krnaturalphoto's Blog 
One photo a day challenge: Day 211.
Today I went outside to photograph flowers from our selection of flowers we have planted in pots at our house.
My plan was to just focus on one specific flower.
I have always likes these strawflowers. I don’t think I have photographed them in a little while. So I turned mu attention to them.
One pot particularly was growing well and had several blooms. Photographing each bloom individually was nice.
Then I decided to incorporate multiple blooms into one photo. The focus is on one bloom in the front and the background are other blossoms which are out of focus.
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One photo a day: Day 210.
I love photographing flowers.
It is a joy because the flowers are so beautiful.
There is also joy in photographing flowers because of the little surprises you can find.
There are so many opportunities to find other small parts of the natural world.
Today as I strolled through the Cornell Botanic Gardens I saw a variety of the tiny wonders we share this planet with.
There were a variety of bees. I also saw a few different types of beetles. I saw a Monarch Butterfly.
I was even fortunate enough to view this Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar up close. This was the only one I saw anywhere. The caterpillar was quite large compared to other ones I have seen. This is one of the best looks I have been able to have.
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One photo a day challenge: Day 209.
I went outside today planning to photograph some of the flowers in our garden.
After I did that for a minute I decided to check out our milkweed plants. I started photographing the seed pods that are developing.
Then I noticed out first Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar of the year.
As I kept looking for more Monarch caterpillars I noticed a beetle. Then I noticed a bunch more of a different type of caterpillar. I am not sure what they are. I have seen them before. I always think they are interesting looking.
These caterpillars are currently even smaller than the small Monarch caterpillar on the milkweed.
I am not sure this is a particularly good photograph technically. But I do think it is an interesting photograph.
The line across the middle of the frame is the edge of the leaf the caterpillars is walking on. The caterpillars head is mostly in focus. Then the body is progressively more out of focus as it moves away from the lens. And everything else is completely out of focus. There is a lot of negative space. The caterpillar is the only thing the viewer sees.
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One photo a day challenge: Day 208.
If there is one thing this summer has brought us so far it is plenty of opportunities to take post storm photos.
Rain frequently. Even multiple times in a day.
Some things look better. The quality of their color is enhanced. Their character is changed.
All this from the addition of some water. Rain brings the water. I bring the camera.
I try to record these changes and enhancements.
The environment and the objects that populate it are shaped by the water.
I cannot resist the opportunity to photograph the flowers after the rain.
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One photo a day challenge: Day 207.
I went outside after dark for photos. The thought was to use some lighting to illuminate the flowers on our deck.
I wanted to photograph the Cosmos because of their thinner softer looking petals. Hopefully the light would have an interesting look under the right kind of lighting.
The way this image of a pink Cosmo turned out really caught my eye.
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One photo a day challenge: Day 206.
One of the best things about having a variety of interests both in and out of photography is the variety it puts in life and art.
One day I am trying to train my lens on people running through the woods at high speeds.
The next day I am photographing subjects that can’t move even if they wanted to.
Today’s photography subject was back to the focus on the flowers out in the sun on our back deck at home.
I spent a little time photographing each of the flowers on the deck.
The look of this marigold struck me. I never happened to see a marigold at this stage of growth before.
I love how all the flower petals are curled up into little tubes.
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One photo a day challenge: Day 205.
Today was a fun day with lots of time spent out on the trails.
First I photographed the Run For The Hills 5k and 10k at Tanglewood Nature Center. Then I went for a 10 mile trail run of my own on the trails at Tanglewood.
I love being out on the trails creating photography. It is so much fun to see all the participants out on the trails enjoying the day.
I started off up on the hillside. Standing out in the open. And in the bright sunlight.
I wanted to capture some images of runners out on the beginning of the course. I stayed in this location until about 30 minutes into the race. That would give some of the runners to get further out on the course.
Then I moved down into the valley. Standing in the woods. In the deep shadows.
I picked a spot where the 5k and the 10k races intersected. That would allow me to capture runners in both events.
It was also a section of the course where the 10k runners would go by in one direction then circle back and approach me from another direction.
This was a fun location for photographing this event. It really kept me on my toes. Traffic from two races. Traffic approaching from two different directions.
All the runners looked like they had such a good time.
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One photo a day challenge: Day 204.
It was a beautiful sunny day today. Not too hot. Not too cold.
Seemed like a great day to go outside with the dogs. Hang out and enjoy the day for a bit.
Take the camera outside. Take a few photos.
A perfect opportunity to capture some dog portraits. When we have dogs in out lives it is very easy to find the inspiration for photos.
Our big lug Colton is more cooperative than the other dogs these days. He sits. Lies down. Rolls over. Plays int he grass. He does everything to create a nice series of photographs.
He makes all the cute and adorable faces. I like how in this shot you can read his name tag.
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One photo a day challenge: Day 203.
Recently I have been thinking that it seems like I haven’t seen many pollinators around our flowers at our house. It feels like normally this time of year they are everywhere.
We plant quite a few flowers. Both perennials and annuals. We also have a large section of our yard that is left wild and is full of wildflowers.
Normally there is a constant buzz of bees. There is flashes of color from the variety of butterflies making there way through our yard.
It seems this year there has been nary a stray pixel of color floating through our yard nor a single note of that musical buzz from the bees.
I know there are problems with our pollinators right now and I was worried I was seeing first hand evidence of it.
Then I went to one of my favorite places, Tanglewood Nature Center. There I discovered fields of flowers. Flowers a buzz with the sounds of pollinators. The field full of colors floating thought he sky thanks to all the butterflies.
Tanglewood has beautiful wild fields of flowers. No wonder all the pollinators could be found here. This beautiful nature center is literally right across the river valley from me. Maybe when all the pollinators have enjoyed all that Tanglewood has to offer they will come visits our house.
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One photo a day challenge: Day 202.
Tonight I went outside tonight to photograph some flowers in the low light.
I had an idea of what flowers I wanted to photograph. There were a few I hadn’t photographed at night much if at all. The goal was to focus on those ones.
Other than that I wasn’t really sure how I was going to proceed. Look through the lens and let the view guide me to the photograph.
When photographing this flower there was one aspect I was drawn to. The way the petals seemed to be developing so haphazardly. Some petals longer than others by significant amounts.
The angles and the different look of the petals. Trying to highlight the different. That was my focus.
I didn’t even notice the tiny spider until uploading my images and looking at them on my monitor.
I love how that tiny spider looks like it is just peaking out to see what is going on. Like the spider is trying to stay hidden under the petals, but just had to check things out.
