October snowfall in the country

Because there's nothing as serene as seeing the countryside covered in a fresh sheet of snow! - Anonymous

On the way to town this morning, I captured this scene with my iPhone.  I don't like the cold weather, but I love the snow!  This image brings back good childhood memories of snowy winters in my hometown of Baltimore!

Drama in the skies...

Who doesn't love drama in the skies?  From a distance of course!  It's a bit scary to be out in bad weather but it was hard to let these dramatic scenes pass by without capturing them.  Since the sun was setting the sky reflected some awesome colors.  My favorites taken from our front porch on this late day in June are provided below.  Enjoy!

Harvest time, prairie wildflowers and butterflies

This year was my first for capturing golden wheat ready for harvest.  It was the same time wild prairie roses bloom along with the milkweed and blue sage wildflowers.  The pearl crescent butterflies took advantage of the milkweed plant and didn't mind being photographed, letting me get real close to them.  My favorite images captured on this beautiful day in June are included below.  Enjoy!

Wildflowers backlit during the "golden hour"

My favorite time to photograph outside is during the "golden hour."  The following flowers with their identifying comments below were photographed using the sun as a backlight during the "golden hour."  Enjoy!

The next three images are purple coneflowers.  My favorite is the second image with its colorful background.  Shooting with a wide aperture lens when backlighting makes for beautiful background colors!

These daisy fleabane wildflowers are so tiny and so much in abundance!

This daisy fleabane image was taken from above in the warm light of the "golden hour."

This unique milkweed is called green comet; very fitting name, isn't it?

A bumble bee feasts on this milkweed called spider antelopehorn inflorescence.  What an interesting name!

A caterpillar on the milkweed plant, same type as above.

Last but not least is this cobaea beardtongue wildflower!  You can see it's furry tongue sticking out of the flower!

The first wildflowers this spring...

Overcast days bring out the rich colors of the wildflowers and the green grass.  The images below with their descriptions were the first wildflowers to bloom this spring.  Enjoy!

Berlandier's evening primrose are very tiny and tall wildflowers and this closeup gives the impression they are bigger than what they really are!

I waited too late to catch these wild blue-indigo as they were well eaten by bugs. 

Love using macro lens to get closeups of these beardtongue wildflowers.  The name is very fitting!

These Missouri evening primroses were plentiful this year! 

The heart of this Missouri evening primrose is so beautiful!

This bug was watching me take its picture while feasting on this pink evening primrose.

Tried to find wild blue-indigo that hadn't been marred by bug bites.  Love the purple and green colors!

This goatsbeard macro shows these tiny white seeds that I didn't notice till I looked on the computer.

I like how the leaves in the background frame this young purple coneflower!   Be looking for my next set of wildflowers taken during the "golden hour" of sunset.

Marjorie's tulip photos

On our photo safari to capture tulips, Marjorie used a 35mm lens on a Canon 5D Mark II camera while I used my Sony a6000 camera with a macro lens.  While en route to Topeka, I coached Marjorie on how to operate the professional camera as I wanted to use every minute in Topeka photographing tulips!  I got a kick out of the hearing about Marjorie telling her mom I talked all the way to Topeka! 

Marjorie did an excellent job and I'm proud and honored to show off her images.  One of her beautiful images is shown below; however, a slideshow of  all her captures are available for viewing on vimeo here.  Enjoy!

The heart of a tulip!

My "third daughter" Marjorie and I drove to Topeka to photograph the tulips at the Ted Ensley Garden.   My favorites from the images I took are shown below.  On most of my images, I used a macro feature of my 90nm Sony lens so that I could get in close to photograph the "heart" of some tulips.  Macro photography is like viewing nature from a different world!  It's amazing!

In a few days I will share Marjorie's tulip images in the form of a slideshow, so be on the lookout!