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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Summer Insects


It has been a slow start for insects this summer, but finally the insects are getting mature and easier to find and photograph.

Getting out on a dewy morning, with my wader boots and camera, is like therapy for me.   Slowly walking and looking is part of the true joy of this time of year.   I can lose myself for hours as the meadows start coming to life each morning.

The first image was a newly emerging black swallowtail that I found last week at the Brecksville Prairie.  One of the most beautiful places in Northern Ohio during the months of July and August.   The small restoration prairie is easy to get to and just a real treasure to explore.



From the Brecksville Reservation, here is a maturing katydid enjoying a morning meal of pollen from a swamp rose mallow wild flower.


The black eyed susan wild flowers are a favorite of many insects.   Here are two bush katydid nymphs enjoying the morning a few weeks ago.


A fun capture was finding this crab spider perched in the center of a black eyed susan.  Not very good camouflage, but a fun image to capture.

Recently I had been lamenting my sparse finds of butterflys and dragon flys, but over the last week, it has been a bonanza of these flying jewels.


Pearl crescent (pictured above)have been very visible and make for wonderful summer insect photography.


The eastern tailed blue butterfly is another small flier that I have seen abundantly lately.



Here is the large common green darner all nice and dewy.  It made a very co-operative subject on a cold morning.

Finally was my favorite find of the week - my first praying mantis of the season.   This one was very photogenic and seemed to enjoy the attention from the camera.


Friday, July 12, 2013

Cleveland Tall Ships Parade


Every few years, the City of Cleveland hosts a Tall Ships festival.   About 10 or so ships sail into Cleveland for the event.


This year I was lucky enough to get a seat on a chartered boat by the Cleveland Photographic Society.  About 60 fellow photographers ventured out on the lake to enjoy the ships as they made there final approach into the Cleveland Harbor.


The conditions with the sky and calm lake were ideal to try and convert the scenes into high contrast black and white images.


You can view my favorite images from the afternoon at my photographic web site:





Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Exploring a new place


One of the exciting parts of nature photography is discovering a new place to photograph.  That is part of the incentive for people to travel to far and distant locations to explore a new place with a camera.

Sometimes we don't have to travel far to discover these new areas.    The Metro Parks of Summit County (based around Akron Ohio) acquired this former farm property in 2011 and is transforming it into a prairie  landscape.    You can read more about this at the Metro Parks web site:  Springfield Bog


There is a wide variety of birds and wild flowers that are slowly reclaiming the land.  The colorful picture above is mainly garden coreopsis and clover with a bit of daisy fleabane mixed in.

With the passing of years to come, it will be fascinating to see how this area changes back into a more native type of vegetation.  




The other variety of coreopsis that is in bloom right now is lance leaved coreopsis.   They make for a colorful yellow amongst the grasses and other plants in the area.



There is a loop hiking trail around the property that is worth walking early in the morning with dew and fog coming off the lush prairie plants.