Zinnias
/I can remember my grandmother planting zinnias in her vegetable garden – to give the mostly green vegetation some extra color. They work well for me in pots on my deck now. I enjoy photographing the flowers…and have picked some of my favorites from recent weeks. I’ve been experimenting with using the zoom on the camera rather than getting close. It makes a nicely blurred background (green from trees) and sometimes there is a surprise insect (an early instar of something that is almost clear on the underside of the rightmost petal). At the highest magnification - past what the lenses of the camera support and essentially cropping in the camera - the image has a painterly soft-focus.
![](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a947c9893fc067169a1515/t/59a9d81e02d7bca420cfbe5f/1471110540913/1000w/2016+08+IMG_8864.jpg)
Sometimes the background is black because of the way the light is – or isn’t.
![](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a947c9893fc067169a1515/t/59a9d81e02d7bca420cfbe60/1471110595667/1000w/2016+08+IMG_8859.jpg)
I try to get above the flower so that inside shows.
![](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a947c9893fc067169a1515/t/59a9d81e02d7bca420cfbe61/1471110618022/1000w/2016+08+IMG_8965.jpg)
The one with multiple rows of petals also has a spider web! All of the flowers that have petals attract butterflies. Tiger swallowtails are the most frequent visitors.
![](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a947c9893fc067169a1515/t/59a9d81e02d7bca420cfbe62/1471110656753/1000w/2016+08+IMG_8854.jpg)
Once the petals begin to fall off, the seeds are beginning to form and that means that the goldfinches will visit more frequently.
![](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a947c9893fc067169a1515/t/59a9d81e02d7bca420cfbe63/1471110678069/1000w/2016+08+IMG_8856.jpg)
I let them eat their fill. There are always enough left in the seed heads to crumble into the pots for another round of zinnias next summer.