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“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust It seems to be butterfly and bug week for me. Butterflies, especially, have been sparse this year, though small months are plentiful, yet elusive. The butterflies also serve as subject matter as flowering plants seem to be in a transition phase, many is seed and others just budding. When I went hiking during… Read More
“Miracles… seem to me to rest not so much upon… healing power coming suddenly near us from afar but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that, for a moment, our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there around us always.” ― Willa Cather For those living in the path of today’s solar eclipse, I’m sure it will be tough to compete with the spectacle in the sky. If… Read More
“There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.” ― Lemony Snicket For the past several days, I’ve watched one or two monarch butterflies on my purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpura) and I have not had my camera handy. By the time I gathered my camera and got outside, it seems the butterflies… Read More
“There’s a special quality to the loneliness of dusk, a melancholy more brooding even than the night’s.” ― Ed Gorman After a day filled with sunshine, family, volleyball, and too much food, a quick dip in the lake after the sun has set is in order. As I considered this photo of my son standing in the shallow beach waters at Sauble beach, surrounded by the incredible reflected dusk, I realized how strange… Read More
“When one with honeyed words but evil mind Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.” ― Euripides Continuing on my “purple phase” theme, here’s a beautiful invader. Though a beautiful flowering plant, in Ontario and other areas where it was introduced as a garden flower, this garden escapee soon established itself in meadows and wetlands, crowding out native plants. It spreads through rapidly spreading rhizomes and seeds. Each plant can produce over… Read More
“Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.” – Jeremy Bentham What looked like delicate thistles from a distance turned out to be Knapweed. The dunes and roadside around Sauble Beach were filled with them. It’s yet another flowering plant that I seem to have overlooked in the past. I suppose it’s because I am deliberately looking for new wildflowers to photograph and… Read More
“For a while” is a phrase whose length can’t be measured. At least by the person who’s waiting.” ― Haruki Murakami When composing this image, my eyes were first drawn to the warm and cool layers of light on the water as well as the texture of the water itself, the first caused by patchy clouds and the second, by high winds blowing off Lake Huron. The seagull, seems quite at peace i… Read More
“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.” ― Rachel Carson I get great enjoyment photographing plants and animals in areas away from home and the sand dunes of Sauble Beach are no exception. I came across many plants which survive well in the dry sand dunes which bound the back of the beach. Many still need to be looked up… Read More
“All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.” ― Arthur C. Clarke I made this image almost immediately upon my arrival at Ontario’s Sauble Beach. The forecast was for a mostly rainy weekend and our group had resigned itself that it might not be ideal for playing our favourite beach sport, volleyball. As we drove towards the lake… Read More
“I drag myself over to the honeysuckle bush and pluck a flower. I gently pull the stamen through the blossom and set the drop of nectar on my tongue. The sweetness spreads through my mouth, down my throat, warming my veins with memories of summer.” – Suzanne Collins I don’t believe there are many fragrances that compare with honeysuckle on a warm summer evening. As I walked the narrow roadways and access points at… Read More
“The beauty of the unexpected lies within the surprise of the momentum, not only at its tipping point, but also within all the moments waiting.” ― Akilnathan Logeswaran Sauble Beach, on Ontario’s Lake Huron, is known for its sunsets. This one did not disappoint. It was the last day of a long weekend with friends and family. We had just finished our supper and packing the car for the drive back home, when… Read More
“If you want the beautiful moments to shine, you have to contrast that with dark and gruesome moments. That’s the way life is.” – Tony DiTerlizzi One of the many common blossom in this ‘purple phase’ of summer blooms is, of course, the Bull Thistle. Though, it could almost make it for the ‘pink phase’ as well. During my drives north, I have seen many Bull Thistles blooming and wondered what was… Read More
“Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream.” – Debby Boone The next stage after the blooming of a flower, is the seed stage. I suppose I was surprised to see several of the Queen Anne’s Lace plants were already at this stage, so early in the season. I call this the “basket” stage. The flowers have been pollinated and the… Read More
“Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun. “ – Pablo Picasso The Yellow Coneflowers literally quiver in the slight breeze, their delicate petals, like small yellow rags, seem to barely hang on. Such is the scene in a local field, where Yellow Coneflowers are common. Even the gentle breeze of a hot summer day create movement in these flowers. It’s very nice… Read More
“A flower does not use words to announce its arrival to the world; it just blooms.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo As I write this, thunder is booming and the rain is coming down in sheets. Only moments before, my wife cut one of our Annabelle Hydrangea blossoms, for fear of them being further damaged. You see, this year, with all the rain we’ve had, the blossoms are huge. By huge, I mean the size… Read More
“Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.” – Georges Bernanos Have you noticed the summer shift to purple and yellow? The pattern repeats. There is a gradual shift from pinks to purples and yellows. Thistles, bergamot, vervain for purples, yellow coneflower, sunflower, wood sorrel, and sunflower for yellow. It’s a definite shift in colours and the pollinators,… Read More
“Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. “ – Jon Kabat-Zinn It’s allergy double jeopardy, a bee on ragweed. Strange, I used to have a real aversion to bees and wasps. Now that I am pursuing more macro images, I find myself surrounded by them, as I strain for that next… Read More
“With caps of regal purple, the delicate blossoms gently sway, on the tide of warm a summer breeze. The sweet aroma of nectar, wafts in the air, an elixir for butterflies, wasps, and bees.” – Ed Lehming In the meadow just up the street from my home, there is a patch of beautiful purple Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum sibericum), a hybrid of native wildflower, more common in warmer climes. However, I have the… Read More
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” – John Lubbock What can I say? Wildflowers in a gentle summer breeze, what can be better? This group of Yellow Coneflowers, springing from a sea of Wild Bergamot on a clear,… Read More
“Lazy Summer Skies” Here is my entry for Del Monte Y Mar’s Tuesdays of Texture Challenge Week 31 of 2017 “When people look at clouds they do not see their real shape, which is no shape at all, or every shape, because they are constantly changing. They see whatever it is that their heart yearns for.” ― José Eduardo Agualusa An often overlooked texture is the sky above us, with its infinite variations, never the same… Read More
“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. “ – Henry David Thoreau There is no shortage of insect life on the Queen Anne’s Lace this summer. It seems to be especially popular to various bugs and beetles. Here, a Japanese Beetle tours the outer flowerettes, I’m assuming looking for a meal of nectar…. Read More
“Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.” – Jeremy Bentham A quick shot today of a honey bee stretching for the nectar of a milkweed blossom. Nikon D800 Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm 1/160 sec, f/16.0 ISO 200 For more images like this, please visit my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/EdLehming or my website (some images available for purchase) http://www.edlehming.com
The more often we see the things around us – even the beautiful and wonderful things – the more they become invisible to us. That is why we often take for granted the beauty of this world: the flowers, the trees, the birds, the clouds – even those we love. Because we see things so often, we see them less and less. – Joseph B. Wirthlin The quote above really resonates with… Read More
A soul mate’s purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master…” ― Elizabeth Gilbert I gazed at this Queen Anne’s Lace flower in amazement. I had never noticed the pink… Read More
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. “ – John Muir Simple beauty will suffice for me. In this case, a brightly coloured Box Elder beetle, one of many insects partaking in the bounty of nectar within this patch of Canada thistles I’m spending a lot of time with. Soon, they will fade and… Read More
This week’s submission to Norm 2.0‘s Thursday Doors. Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world. “SV Blackjack” – Cabin Door This image is quite a departure from my regular ‘doors’ images. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see a Tall Ship Regatta stop in the small port town of Bath, Ontario. Bath, is a small… Read More
“The blues of summer, flowers and bright skies. Days of warmth and laughter, and lakefront evening sighs.” – Ed Lehming This seems to be season of the hoverfly. They are everywhere I look. Not that’s a bad thing, by any means, they are an interesting insect and quite colourful too. Though, I have yet to photograph one in flight. I found this pair while photographing a chicory blossom a few days ago…. Read More
We have to know our place in the ecosystem of which we are a part, and this means living ‘consciously’: being aware of nature and how it affects us and how we, in turn, affect nature.” ― Sebastian Pole I am so pleased lately to see so many bees. For the past few years they have been scarce, especially honeybees. There are many pollinators out there, but honeybees have been exceptionally rare around… Read More
“If it comes, let it come. If it goes, it’s ok, let it go. Let things come and go. Don’t let anything disturb your peace. Stay calm and carry on.” ― Germany Kent “Nodding in the Garden” Here is my entry for Del Monte Y Mar’s Tuesdays of Texture Challenge Week 30 of 2017 I had no particular reason for making this image, other than it was peaceful. That’s often the way of it; I have… Read More
“When you overlook the small blessings in your life, chances are that no amount of blessings would ever make you happy.” ― Edmond Mbiaka I thought today I’d go out and capture a very simple image of a flower, which sadly, flourishes in my gardens. I have no idea where it came from, but I do know it loves to call my gardens home, despite me constantly weeding it out. The plant is… Read More
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