | 8 Comments »
July 12, 2012 by Mike Powell
“You’re not seeing the big picture.”
Has anyone ever spoken those words to you? They are often used as a tacit (or explicit) criticism of your supposed lack of perspective. The person speaking those words usually has an air of superiority, asserting that they have a better view of some figurative “big picture.”
You literally are not seeing the big picture when it comes to the banner of this blog. I was forced into a box of a specified size by the requirements of the theme I chose. It’s time now to think (and to see) outside of the box.
So, I am posting the “big picture” that you see partially in my banner. Why? One of my friends told me it is her favorite image out of the dozens I have shown her the past few months (and it is one of my favorites). You might like it too!
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged calm, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, gardening, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, lily pads, nature, photography, pink, serenity, water garden, water lilies | 4 Comments »
July 11, 2012 by Mike Powell
Do you find yourself being drawn back inexorably to photographing the same subjects over and over again?
Last month my friend and mentor Cindy D. “outed” me in a wonderful posting on her blog. She confessed that “we’ve become a little obsessed with photographing Red milkweed beetles (Tetraopes tetraophthalmus).” (She also published some interesting facts about the beetles in another blog posting.) She’s right, of course, in her assessment of me, but I might quibble with her on one point. Is it possible to be only a “little” obsessed?
What are the symptoms of my obsession? After work today, in between thunder and rain storms, I rushed to Green Spring Gardens to take some photos. I shot a few flowers but I couldn’t resist the pull of the milkweed plants. I know exactly where they are located in the gardens and I know if I look hard enough on the milkweed plants I will find the cute little beetles.
By the time I found my beloved beetles the light was starting to fade. How bad was the light? Despite shooting at ISO 800, I needed exposures around 1/5 of a second at F11. Fortunately the beetles were willing to pose and I had my tripod with me. I managed to get a few nice shots with beautiful color saturation in the late day, overcast light. Here is one photo (out of many) of the object of my obsession—a red milkweed beetle.
Is there a twelve-step program for people with this problem?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged beetles, canon 18-55mm lens, Canon Rebel XT, gardening, green spring gardens, insect photography, macro photography, milkweed, nature, nature photography, photography, red, red milkweed beetles | 9 Comments »
July 9, 2012 by Mike Powell
The heat wave in the Washington DC area has finally broken. Many of us last night were awakened by the loud, cannon-like sound of thunder and the softer, more gentle sound of falling rain. This morning the skies were overcast and the ground was still wet, a likely source of frustration for commuters but a blessing for photographers.
I set off in the morning with a couple of friends for Green Spring Gardens, a county-run historic park in Alexandria, Virginia. The colors of the flowers today seemed to be extraordinarily vivid and saturated. There also were beads of water on many of the plants and flowers, creating wonderful reflections and adding additional interest.
I do not know for sure what kind of flower I captured in this photo, perhaps a hibiscus. Its color and texture caught my eye today. I probably would have passed by it yesterday without stopping. Today, however, its beauty was enhanced, enhanced by the effects of the storm.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, flowers, gardening, green spring gardens, rain, red flower | 2 Comments »
July 9, 2012 by Mike Powell
For much of my life I have loved impressionist paintings and especially those of Monet. Monet painted a series of approximately 250 paintings of Water Lilies (or Nymphéas) and they were the main focus of his artistic work for the last thirty years of his life, according to Wikipedia .
Last November I spent countless hours at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris visually exploring eight massive paintings of water lilies by Monet that covered the walls of two large oval rooms. The painting were all different and covered the themes of morning, clouds, green reflections, sunset, reflections of trees, clear morning in the willows, morning in the willows, and two willows.
The Musée de l’Orangerie allows you to see each of the paintings in high definition on the internet but navigation is not exactly direct. Click first in the left column of the main page on “Les Nymphéas” and then on “L’ensemble de l’Orangerie” which brings you to a page with all of the paintings. You click on the painting you want to examine and click again on the box that says “explorez le tableau” (“explore the painting”). You then can drag your mouse to see each part of the painting or zoom in at 2x or 4x. There also are detailed explanations of the paintings in French that are fascinating, as is a history of Monet and these paintings. You get to that part of the website by following the previous directions and selecting “De Giverny à l’Orangerie” instead of “L’ensemble de l’Orangerie.” I should warn you that it is very easy to lose track of time as you take in the beauty of these paintings.
I love photographing water lilies surrounded by green lily pads, with reflections of their beauty in the dark water, the same flowers featured in Monet’s paintings. Until this past weekend, however, all the water lilies that I had seen had been pure white in color. At Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens I encountered and managed to photograph some water lilies that were a beautiful pink in color. They made quite an impression on me.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography, Travel | Tagged art, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, flowers, gardening, impressionism, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, l'Orangerie, lily pads, Monet, Paris, pink, water lilies | Leave a Comment »
July 8, 2012 by Mike Powell
Red and green—they are colors that I usually associate with Christmas. As the temperature climbed to 105 degrees yesterday in the Washington DC area I could easily be forgiven for letting my thoughts drift to a cooler season. While I was photographing lotus flowers and waterlilies in the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, though, I encountered these colors in an unexpected place—in dragonflies. Over the last few months I have taken lots of photos of dragonflies, mostly blue ones (especially the blue dasher) and an occasional, brown, white, or amber one. One time I saw—but was unable to photograph—a green one but until yesterday I had never even seen a red dragonfly. My photos of these two dragonflies are not technically perfect but they show the vivid colors of these two types of dragonflies. I think the red one is a Ruby Meadowhawk and the green one an Eastern Pondhawk. As we enter into our 11th consecutive day with high temperatures over 95 degrees, we all could use a little Christmas, in both the air temperature as well as in our hearts.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged bug, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dragonflies, Eastern Pondhawk, insects, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, nature, plants, red dragonfly, Ruby Meadowhawk, washington dc area | 2 Comments »
July 8, 2012 by Mike Powell
As I start out with this blog I am posting a few of my favorite photographs. This is a close-up of what I am pretty certain is an Eastern Swallowtail butterfly. I shot it on 1 June at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA. I love this unusual perspective. It reminds me a little of a hang glider.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged butterflies, close-up, insects, macro, Meadowlark, Nikon D300, swallowtail, Tamron 180mm macro | Leave a Comment »
July 7, 2012 by Mike Powell
Indian lotus (also known as Sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera), photographed at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, flower, garden, gardening, Indian lotus, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, macro photography, Nelumbo nucifera, photography, Sacred lotus, water garden | 12 Comments »
July 7, 2012 by Mike Powell
I photographed this Blue Dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens this morning.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography | Tagged Blue Dasher dragonfly, bug, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, flower, garden, gardening, insect, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Pachydiplax longipennis | 22 Comments »
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