Extension tube experiment... Orange Gazania center... Spring, 2010

Must confess to being a bit discouraged about posting here as a rather NASTY troll has been attempting to post comments on EVERY image I post. (each comment he posts is filled with links to MANY pornographic sites) I do have comment approval turned on so nothing makes it to public view but it's extremely discouraging to post and then get a porn filled comment after doing so!

That said, I've been experimenting with using extension tubes and my 18-55mm Nikon lens to see if I can get adept at the combination in order to get macros without lugging my HEAVY 105mm Nikkor macro lens when traveling. Think I'm FINALLY getting the hang of it and realize that I simply MUST use my tripod in order to reduce blurring that occurs when shooting with extension tubes. Meantime, here's an image taken today that, in spite of blurring, I rather like and hope you enjoy too.

Forget-Me-Not... the real thing! Spring, 2010

A little over a month ago, I posted an image of False Forget-Me-Not that had been photographed in my garden. A couple of weeks later, I happened to be touring a lovely garden nearby and found she had planted "true" Forget-Me-Not. If you scroll down the page, you'll be able to see the earlier post (assuming you see this shortly after I publish it) and will maybe note the difference between the two plants... the most significant difference is the white (False Forget-Me-Not) central feature vs. the yellow (true Forget-Me-Not). I don't know what caused the brown spotting on some of the petals of this plant but that is not normal.

Fading glory... gorgeous tulip in a showcase garden... Spring 2010

Seems that spring has overwhelmed me with gorgeous color and I've been so busy looking at images that I've not found time to post... this is from a few days ago when I visited a showcase garden in our area. The owner opens her gloriously landscaped garden to the public once a year in spring. Spotted this beautiful tulip as the blooms were on their way to being done for this year... hope you enjoy seeing this as much as I enjoyed capturing the image.

Queen's Wreath Vine in Amonoka Villa gardens, St. Croix, USVI

Petrea volubilis (Queen's Wreath, Sanpaper Vine)is a high-climbing vine with rough surfaced dark green leaves and clusters of lavender-blue or white flowers. From a posting on Flickr, I learned the name of this plant and that it produces graceful clusters of short-lived purple (or white flowers) enclosed by much longer-lived purple or violet calces.

The tiny flower that appears to have been sunburned about the edges falls off quite easily and led to one of the funniest things I've seen in nature... As I was focusing with my camera on one of the tiny blossoms that had fallen onto a leaf, a bee decided to visit in search of pollen (or nectar) and landed on the fallen flower... at which point... both flower and bee tumbled off the leaf!