Photographing a Day Lily

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I noticed a stalk of day lily buds in the front flower bed recently – one of the few day lilies that bloom both in the spring and fall; it was something to bring inside rather than leave for a deer to eat! There were two types of photography I wanted to do with the flowers: macro and high key. Fortunately, several of the buds were mature enough to complete their development in my office.

The high key images were done with the first flower early in the morning with my Canon Powershot SX70 HS – handheld but stabilized on my knee as I sat in an office chair rolled to the far side of the room so that the zoom would focus. I had the vase with the opening flower positioned in front of the lamp.

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I tried three different positions for the flower. Which do you like best? I think the last one is my favorite.

Later in the day, the flower had opened completely, and I put the vase in my office window that gets afternoon sun.

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Another bud matured and opened a few days later…my opportunity for doing some macro shots. I used my phone with a clip on macro lens…discovered that my clicker’s battery was dead so I used voice commands to take the hand held pictures (voice commands do not work as well has the clicker since the timing is not as exact). The vase was on the window ledge on the cloudy day.

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I started out taking macro images of flower parts.

Then I noticed some white ‘foam’ and then something that moved. There were tiny insects on the flower and remaining buds! The one with defined antennae had very delicate looking wings. In the last image, it looks like one of them has just shed its skin (and is standing on it). The one with the wings might be an adult and all the rest are larval stages of that insect.

In the Middle Patuxent River – 2

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Before the students came to our water quality stations at the Middle Patuxent near King’s Contrivance, I did a little macro photography with my phone, clip on lens, and Bluetooth clicker. There was big rock at the edge of the river (very damp) that was covered with green. Moss or liverwort (not sure which).

Nearby there was a wing from an insect. I did a little research after I got home  and decided that it might be from a Dot-lined White Moth. They are a small moth with a wingspan of 25-62 mm. The wing was laying on the sandy rock surface.

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There were also a few plants growing along the bank. It was easy to take these pictures without bending over at all!

A few minutes…and I liked what I captured!

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2021

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Celebrating the waning of summer…the beginning of fall –

Brookside Gardens field trip. Spending a few hours at Brookside always results in at least one mini-celebrations. This month there were three: hummingbirds – bees – and roses.

New low weight for the year. With a whole month at home, I managed to control my diet….and achieved a low weight for the year --- 3 times (lower each time). I’m celebrating the achievement and working to continue the trend!

Easy flu shot. I celebrated how easy getting the flu shot was…no waiting, the pharmacy already having all my information.  And now I’m as protected as I can be for my next road trip.

Macro photography. Celebrating images capture with my phone, a clip on lens and a clicker!

Melons. The season for melons was winding down but we celebrated 2 tasty cantaloupes from the Farmers Market in September.

Early morning in the grocery store. I enjoy grocery shopping….and celebrate that I have the store almost to myself…a low risk return to ‘normal.’

Volunteering. Returning to volunteer gigs – doing outdoor programs with students.. it’s another celebration of going back to a pre-pandemic ‘normal’ that isn’t quite the same but just as satisfying.

Beautiful weather. Sunny days…cooler…a little breeze – this is the time of year that it gets easier to celebrate a day outdoors.

Ferns under the deck. I celebrated that there were more of them than I expected this year!

French fries. I have been dieting so carefully….it was a celebration to have French fries (and cut back enough on other foods that day to not make it a “weight gain” day)!

Macros – September 2021

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My smartphone, a clip on macro lens, and Bluetooth shutter control were the gear I used for the macro photos feathered in this month’s post. They are all from a short walk in Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant from the parking area and into the Honors Garden. The set up works very much like the bridge camera (with lens, diffuser, manual focus) in that I must get close to the subject and move the phone to get the focus perfect. It has the advantage of being a lot more compact than the other set up!

The rain from the night before had left everything with a sheen or droplets of water. Often the wet increased the richness of the colors…and the shine. The thin clouds provided good, diffuse light – a good day for smartphone macro photography. The cedar was on my way to honors garden.

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The seed pods on the magnolia were not flat enough to be an easy shot! The depth of field is very narrow with magnification.

I experimented with different perspectives of cone flowers

And asters. In the last picture, the depth of field gave me the blurring around the edges than I wanted.

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The birds nest fungus was in a mulched area near the parking lot. Some of the cups seem to hold water!

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Even grass seeds take on a different perspective in a zoomed image.

…And these are the best of the rest (note the insect hiding inside a flower)!

Wasp with One Wing

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On a recent walk around my yard looking for insects – I spotted a wasp on an allium in the chaos garden. I took a few pictures with my point and shot camera (zooming).

It wasn’t flying around so I decided to try to some macro shots with my bridge camera. Normally I would have been leery about being that close to a wasp, but it seemed to just be moving around the cluster of flowers. It was good practice.

It wasn’t until I got inside and was looking at the pictures on a large screen that I realized that the wasp was missing a wing! There was no way it was ever going to fly again.

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On the same walk – I saw a tiny leaf hopper on the nine bark bush. This is a clipped image…a lot more detail and pattern that I could see with my eye.

Macro Photography Practice (6 and 7)

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Continuing my practice sessions…

The big difference in the 6th and 7th practice sessions was location; instead of my yard, I was at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant. The 6th session was in and around the Honors Garden before a volunteer training class. There were late season flowers that made good subjects. There are two bugs; for one the light was wrong…and the other I didn’t notice while I was in the field (accidently in the picture)!

The 7th session was in the meadow. There were plenty of late flowers and seed pods. I’d taken a collapsible stool with me. It worked well but the backpack I was using for my gear didn’t. Next time I’ll use my many-pocket vest. Backpacks are great for the hiking part but terrible when doing the actual photography. I found it easier to already have my camera on a sling strap. The macro lens and diffuser can be in the many pocket vest along with a water bottle. The stool can clip onto the vest too. My favorite images are the two chicory flowers. The blue-purple color is wonderful, the shapes in the central part of the flower look like stylized palm trees and the pollen looks like sugar crystals!

It was a very hot, humid morning in the meadow, and we didn’t stay long.

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Making the bests of the time my husband was grumbling (and then heading back to the car), I used my position on the stool to take some zoomed images. The thistles had small insects in them…and the occasional skipper and butterfly. There was a milkweed pod that had split open, but the seeds were not spilling out yet.

The 7 macro photography practices session have been successful in acclimating me to the camera gear/configuration. Going forward – I’m adding a macro photography monthly post to my blog plan (keeping the zoom one too). The macro post will feature images that would be impossible to get via zoom!

Previous macro photography practice posts: 1 and 2 (includes gear); 3 and 4 (includes some indoor images); 5 (included Monarch chrysalis and increased magnification)

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2021

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So much to celebrate in August….

Drive through West Virginia. The beauty of the interstate in West Virginia (I64, I79, I68) that is part of my route from Springfield, Missouri to my home in Maryland is something to celebrate. It is full of curves, forests, mountains….and not a lot of traffic. It’s easy to enjoy as I drive.

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Cloud at sunset. Maybe it is being in the right place at the right time to see it that makes this a little celebration for me! This was taken from my office window.

Home again. I like to travel…but every time I do, I celebrate coming home. This time the delta variant ramped up while I was traveling and was relieved to get home…glad that my precautions on the road (vaccination last spring, masking, hand sanitizer, air purifier in hotel room, eating outdoors or in the car/hotel room) evidently worked.

Macro photography. My husband got me started with new gear and I’m improving although I am still at the stage of celebrating every in-focus image I get.

Stopping my diet Pepsi habit. I am celebrating more than 2 weeks free of my habit….still very consciously avoiding soft drinks completely!

Sunny day that was not overwhelmingly hot. We’ve had so many very hot days…that it was a treat to have one that was pleasant outdoors. My other strategy is to get some outdoor time before 8 AM before the day heats up.

Farmers Market. It’s fun to shop for veggies straight from the farm. In August, the cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, and peppers were all tasty. The watermelons may be what I celebrate the most.

Zentangle tiles make on the deck in the early morning. A celebration pf creativity to start the day.

Spaghetti squash custard. Yum. I celebrated the flavor and texture of a simple custard.

Video of a Monarch butterfly emerging. Probably the high point of August for me. I’ve always wanted to capture the moment. And this time I did!

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Macro Photography Practice (5)

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Continuing my practice sessions…

Finding the Monarch chrysalis was the prompt for the fifth practice. There are so few of them these days; very different from the 1990s. I sat on a gardening stool to be comfortable and worked to get magnified views of the golden beads and the top of the chrysalis. The water droplets were just nice ‘extras.’

While I was busy with the chrysalis, a cabbage white sat for a few seconds on a nearby plant. It wasn’t a good angle and the picture is not sharp…but it was the first active insect for my practice session. I’ll be trying for more of these. The trick it to practice enough to be able to focus quickly!

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I practiced on a mint flower and a leaf….higher magnification that I’d attempted before.

There was a sticker like weed (one that I pull when I find it) within easy distance of my seat on the stool so I did a series of images – with increasing magnification. It was a more interesting subject than I anticipated!

I tried the same thing with a nearby day lily leaf – without as much success. The colors are somewhat interesting but my focus is off in some of the images…..more practice required.

Previous practice post: 1 and 2 (includes gear); 3 and 4 (includes some indoors images)

Macro Photography Practice (3 and 4)

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Continuing my practice sessions…

Getting the gear and camera settings set gets easier with every practice. My skill with composition and focus still has a ways to go.

My third practice was disappointing. I felt rushed. I returned to the holly, oak leaves, azalea, mint blooms, a black eyed susan, clover and a maple leaf. The subjects were OK but I didn’t get the magnification I wanted.

The fourth practice was on a rainy day and I was indoors. I looked at some cicada wings I had picked up during the 17 year cicada peak. The glare from the flash on the clear part of the wing was hard to avoid…I decided I liked the look of ‘lightning’ within the wing in the last image.

I had a dried out piece of ginger – getting a macro view of the outside and the cut end.

Even printed materials can take on a different look when magnified.

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The lid on my countertop collection bin for compostables has condensation on the end inside. Taken through the plastic, the droplets have a metallic sheen.

There was a leaf that had dried and fallen from a house plant. I liked the focus on the curve in the macro image – choosing this one from other focus points I had experimented in the practice.

I’ll improve with more practice….but am pleased with at least some of the results now. It’s encouraging enough to continue the practice!

Previous practice post: 1 and 2 (includes gear)

Macro Photography Practice (1 and 2)

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My husband got me started on a more advanced form (for me) of macro photography by sending me some YouTube links (this one from Micael Widell was the first) and identifying the gear that would work with my Canon PowerShot SX70 HS. After talking to me about the possibilities with my camera and sending some sample images he had captured with a similar set up on his more substantial camera to encourage me (posted a few weeks ago here), he ordered the filter adapter for my camera…

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And the macro lens.

I used the same diffuser that fits over the front of the camera as he used with his camera (we got another one since we will be going into the field together once I get enough practice).

The new gear purchases were about $100. Here’s the way my camera looks ready for my practice – from the front and back. The idea is to be able to hand hold the camera (i.e. no tripod) – often with one hand – when in the field.

The technique works best with manual focus and flash…two features of my camera that I haven’t used very much. The idea is to set the manual focus to a particular distance and then leave it alone in the field and simply move the camera to get the focus desired.

It was easier for me to start with plants in my yard in my first sessions. I found that I could get reasonable results with autofocus (still having to move the camera to get the focus on the part of the image I wanted) for plants…but it takes more time than manual focus….which would be problematic for insects that are more likely to move.

Here are the collection of my best images from my first two practice sessions.

Black eyed susans

Mint flowers

Lichen and moss

Ninebark leaves

Bush cut branch and water droplets on leaves

Wild strawberry

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And finally – an insect during my second practice session.

The image below is cropped from the image on the left above.

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Overall I am pleased with my first attempts…but still need more practice!

Vicarious Macro Photography

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While I was on my road trip to Springfield, MO and Carrollton, TX – my husband started a macro photography project: handheld and in the field. I asked him to email me some of his initial results and was impressed with the collection he sent. I selected 4 to include in this post.

His project started with a webinar and some new gear (some of which will fit on my camera too with the appropriate adapter). The blue-purple flower in the pictures is chicory. I expect we’re both going to enjoy macro photography forays well into the fall!

Day Lily Portraits

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Day lily flowers are at their best outdoors in the morning….just after they open.

We have day lilies in three areas of our yard: the front flower bed near the garage, in the back in an area close the house that now gets too much shade for them to do well, and at the base of the oak.

Most of the buds are eaten by deer before they can open so I try to cut the flowers if they manage to open outdoors and the buds when they are large enough to continue their cycle in a vase. The images below show a bud that opened indoors on the first morning….and one that had opened the previous morning.

I like to try high key images with the day lilies indoors as well.

The flowers dry and fall off after they bloom. They retain some of their color and I like the curls, twists, and wrinkles.

I also photograph them with the clip-on magnifier for my phone…and the clicker to cause the phone to take the picture (making it easier to hold the phone steady). The color and texture look different when they are magnified. The pollen is visible if a petal did not cover it as the flower dried.

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Macro Iris

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As we cut the spent flowers from the clumps of iris around the yard (to keep the plants from expending energy growing seed pods) – we brought the flowers and buds inside for a bouquet on the table.

That bouquet created a great opportunity for macro photography of the ‘beards’ and frills of the petals. They are large enough that my 5x magnifier with light was sufficient to get the magnification I wanted. I experimented with different angles and tried to get at least one view of all the colors in the vase.

I read that pollinators hold onto the beard structure to enter and exit the flower in pursuit of nectar!

Sleet and Snowflake Macros

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I try to do some photography with my phone and clip-on macro lens with every snow event. On the 13th, the snow event was mostly sleet, but I enjoyed looking at and photographing the tiny spheres of ice. I caught them on a red glass plate...and also scooped a few onto the plate from the surface of the deck. Sleet is more durable to rough treatment that snowflakes! The icy spheres have swirls in them…smaller ones are stuck to larger ones…sometimes there is a visible fracture. My lens is a 65x magnification, so these are very small.

On the 19th, the tail end of our cold weather was snow rather than freezing rain. The temperature was about 30 degrees – a bit colder than my previous snowflake photography forays…and it turned out to be an interesting session. The flakes looked somewhat flattened….not as delicate as they might be if the temperature was lower. But – I didn’t have the challenge of inseparable aggregates that was the norm for my sessions when the temperature was just a few degrees warmer. I used a black acrylic tile to catch the flakes and then to photography them. It sat outside on the covered deck for several hours to cool down. I was pleased with the results…chagrined that I had forgotten to turn on the light associated with the clip-on lens; the pictures would have been even better with the extra light….an improvement I’ll make next time!

Tree Trunk Macros – Part 2

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A few days ago, I posted some macro images of our sycamore and cherry tree trunks. Today the macro images are of our Thundercloud Plum and Red Oak tree trunks.

The plum tree bark has fissures and a reddish tinge – maybe from the same pigment that makes its leaves red purple in summer. There are small growths of lichen. The tree is not as well colonized as the cherry but seems to have some the same type of lichen.

The red oak is a mini-ecosystem complete with the lichen (some with a dendritic type of growth) and moss. I appreciate the moss in the winter because it is the greenest thing in our front yard!

The oak also supports some Virginia Creeper vines…with moss and lichen growing under them. The suction cup like attachment to the tree are covered over by the moss.

Overall, this photographic project in our yard has encouraged me to try it someplace else. Maybe I’ll do some tree trunk photography down by the neighborhood pond or into the forest behind our house. Stay tuned.

Flower Macros – January 2021

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This past week has been a swirl of stressful news…events in DC, pandemic stats and the UK variant, realizing that too many people have complete trust in and idolize a person (our President) that is not trustworthy. I did several rounds of macro photography of flowers to try to regain my equilibrium…maybe the activity helped for a little. I used my phone with a 5x magnifying glass (built-in LED) attached with a rubber band; I had my clicker on the lanyard to control the shutter so I could focus on getting the phone into the position I wanted with the other hand.

The first-round subject was some alstroemeria petals that has fallen from the bouquet I bought more then 3 weeks ago. I embedded them in a thin sheet of ice. I popped the ice off the lid I had used as a container and put them on a red glass plate. I quickly discovered that pouring a little water on the ice made it easier to get the images I wanted….petals, ice with bubbles and cracks, red glass plate underneath – sometimes all three and sometimes just ice and glass.

The second-round subjects were the flowers I bought in the early morning of January 6th (the events of the day are probably going to be seared in my memory a much as the day Kennedy was assassinated and 9/11). There are alstroemeria in the bouquet that were buds on the day of purchase and are now fully open. There are also other flowers….they call it a ‘field mix’ and I like the variety! Enjoy the slide show.

Remnants of Snow

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Once we had snow on the ground, the cold kept it there for a few days. There was slow melting in the daytime but hard freezes at night – down to 20 degrees on one night.

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I decided to try some 5x magnification photography with my phone using a magnifier with a light feature. A rubber band held the magnifier positioned over the phone’s camera which allowed me to hold it with one hand and use a external clicker to take pictures (I could have used voice commands but they aren’t as reliable as the clicker which I wore on a lanyard around my neck).

The depth of field makes it challenging to have everything in focus, but I picked images for the slideshow below where the blurred part is not essential to seeing the remnants of snow. I think some of the structures were just as they fell as snow and others were from re-freezing that occurred over several nights.

All these were taken in the early morning…very cold…on my front porch. The day was cloudy so the majority of the light was coming from the magnifier’s LED.

Around the House Macro – December 2020

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A quick walk around the house looking at familiar items with the 5x magnifying lens with a light…photographing through it with my phone.

The first stop was the vase of peacock feathers from my maternal grandmother in the early 80s. She had peacocks and picked up feathers as they were shed. I got a bouquet of them one Christmas. I put the feathers in a tall gold glass vase I’d bought in the 1960s – purchased with my allowance when we were shopping for school supplies one fall. They’ve been in that vase all along….moved to a new house twice. The colors are still iridescent and vibrant – to be expected with structural color.

The second stop was to purchased flowers….a sunflower dried and on the window sill purchased fresh more than a month ago, the other a little over two weeks old but still vibrant.

The third stop was a peacock feathered ornament my sister bought about 10 years ago. It was interesting to compare the feathers to the ones from the vase that are so much older. Maybe with more magnification they would look more different.

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Lastly – a macramé knot from a wall hanging one of my sisters in the 1980s for a Christmas gift.  

These are the most visually pleasing items in my office – beautiful on their own and full of my personal history. Together with the view from the window, they make it my favorite room in the house.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Last big leaf on the sycamore. The last big leaf has fallen from the sycamore. I kept taking pictures of it in the afternoon almost every day. This one was taken the day before it fell. It retained a bit of golden color until the end. Its falling has symbolized the shift from fall to winter for me this year.

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Gleanings of the Week Ending September 5, 2020

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Why cavemen needed no braces – Our diet and behavior have changed a lot since the stone and hunter/gather stages of our species….and those changes have impacted our jaw (and teeth and air way). There are more health consequences than just crooked teeth. I’ve bought the book (Kindle version) to learn more.

Characteristics that give viruses pandemic potential – An article from The Scientist that is more future oriented. What we are experiencing with COVID-19 is something that could happen again. The article talks about various types of viruses that pose the greatest threats.

Peer into the Past with Photorealistic Portraits of Roman Emperors – Taking historical sculptures and drawings to the next level. The Smithsonian Magazine summary has images of Augustus, Maximus Thrax, Caligula, and Nero….the rest can be viewed in Daniel Voshart’s site.

Amazing Macro Winners of the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2020 – Visual treats. This it the type post that gives me ideas about things to try with my own camera.

1,200-Year-Old Soap Factory Unearthed in Negev Desert – The soap was made from olive oil and the ashes of the saltwort plant. The factory produced enough for export to places like Egypt and other parts of the Arab world.

Low humidity increases COVID-19 risk: Another reason to wear a mask – This finding does not bode well for the winter when many homes and workplaces have much lower humidity because of furnaces.

Top 25 birds of the week: Birds in Pairs – Beautiful birds….I always enjoy looking at the 25 pictures each week.

Hawaiʻian Snails: A Tale of Discovery and Rediscovery – I remember seeing a snail in a planter box at the airport on the big island while I was waiting for my luggage a few years ago…and I dug up the picture I took when this article prompted the memory.

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Wolverines Seen Roaming About Mount Rainier National Park – What a boon remotely triggered cameras can be….and then DNA testing of hair to determine relationships!

 Meet the Squad of Mosquito-Eating Species – Birds, dragonflies, newts, aquatic turtles, and bats. We haven’t noticed very many mosquitoes around this year, but we try to replace the water in our bird baths frequently and make sure our gutters are draining properly. Having the birds around our house probably helps…and the turtles at the neighborhood pond do their part.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Going to the basement during a storm. Our phones went off with tornado warnings – which is rare in Maryland. We went to the basement. It turned out to be only heavy rain for us (not very windy either); to the east and south of where we live there was a lot of damage with trees/big branches falling and shingles flying.

Cleaning the leaves off the deck. Over the past week we’ve had several fronts come through that have blown leaves and branches onto our deck. They were still wet when I went out to clean up. I dumped the sediment that had accumulated in the bird bath too.

Finding Witches’ Butter. I photographed the fruiting bodies of Witches’ Butter on our deck railing. The deck is over 25 years old and even regular treatment can’t keep it clear for fungus; it is only visible during times when the wood is wet for several days.  

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I’m more concerned about a window frame that has the same fungus growing. I’m not keen about replacing the window but we might have to consider it.

Grapevine Wreath

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When I was working in the front flower bed, I found a wild grapevine growing up through one of the bushes. It’s native but not growing in a place I could let it continue. I pulled it out but instead of carrying it back to the brush pile with the blackberry vines and grass and weeds….I kept it…thinking I would make a small wreath. I’d learned how in some class I had taken over 30 years ago; simply coil the vine and then twist until it holds the coil.

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I got busy with other things and didn’t remember my plan until the next day. It occurred to me that it would be its most flexible before it dried. When I examined it more closely, I realized that it had some small branches of the bush I had pulled it from; its tendrils were stronger than the twigs’ attachment to the bush. I untangled the twigs and then began the wreath making. I opted to make the wreath with the leaves intact – knowing they would dry up and be easily crumbled off before I would add a red bow or a sprig of holly next December. Of course – I might decide to put a red, white, and blue bow on it for the 4th of July.


Unique activities for yesterday:

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Pretty fly. It seems like every time I take a quick look at the front flower bed there are different bugs to photograph. This one was on the milkweed. I only got one picture before it flew away. The black lattice of the wings and the red of the eyes are quite striking. I used my usual technique: taking the picture with my cell phone as close as I could focus then clipping the part of the image I wanted to show with more magnification.

Fallen day lily. Sometimes the color deepens as the flower ages. The day lilies I brought inside are on the second round of flowers. The flowers start out a robust yellow and then are almost orange when they are ‘spent.’ This dried one is from the first round. It detached itself as the second round started.

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Cardinal nestlings. My sister sent me a picture from her house in Texas. The nest is in a boxwood by her front door! Now that we are all at home more, we have time to savor these natural events.

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Magnolia blooming. I love to photograph the big white magnolia flowers, but we don’t have a tree in our yard. My sister in Texas has one…and took a picture!

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