I wanted to keep this to one but I can't pick between these. I had an incredible stroke of good fortune when I went down to our local stream the other day, I wanted to shoot some flowers... and found an entire colony of butterflies going NUTS over them.

The crazy thing was... I was able to get this close. On TWO of them. I had to handhold (I didn't have my tripod and the sudden jerky movements would've startled them anyway) but they came out sharp regardless! Good old burst mode. Shot with an old pre-AI film lens, a 55mm Micro Nikkor f/3.5 from the 1970s. This was at maximum focus distance (1:2), so as you can imagine the lens was about 5 inches max from the thing's face and it still didn't move. :D

Any comments/critique appreciated!

I'll throw this in as my perspectives challenge entry too. :P

I have to tell you first of all the weather has been a bit on the chilly side for this time of year in Western NY. We have not even been able to go swimming.  The only good thing about the weather is that it is making it easier to do my late spring cleaning in the house. Not that the cooler weather keeps me from going out but it does make it easier to stay in and do what I am suppose to do. Lol!

I have gone out to my garden again to take some more photos with my macro. Right now this is my perspective of the flower world in my garden.

 macro leaf

 macro bud

 macro naked flower

 macro middle

This is a finch from my feeder 

 I always Feel like someone is watching me.

Last week I had the opportunity to fly in a B17, and believe me it sure was different than flying in a regular commercial plane...There was one gentleman on the plane who tried to tell me of an experience he had on a B17 during the war (he was 19 at the time).  I really like hearing the stories that the veterans have to tell (the ones who will talk about their experience)--one time there was a gentlemen who had been captured and he told me some of the story of what he endured trying to escape (which he eventually was able to do). 

 inside the plane looking through open canapy.....  Sky 2  

This paticular plane did not see action during the war, it was built in 1945 but  too late to participate Plane 2 

I just cannot imagine the ones who sat in the 'hole' and did what was necessary at the time   Gunnery 

A big thanks to ALL Veterans

  Hope all of you have a good day and thanks for looking.

i went out early today to check the ladybugs and they have all hatched. they were still wet and slow.

i tried to get a really close shot, but, it was so hot and humid that my breath kept fogging the lens.

i waited a little while, but, then it was too windy and most were already gone.

when i shoot in macro, i can't move my focus so it was hard to get the ladybug and it's empty shell all in one shot. so, this will have to do.

i uploaded 8 pics. i only posted the better ones here. please, check out my image page to see the rest.

i know some of the photos are not so good, but, since i've never seen anything like this, i hope they are ok enough.

i am sooooo glad i didn't squish these not knowing what they were. i will now be more careful when dealing with bugs i don't know.

a very valuable lesson indeed.

for Fabuloso: ...bubbles revisited

for DonPhillips: my attempt at a pure white flower...the moonflower vine grows wild here on the farm and only blooms late evening to early dawn.

and for Angie's perspective challenge...L E D light

Sometimes I like to try to take pictures through somebody else's eyes.  I thought this challenge might be a good time to look at the world from Jake's perspective.  

The nice thing about having short legs is I'm closer to things on the floor: food scraps, toys, and chewy bones.  When I have a good bone all I see is that yummy bone and it is ALL mine.  But when I am outside my world is much bigger, farther even than my eye can see.  You just cannot believe what I can hear with these things.  I wish my humans would let me play with LT and CP but they are afraid I will scare them.  Yeah, right,  that black and white one is bigger than me!!

Setup: building about 25 yards away, maybe closer
     Lens: as wide as I could get, 14mm
          Aim: about at the roof line, wanted allot of sky.
               PS: crop out sky, applied PC

Same shot, one without and one with Perspective Control.

Hey, You Down There! Perspectives From An  Eagle 

NATURE RULES!!!

Have A Great Weekend!

It's been awhile... couln't pass up sharing my perspective.

              new river bridge matt 

Kids, they grow old before your eyes and just when you think they are at the vanishing point... they show up.

Best to you guys,

Don

Children amaze me.  I'm easily amused, or at least I think I am until I watch kids play.  The things they are so enthralled by.  It's amazing.  All the time I'm thinking "man, how am I going to preoccupy this kid I have to watch" and the next thing I know is they're preoccupied by the simplest thing.  Bailey is my one true example of this and this saturday she got a puzzle for her birthday.  She and the two other 3 year olds at the party were simply engrossed by this puzzle.  They weren't even helping yet all three sat mesmerized as Bailey turned peices this way and that attempting to make it fit.

But you know, even adults can be mesmerized.  I think Michael was enjoying pushing Bailey in the right direction of getting pieces to fit back together more than actually working on the puzzle.  But in the end Bailey finished it, got a huge round of applause of the sense of a job well done was written all over her face.

I've posted before about my friend Carol and her little love, a squirrel we named Lunch (because that's how her cats & dog see him). Carol rescued Lunch as a toddler from certain death at the sharp claws of her outdoor kitties. It's amazing-that squirrel has grown, and he lets Carol do almost anything to him. She has bottle fed him since she found him, and a couple weeks ago found him a huge iron parrot cage to live in. The two of them have developed a routine, from dawn to midnight feedings, and he even sleeps near her in a smaller but safe cage every night. Last night we had a small shoot while she was bottle feeding him some nuts and sugar water. These are my perspectives on Lunch. Thanks for looking, and as always, comments are welcome.

Bottle baby Lunch   upsidedown Lunch   Looong Lunch

Some days you just want to be invisible . (had a ghost in my house!)

Peek-a-Boo !

Have a great day and thanks for looking.

I posted a shot of this cuddly little fellow the other day, but just of its flowers. This time a slightly different perspective using an extension tube - the not so soft and cuddly side of a hedgehog cactus. Stepping on these is not good for you, but this appears to be where fish hooks come from. I also decided to go for a different perspective on this big yellow flower. I simply had to lay on my back, crane my head back around and shoot it upside down to get the nice blue sky behind it. Can someone send a chiropractor? And a lawyer?

NOTE: following excellent suggestions below, I made a crop on the flower and I like it better. Thanks.

Finally, a little update on a post from last week. Uhhh is still alive and well in the lime tree out back and has grown to a bit over an inch. Thanks to the encyclopedic knowledge of our own NatureBug, it appears that Uhhh will someday upgrade just a tad to look like this fellow, a Great Swallowtail.

My twisted reality thought it would be cool to photograph  coins going down a  Coin Funnel .

It was somewhat  hypnotic to watch the  Penny going around in circles. I was surprised that the  Nickel also made a coppery blur, but it also made a  cool reflection when it was going around. To give you all a better idea of what was going on, a coin funnel acts like a  Gravity well

Disclaimer: "Coin funnel", and "Gravity well" are not my pictures, I was just using them for demonstration purposes and will site these in the proper MLA format.

Works Cited

Coin Funnel charity wishing well . 1988. 540 2nd Avenue North, Birmingham Alamaba. Birmingham Vending Company . Vending Times. 3 June 2009 <http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bhmvending.com/Amusements/Impulse%2520Industries/impulse_CoinFunnel_Charity.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bhmvending.com/Amusements/Impulse%2520Industries/impulse_CoinFunnel_Charity.html&usg=__ipyVfk9VPprOvB3JoivA3GfV7_k=&h=330&w=269&sz=18&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=3g7IKiKjiL-9OM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcoin%2Bfunnel%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1>.

Gravitywell001 . Spaceanimations.org . NASA. 3 June 2009 <http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.spaceanimations.org/images/Gravitywell001.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.spaceanimations.org/&usg=__9uc12NbkAQdKG-xZCZw1sVakL28=&h=600&w=800&sz=127&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=mFPXtsLYVrHajM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgravity%2Bwell%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1>.

Return to Dino Park.

Taken from the perspective of the Jurassic Photographer (I tried to frame the shot so modern structures would not be apparent.)

While traveling back to the cave our Jurassic Photographer come upon a Parasaurolphus.  Creeping closer, he discovers that is a mother protecting her eggs.  Not wanting eggs for supper, he continues on his way.  Later on his journey, he  spies an Allosaurus.  Thinking steaks would taste great for the night, he attacks.  Last shot.

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A sunflower from a very different perspective.