Big Picture, Little Picture

Summer has been so beautiful here.   Temperatures have been perfect, some gorgeous calm, foggy mornings and occasional storms to keep the water coming.

My days usually begin by either chasing wild flowers or dragons in the meadows, or finding that iconic summer landscape.  

A few weeks ago I found myself in a nearby gorge trying to find some sunrays in the foggy gorge.  After waiting for about an hour, I was about to call it quits, without seeing any dramatic light.  Nature rewarding my patience with a spectacular light show for the next 30 minutes.   It was fun to chase the light in the gorge and try to find some compositions for the camera. 

For the last several weeks, I've been out most mornings trying to find some beautiful dew covered dragon flies. 

Along with find the dewy dragons, I've captured some beautiful summer blooms and a dewy butterfly and praying mantis.

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.