Skipper Butterfly series... From my garden... 2010

Earlier (just a few seconds ago) I published a sunrise post from a camping weekend in Virginia. Since I'm SO far behind posting to my blog, I'm going to include a series of shots of a Skipper butterfly drinking from one of the many flowers of my rampant Plumbago larpentae ground cover in this post. When viewed in the order in which they were taken, they sort of tell a story. Here he is drinking nectar...

There simply MUST be more nectar all the way at the bottom of this flower!

Well, I think I got ALL the nectar there is here so it's time to stop drinking from this flower...

And it's time to move on to the next flower...

Early morning rising has its benefits... Sunrise at Douthat State Park, Virginia... September, 2010

As always, I have good intentions to post an image a day... but somehow that just doesn't happen. For today... I'm going to post several to catch up with some of the backlog.

First a sunrise from a camping weekend at Douthat State Park, Virginia in September.

A sure sign that fall is on the way... and now it is here!

Once again, I seem to have fallen WAY BEHIND on posting here... not sure why but things do seem to get in my way. This Coneflower image is from the end of July when our unusually hot summer had taken its toll on my garden... causing the Echinacea to finish blooming earlier than usual. This fading blossom struck me as photo ready so here you see it!

Something different for today... wild horse from the Pryor Mountains... Spring 2010

The Pryor Mountains, which span the Wyoming/Montana border, are home to a herd of wild horses. Although I grew up in Wyoming and Montana and have visited numerous times since heading east years ago to attend college (and staying after that until the present date), until this past June, I'd never visited the wild horse preserve. Now that we visit annually due to our ownership of a house in nearby Red Lodge, Montana, I spent a day with a high school classmate (an accomplished photographer) searching out the horses and photographing them. This is just one of the many images from our adventure... and I'm quite proud of it!

A dreamy image of tiny flowers... Summer, 2010

Another extension tube experiment... these are Plumbago larpentae blossoms... it is a lovely ground cover that, once established, may spread to areas where you'd rather not have it! BUT, the fairly shallow root system allows for easy removal. The tiny blossoms are about 20 mm in diameter and appear starting in mid to late July and continue their display well into late fall. (every year, I swear I'm going to note when it starts to bloom but time has a way of getting away from me rather easily)

Bumblebee on Blanket Flower... Summer, 2010

I've been experimenting with extension tubes paired with my 105mm macro lens. The trick is to follow bugs and snap a shot without using a tripod... hand holding a heavy lens with the added extension tube(s) is quite tricky but every now and then I get lucky! Hope you enjoy viewing this image... I was sure happy to see it once I got it onto my computer.

Update on Spam jerk who keeps trying to post comments on my blog: Blogspot finally has it set up so we can flag jerks such as this one by clicking the "Mark as spam" link in the message received when comment moderation is turned on. And I've followed up on a few of the reports I made by trying to find the jerk and his account generally disappears in short order. So I'll keep clicking the "Mark as spam" links and MAYBE one day he's going to give up completely.

Dawn's Early Light on a Field of Sunflowers, July 2010

Rising early in the morning has its benefits. This image is another one from a photography workshop given by Blue Ridge Workshops on July 11, 2010. If you are in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area and interested in a truly marvelous early morning workshop, this is given every year in July and well worth the money!