I may not have found them blooming on July 6, but I did find them blooming on July 10 in 2016 at Hawley Bog. With that bit of knowledge I’ll look again this weekend if there is a lull in the effects of Tropical Storm Fay.
And in keeping with the series of dew drop shots lately, here’s one from that day also.
T.G.I.F. everyone. 🙂
Although I missed the full moon the other night, thanks clouds, I did see this gibbous moon at 3 this morning.
I have been photographing the moon from my backyard using the Canon SX-60 (faux 1365mm) which does nice job. But decided to use the Tamron 100-400 and their 2x extender. It did a very nice job and I am impressed with this combination.
I actually prefer to photograph full frame shots of moons that are partially full because they are sidelit which allows more surface texture to be captured.
Before I went to the meadow on July 5 (Strangalepta Flower Longhorn Beetle and Grass Pink), I took a look at North Quabbin but in the dim light and not very inspiring fog (it’s not always great) left and drove down to Quabbin Park, it wasn’t opened yet, then decided to go to the swamp. Driving by the beaver pond on Route 9 I noticed a great blue heron out in the middle on one of the wood duck boxes. I put the Tamron 2x extender on the Tamron 400 and hid behind some cattails and made this shot between a few of them.
A funny thing I noticed about the Tamron 2.0 extender…on the Tamron 400 it does double the length so this was at 800mm. On my Canon 180 macro the metadata says the length was 252mm. When I purchased it the write up said it would only work on the Tamron but I figured that was just for autofocus so tried it on the macro. Obviously it worked for the Appalachian Brown but there must be something about the way it physically deals with the Canon that doesn’t double the 180. Anyway, I just purchased a Canon 2.0x, not here quite yet, at a good price used so next time the 180 will be doubled.
I did go to Brickyard Meadow with a mission in mind but as I mentioned that was not happening. However, there was a lot to see before I got to that butterfly or discovered the lack of Canada Lily blooms.
I would have liked to get a bit more parallel to capture the lower drops on this next image a little sharper. But this is a great metaphor for how all things in Nature are connected. The least move from even three feet away wiggled this and everything around it and the drops would have fallen which did happen with another composition.
The other subject on my mission was to do some abstracts with Black-eyed Susans, but they are a little late where I like to visit them just like the lilies. However, while inspecting this one I found someone looking back at me and tipping his hat.
All these selfies lately have me fearing that I am getting a bit narcissistic. 🙂
I headed out this morning with Canada Lilies on my mind. I found one plant that apparently is running a bit late and only had buds, no open blooms yet. Others have posted images on Facebook of them from different locations so someone is bit tardy.
On the way to that spot, I photographed grasses with dew and dewy spider gossamer as well as a few insects…and a selfie in a dew drop…later on that. 🙂 After all that I headed back toward the car and saw a butterfly flitting across Brickyard Meadow and gave chase. Every time I put the tripod down off it would go, finally dropping down into some grasses where I guess it thought itself hidden. I found a small opening through the stalks and made a couple of images with the 180. Then I put on my 2x extender giving me 360mm and almost a frame filler.
Appalachian Brown-Satyrodes appalachia
Canon 5D Mark IV, 180 macro+2x Tamron Extender, f/16@1.3 sec, ISO 100, tripod, slight crop to square.
It’s a bit darker than I would like. The light, what little there was, is behind the butterfly and I could only bring that up so far in post-processing without it getting a washed out appearance. I did have a reflector but was far enough away that it probably wouldn’t have done much except possibly scaring it off. For once I wish I carried a flash. 🙂 But the detail is retained and everything is pretty sharp.
Among a few other subjects that I found in the meadow was most likely the last of the Grass Pinks-Calopogon tuberosus that I will photograph this season. Most are long past and not looking good even for a “spent” image. I might renege on that but it’s doubtful.
Beetle, actually. Strangalepta Flower Longhorn Beetle-Strangalepta abbreviata on White Meadowsweet-Spiraea alba.
I visited the swampy meadow again this morning after being clouded out for the full moonset. I was hoping to see something new, which this is, along with whatever else might appear. The larvae live in rotting conifers and the adults enjoy various flowers, not at all specific.
Canon 5D Mark IV with the Canon 180 macro +CP, f/8 @1/15 sec, ISO 800 on tripod…there was a slight breeze and the morning was just a bit dim.
So yeah, I do get up pretty early every day. But this past Friday morning, which I had off from work, saw Bentley decide he needed to go out at 1:30. I opted to stay awake and catch up on my email notifications of everyone’s blog posts and lasted until 5ish when I made it as far as the end of the driveway to catch this image then went back to recliner for a few hours.
Red Milkweed Longhorn Beetle-Tetraopes tetrophthalmus
