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“The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.” ― Anaïs Nin An unknown butterfly on an unknown flower. It really bothers me not to be able to identify the subject matter of my photos, but I can’t figure out what either is. The purple flowers grow in a small cluster in a single location. I’m wondering if it’s an escapee from somebody’s garden…. Read More
“Everyone is busy, yet we all have access to the same amount of time.” ― Chris Guillebeau The prevalent activity around here lately is bees and blooms. It’s so nice to see bees after a few years where bees, particularly honeybees, seemed to be quite scarce around here. I returned to my patch of Canada Thistle and simply stood for a while, watching all the activity, including the numerous species of pollinators. From… Read More
“Be music always. Keep changing the keys, tones, pitch, and volume of each of the songs you create along your life’s journey and play on.” ― Suzy Kassem Today marks just about a year since I started into my studio based floral photographs. What started in my mind, as I drove past ripe wheat fields, as a vision of photographing some of the wheat under controlled lighting, quickly changed gears when those images… Read More
“What will remain is neither you nor me but what we shared among each other.” ― Santosh Kalwar Every now and then, an unexpected image just ‘happens’. Yesterday, as I went for a lunchtime walk to the meadow north of my house I came across these three hoverflies positioned perfectly on a cinquefoil blossom. I could not have asked for a more cooperative group of insects, as they sat there, seemingly unbothered by… Read More
“Red Clover Detail” Here is my entry for Del Monte Y Mar’s Tuesdays of Texture Challenge Week 29 of 2017 It’s been many weeks since I posted a texture image but thought that this close up of a clover blossom was a good candidate. What looks like a single pink-purple flower from a distance is in fact a series of delicate striped flowers. Even the leaves have fine hairs adding another bonus texture. Nikon D800… Read More
“You can ponder perpetual motion, Fix your mind on a crystal day, Always time for a good conversation, There’s an ear for what you say Come on the risin’ wind, We’re goin’ up around the bend. “ – Creedence Clearwater Revival As I considered this image, the words to the Creedance Clearwater Revival song came into my head and I could not shake them and thus, the title came to be. It… Read More
“Not everyone takes action to harvest the experiences of the seasons of life in order to enjoy their bounty.” ― Andrea Goeglein This image is quite similar to yesterday’s Bee and Thistle image, but the thistle here is white and the pollinator is a hover fly. I made the photo a few minutes after the bee image, and in a different patch of thistle. I was quite surprised to see white Canada Thistle and… Read More
“Mindfulness is not the path of chasing. It is the path of beautification. When flowers blossom, the fragrance spreads, and the bees come.” ― Amit Ray I stood among this patch of Canada Thistle, enjoying the activity of bees, bugs, and beetles, noting just how much activity there was. One could stand for only a few minutes and see the incredible diversity of life drawn to a single species of flower in bloom…. Read More
A small black gem, floating on gossamer wings. Flitting and fluttering, till the summer’s end. – Ed Lehming A member of the damselfly family, this ebony jewelwing floated from branch to branch around me for several minutes before finally settling on a leaf. It required a slow and cautious approach to get within shooting range and I only managed a few shots before it took to the sky once more. I really… Read More
“Tired, tired with nothing, tired with everything, tired with the world’s weight he had never chosen to bear.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald This one just struck me as funny. So often I see birds landing on plants that can barely hold them, but I would not have expected it from a fly. After all, fly weight is an expression for very light, is it not? After running short of material, I went for… 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. “Private Parking – Bath Ontario” This door caught my attention, as do the many unusual doors I pass on a daily basis. This one struck me as funny. The door is the entrance to what looks to have been a small residence or… Read More
“Scars are not signs of weakness, they are signs of survival and endurance.” ― Rodney A. Winters As a continuation to yesterday’s post “Beginnings“, here’s a mature coneflower blossom. I struggled for a title for this and fell back to just the name of the plant. The intent was to come up with a name for the image that reflected the character of the plant. As those who follow my blog regularly would… Read More
“Maybe I don’t have enough beginnings in my life because I fought against the endings that were about to birth those beginnings.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough As I surveyed my gardens this morning, I noticed that several of my purple cone flowers were already in full bloom, a nice change from last year when heat and drought caused them to put out very small, underdeveloped flowers, just big enough to produce some scant… Read More
“It had occurred to her many times that on board it didn’t matter where you were coming from or where you were heading. Each voyage had its own charisma. Like writing a book – word by word – or crossing a country – step by step – each minute had to be lived moment by moment.” ― Sara Sheridan This will likely be my last Tall Ships post. The ship pictured is the… Read More
“We clear the harbor and the wind catches her sails and my beautiful ship leans over ever so gracefully, and her elegant bow cuts cleanly into the increasing chop of the waves. I take a deep breath and my chest expands and my heart starts thumping so strongly I fear the others might see it beat through the cloth of my jacket. I face the wind and my lips peel back from… Read More
“And I wonder if the caterpillar at the threshold of death ever knew that she would get metamorphosed into a butterfly that she could fly.” ― Chirag Tulsiani Our camp area was overrun with these caterpillars this past weekend. We’ve been going to the same location for fourteen years and I can’t recall ever seeing so many tent caterpillars, though I did not actually see a colony in any neighbouring trees. On researching… Read More
“Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas” – “Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses” ― Ovid This was a mystery plant to me, for a long time. On initial inspection, it looks like a wild rose, but the leaf is not right. It looks like a raspberry, but the flower is too big. So, what is it? Turns out, it’s a bit of both. It’s a flowering raspberry, and a member of the… Read More
“Sometimes people don’t understand the promises they’re making when they make them. But you keep the promise anyway. That’s what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.” ― John Green There are times when I make and image and do a quick review in the camera display, where the title comes to me and sticks. The title of this image, “Promise” was such a moment. As in the word “promise’ itself, there is… Read More
“The smaller the creature, the bolder its spirit.” ― Suzy Kassem This started out as an experimental shot, playing with the depth of field of my macro lense and trying my darndest to get a crisp hand-held image, as the lens has no vibration compensation. At this depth of field, back to front ‘sway’ is critical. As you can see, only a very narrow band (the size of the ladybug) is in focus…. Read More
“Assuming what people want is about as controlled as using fireworks to start a fire.” ― Criss Jami With all the recent celebrations of Canada’s 150th year of Confederation and the 4th of July in America these past few days, fireworks have been a bit of a theme. Many people have posted images and written about their country’s celebrations. So, when I made this image of a small group of Yellow Hawkweed, with… Read More
“It’s just some instinct as old as fear: you seek the dark when you hide, you seek the light when the need to hide is gone. All the animals have it too. ― Cornell Woolrich Here’s a slightly different composition of the bug that photobombed my daisy images a few days ago. This time it’s a bit closer image, with just the back of a single daisy and its resident beetle. I’m not… Read More
“I must have flowers, always, and always.” ― Claude Monet I’ve seen these pretty clumps of pink flowers along the roadside before. Many times. I’ve just driven by, last year I saw some and turned the car around to make some photos, but they turned out to be quite disappointing, a bit out of focus, and not showing the characteristics of the flowers well. They are quite pretty and really stand out because… Read More
“Don’t hide yourself from the world and don’t let the world hide himself from you!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan Photographing anything in or from the wild almost always offers a surprise. In this case, as I was photographing some daisies, a small beetle decided this would be a good time to come from its hiding place and see what all the commotion was about. For a while he was careful to put the… Read More
“I am so grateful to be here on this awesome planet with it’s diverse life – everything we need to not just survive but to thrive. I am excited to continually learn more about it, and always curious to see what is going to come up next.” ― Jay Woodman What better image to post for Canada’s 150th Birthday? I have several, but this Canada Thistle seemed quite appropriate. Despite its name,… Read More
“He imagines a necessary joy in things that must fly to eat.” ― Wendell Berry A final look at this fleabane plant and accompanying wildlife. The Crescent butterfly, now satisfied, flies off to its next destination, while a small bee arrives to repeat the cycle. I like the movement in this image. It nicely illustrates the activity that goes on, even around a single plant, all day long. Each visitor, in its… Read More
“The miracle is that the brilliance of the miraculous can live in the blandness of the mundane. The greater miracle is that we have enough brilliance in our own blandness to see it.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough I’m finding even common items fascinating lately, as I get ‘close’ to them. The image above is of a common wildflower, or to gardeners, an invasive and prolific weed. I’ve seen entire lawns infested with… Read More
“You lift your head, you’re on your way, but really just to be walking, to be out of doors. That’s it, that’s all, and you’re there. Outdoors is our element: the exact sensation of living there.” ― Frédéric Gros By far the most common of local meadow butterflies are skippers. Once you spot one, you suddenly see dozens. The name skipper is so appropriate too, as they move quickly from flower to… Read More
“Like all sweet dreams, it will be brief, but brevity makes sweetness, doesn’t it?” ― Stephen King Much of the conservation land surrounding my home, including parks and hiking trails, was, at some not too distant time, farmland. It’s difficult to visualize, as I walk through now forested areas. Every now and then though, evidence of former use makes itself known. On one particular site, many perennial sweet peas can be found… Read More
“There are 365 days in a year and you will meet all the colours of life throughout the year: The blue, the black, the pink… Only blue is not a life, only pink is not a life, only black is not a life! Life is all the colours!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan The outdoors is filled with unexpected gifts. As I set out to photograph the Lady Slipper Orchids last Saturday, that… Read More
“She glitters like she walked out of a Klimt painting” ― Jandy Nelson I came across this Emerald Jewelwing, who was resting briefly on a leaf just below eye level. There are time where they just sit and pose for long periods, but not today. This brief pause lasted only a few seconds and it was fluttering madly about once more, in the warming air above me. It also provided me a… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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