Flower farm in Lompoc, California, U.S.A. (© Craig Aurness/Corbis)

Butterfly on Flowers, Cithaerias merolina the Glass Wing Butterfly (© Darrell Gulin/DanitaDelimont.com)

Weeds and Wild Flowers

Continued from my walk by the fishing hole....

This is a weed. We see them everywhere. They show up in lawns and we mow them down.
A type of dandelion?



This tiny wild flower is smaller than a dime.. graceful and delicate.

Bee on Yellow Flower

Rose After The Rain

I'm off to a Poverty Conference in Salem for 3 days. This is usually a good conference and I generally come back full of enthusiasm and ready to save the world. Tired after 3 days of workshops.. but enthusiastic non-the-less :)

Butterfly...finally!

I have been trying to get a good photo of a butterfly for years! Last weekend I went out to the Butterfly Pavilian in Elkton Oregon and found this beautiful Monarch flitting around in the garden. I followed her around snapping shot after shot while trying to stay out of view of a wedding that was taking place a few rows of flowers over.

Isn't she beautiful? I was amazed that her body has the exact same markings as the row of dots on the outside of her wings. Ralph Lauren couldn't have dressed her any better.

Be sure to check out other Camera Critters here

4th of July Cactus

This cactus gave us a wonderful 4th of July surprise. These gorgeous flowers greeted us when we went out in the yard in the morning.



Each bloom had a tiny white flower in the center.



It was like having our own tiny fireworks in the back yard. What a Happy Birthday America treat!



I'm looking forward to the 4th of July next year.

Deadly Embrace

I thought I had posted this shot before but couldn't find it so maybe I didn't. Its from last year. I know.... I've been digginig in my archives a lot lately. Hopefully this weekend I can get out and get some new stuff :)



I had a good time in Salem. It was a business trip but I have a very cool and fun staff so we had fun despite the meetings. Thanks Angela, Carmen, Letitia, Mikki and Virginia.

Sue, I waved at all the young, good looking men in Salem. Maybe one was your son :)

I changed the title.. I liked Salty's title better.

Lavendar

I'm off to Salem for a couple days. See you when I get back.

Another Bee

Wishy

So delicate and beautiful and so unwanted in the lawn.

Bee on Yellow Flower

I'm so so so tired of summer. I can't get out and get any decent photos when there is nothing but bright sun all day. I dug through my archives for this shot.

Artichoke

I discovered this lone artichoke in a flower bed at work. I don't know anything about them but I think you're supposed to pick them before they flower. I think seeing the flower is worth giving up eating the veggie though.

Beautiful Illusion

(fine print) Now that I have fooled you all I have to admit I cheated here. I didn't tell you because I wanted to see if you could tell. This is my flower but not my butterfly. I added the butterfly later. It is a "tube" in Paint Shop Pro. Ben, you were closest to discovering the truth. The flowers were tiny and the butterfly should have been bigger to be more in proportion.

Rose in Rain

A change of pace.

I went to the coast today and the weather was wonderfully cool! It even sprinkled a bit :) I went to Shore Acres Botanical Gardens and the flowers were beautiful.

I'm not sure how this came out with a black background but I like it. It came this way from the camera.

Plum

Playing With Daisies

I Just had a few minutes to grab a shot this afternoon so I went out to the yard and picked a small daisy. I haven't used my macro lens for awhile so stuck the daisy stem in a hole in my fence to get a few close up shots. The flower head is about a half inch across.

I decided to try something I have heard others talk about but have never tried myself. I reversed the lens on my camera, holding it in place while shooting. You can get an attachment that will hold the lens in place but I don't have one.

I didn't use a tripod and trying to hold the lens in place and focus was quite a challenge so the images aren't sharp but I was amazed at how much closer you can get using this method.



And then, of course, I had to play with them in Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop.



I used another daisy with a little pink on it for this extra close shot.



I'll be trying this experiment again.

Miniature Flower

I'm doing a 30 day Macro Challenge on DPChallenge where I post a macro shot every day for 30 days. Some of those photos might end up here, such as this one. This is a tiny flower from a Mexican Tomato plant in my garden.

Flower Wagon

This wagon sits next to a local produce stand.

Flowering Thistle