2014, Day 231 - Folded

It is almost like origami, delicately folded petals tightly packed together in radiant color to make a perfect flower.  It is simple and vibrant, in its time this flower will feed and house a number of insects who will show their gratitude with pollination.

Canon 1D X, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f5.6, 1/320 sec @ 2000 ISO

2014, Day 229 - Diamonds

Kissed by an evening shower the dahlias are blooming and putting on a pretty amazing show.  It is time to get out there again and look for insects to accompany my flowers.

Canon 1D X, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f5.6, 1/250 sec @ 2000 ISO

2014, Day 157 - Dewey eyed

It has been warm and sunny and to be honest it is freaking me out.  I am not used to such nice weather this early in the year and I'm constantly waiting for it to change to something truly unpleasant but I hope it doesn't take the form of a heat wave.  Ideally, if I have to be outside during the summer, I scuttle from shady spot to shady spot and I hate when my vitamin D deficiency is thwarted.

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 60/f2.4R
60mm, f5.6, 1/340 sec @ 200 ISO

2014, Day 148 - Diamonds

The camas have come and mostly gone but they gave us a few glorious weeks.  Their richly color petals caught the lights and the light rain made the dewy droplets sparkle like diamonds whenever the clouds broke long enough for the sun to momentarily dazzle our winter eyes.  The landscape is getting more lush by the day and the beauty of the Pacific Northwest is being slowly revealed.

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 10-24/f4R OIS
21.9mm, f5.6, 1/240 sec @ 200 ISO

2014, Day 128 - Beads

At this time of year the one upshot of the rain, because we're all getting a little tired of it, are all the raindrops of petals and leaves.

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 60/f2.4R
60mm, f5.6, 1/125 sec @ 500 ISO

2014, Day 106 - Orbs

It has been raining again and after I took the dogs in this morning for their dentals I stopped to take a few pictures.  When I passed by Portland Nursery I noticed that their hostas were getting big so I had to stop and I found that there were beautiful little droplets of water of the leaves.

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 60/f2.4R
60mm, f4, 1/125 sec @ 200 ISO

2014, Day 101 - Interlocking

I love wood sorrel, it is so lush and vibrant and it brightens every garden.  There is a little bit in my yard, it is just getting established and I hope that it really takes off this year.  Gardening has never really been my forte but since starting the yard from scratch last year I take a much greater interest and find even the little things exciting now.  Not that I want to lose years of my life in a flash but I am anxious to see how it looks when it is well established.  Oh well, I suppose I'll have to be patient.

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 60/f2.4R
60mm, f5.6, 1/125 sec @ 500 ISO

2014, Day 95 - Tufts

Life is in the detail, in the little pleasures.  That is what I like about macro photography, there is alway something to see, a little surprise that should be captured lest it be ignored and lost forever.  I was walking past a patch of ground cover that looked like a mat of little ferns when I noticed chartreuse flowers dotting the rich greens and purples of the foliage.  It took only a minute to take a few pictures, to find the right composition after which I continued on my way.  Stop and take in the details, it makes a difference.

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 60/f2.4R
60mm, f4, 1/125 sec @ 250 ISO

2013, Day 260 - Hooked

There is more rain coming and the cold weather that it brings will create more sleepy bees.  I wonder how their muscles work, why they can hang from a flower for hours at a time without fatigue.  It would be neat to be able to do the same thing but I don't think I would want an exoskeleton.  While armor would be fun it probably wouldn't be practical.

Canon 1D X, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f4, 1/100 sec @ 1250 ISO

2013, Day 256 - Dangling

There was a nice mist falling this morning.  Not so heavy as to soak through your clothes, just enough to leave the world feeling dewy.  Knowing that the dahlia season will be coming to an end in the next few weeks I decided to make a stop off before my morning errands and take some flower pictures.  Well, true to form, I was completely distracted by the insects and this bee in particular.  He was just hanging off a petal and covered in dew with the morning light filtering though the clouds giving him a little backlighting.  A typical wet Portland morning.

Canon 1D X, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f4, 1/80 sec @ 640 ISO

2012, Day 37 - Orbs

It's Monday so time to break out a macro shot.  This was taken at Silver Falls yesterday morning and if you look at the moss you can see frost but the ice has melted on the shoots so that the sunlight reflects off the drops as if they were hundreds of little diamonds.

I am really excited for the weekend, there is so much to do before then but I am headed out to central Oregon with some friends to go snowshoeing.  It should be a blast and I have so few photos of snow-covered landscapes.  In the meantime it is back to the grind :)

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f5.6, 1/13 sec @ 125 ISO