Rain-drenched Poppy images... Spring 2011

This poppy (am pretty sure that's what it was) caught the eye of everyone who passed by it. This and the next image are from the macro workshop at Green Spring Gardens in Virginia... it is going to be quite awhile before I stop posting images from the workshops I've been taking lately!

I have no idea what this tiny insect is... but it is the master (mistress?) of all he (she?) surveys while standing tall in the center of this poppy.

I'll be posting this to Macro Monday over at Lisa's Chaos... come join the fun!

Camellia and Helleborus collage... after the rain stopped...

I added a Helleborus close-up to complete this collage because I only had three Camellia images. This Camellia of mine produces all three of the bloom types you see here... it is really quite wonderful. And for the first time this past fall, it produced late fall, early winter blossoms as well as being COVERED with a profusion of spring blossoms right now.

A master gardener (which I am not) told me I should seriously prune this bush back since it is now over six feet tall. Since I have no clue when/how to prune it, I've let it continue to grow. It does need pruning so I'll research how to do it. When we get heavy, wet snow (as we did the past two winters), the entire plant bows down and kisses the driveway from it's perch a couple of feet above it in a raised bed along the side of the house.

Pentas lanceolata... revisited after the cluster had fully opened...

The previous post showed a single blossom in a Pentas cluster with the rest still in bud... a few days later... after a rainy night... this is what the plant blossom looks like. Enjoy!

I'll try to remember to occasionally publish the shooting information but generally shoot all my macro images with aperture priority, adjusting ISO to allow me to shoot with a fast enough shutter speed (in the case of shooting insects) to prevent motion blur and to give an F stop that gives me the desired DOF. I'm not a super geeky photographer and can never remember from one time to the next what I was shooting so always have to rely on pulling up the EXIF data after the fact.

My equipment includes a Nikon D90 with a 105mm VR Nikkor lens for the macros and Kenko extension tubes when I want to get super close. I'll try to remember to tag/label when I use extension tubes.

Hydrangea Blossoms wet with rain... Summer, 2009

My Hydrangea survived and is slowly coming back... despite an attempt by a landscaper's assistant to kill it off (accidental, of course) by cutting it to the ground a couple of years ago. I've had this bush for over 30 years so it was quite upsetting to discover it cut down to within two inches of the ground after a winter cleanup of the garden. (The blue Hydrangea wet with rain is another image that will be in my gallery show in February, 2010... view all the images as a slide show if you have a couple of minutes to spare.)

Shall we have a threesome? Spring bloomers wet with rain...

Another image from spring that will be in my photography show. These flowers were planted in my yard YEARS ago by my great Aunt Alice who lived in this house from 1937 to 1981. When she had to go to a nursing home, I was fortunate enough to be in a position to buy her house because she didn't want it sold to a stranger! Every spring I'm reminded of the good fortune I had in knowing her for many years because she was able to tell me many stories about my grandmother (her sister) who died when I was an infant.

Delicate November Bloomer... African Daisy revisited!

Hope you aren't tired of seeing these flowers... they are still putting on a show in my garden and I simply cannot resist sharing this one... taken earlier today while the rain of the past couple of days was still misting down on the garden... flash photo because it was too dark to do otherwise without the tripod and I was too lazy to go get mine and set up in the rain for this shot. (This blossom is the exact same one as the photo below it... overnight cool temperatures cause the petals to curl up... this one won't fully open again today unless it warms up more than it has already.)

Helenium 'Mardi Gras' ... soaking wet with rain... and Hoverfly!

Was trying to capture these lovely wet flowers early this morning... the Hoverfly kept flitting into and out of the FOV and here he is roughly in focus in spite of my not even trying to capture him.