Posted in Art, Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged beauty, Canon 50D, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, Polygonia interrogationis, Question Mark butterfly, Tamron 180mm, unquestionable beauty on August 8, 2018| 8 Comments »
I spotted this beautiful butterfly this past weekend at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. I am pretty sure that it is a Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis), judging from the pattern of its wing spots.
While I may not be absolutely certain that it is a Question Mark butterfly, its beauty is unquestionable.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged Alexandria VA, beauty, Canon 50D, faded glory, Runnymeade, Tamron 180mm macro lens, tulip on May 2, 2014| 1 Comment »
Do you pass by flowers that are past their prime? Their beauty is still visible in the fragments of their former glory.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged beauty, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, intricate, simple, spider, spider webs on September 16, 2012| 8 Comments »
I’ve already posted some photos of spider webs from last Friday morning when I visited Huntley Meadows Park. When I looked over the photos again today, however, I realized I have some more pretty good ones. Once again I am struck by the complexity and the diversity of the webs. Some have primarily straight lines and others have mostly curves. Some are large and intricate, others are smaller and simpler.
All of them are breathtakingly beautiful to me.
A view from a jail cell (not really, but it almost looks like that)
An unusually-shaped spider web
An incomplete spider web
Scallop-curved web
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Landscape, Photography, Travel, tagged beauty, brussels, building, Canon PowerShot A620, Grand-Place on September 5, 2012| 5 Comments »
The Grand-Place in Brussels, the central square of the city, is a wonderful location, full of ornate buildings and teeming with people at almost all hours of the day. UNESCO considers it a World Heritage Site and it was voted the most beautiful square in Europe in one survey, according to Wikipedia.
I find the buildings in the Grand-Place, though, to be a little too ornate and overly decorated. As I stood in the center of the square and looked diagonally toward one of the side streets, though, I caught a glimpse of this building. It is simple and elegant and much more to my taste.
Building in Brussels
© 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 on July 16, 2012| 2 Comments »
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, Macro Photography, Photography, tagged beauty, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, flower, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, lotus, nature, tranquility on July 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »
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.
Shooting the ordinary well
Posted in Birds, commentary, Nature, Photography, tagged beauty, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, Melospiza melodia, ordinary, song sparrow on March 8, 2013| 4 Comments »
Do you aspire to photograph extraordinary subjects in exotic locations or are you content to shoot ordinary subjects in nearby locales?
This past winter (well, it’s almost past), I have really enjoyed photographing birds. At times, I have longed to be able to capture awe-inspiring images of hawks and eagles, of ospreys and owls and have thought about the travel and equipment that might be required to do so. Does that make me an adrenaline junkie, always searching for more, someone who requires increasing amounts of excitement to be content?
For the moment at least, I know that the answer is “no.” My pulse still quickens when I see a robin or a cardinal. I will take shot after shot of geese and ducks flying and landing. I am willing to kneel in the mud to try to get yet another shot of a sparrow. Here is one such shot of a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) from earlier this week that I really like.
I am content with the ordinary and strive to capture and display its beauty. Cristian Mihai, a wonderful, easy-t0-read blogger, wrote a posting yesterday on beauty, entitled Beauty will save the world that I really recommend. It caused me to think more deeply about my photography, about my goals and motivations. What is is about beauty that prompts a desire to respond, to share it with others?
I started this posting with a false dichotomy, with alternatives that are not mutually exclusive to stimulate thought, the kind of inner examination that I have been conducting. There is no simple answer—sometimes it is sufficient to simply think about the question.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
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