Hot Summer Flowers

Tags

blue dasher, dianthus, dragonfly, fern, hydrangea, Koi fish, lobelia, postaday, salvia, sayen Gardens

Sayen Gardens in Hamilton, NJ is a favorite place for hosting weddings. In the Spring, almost every spot is filled with flowers of all colors and shapes. In the summer, especially during this year’s drought, you see more green than any other color, and there is no brown spot anywhere. However, as you walk Sayen’s grounds, your eyes will be drawn toward patches of flowers in the most vibrant, almost outrageous colors.

Salvias.

Dianthus.

The above should make brides and grooms happy, but Sayen holds even more surprises.

Great Blue Lobelia.

Hydrangea.

Fern.

If they look closely, dragonflies and Koi fish are also near and in the water of the small pond where many newlyweds have had their photos taken.

Blue Dasher.

Koi fishes.

Around the Lake

Tags

bee, blue dasher, dragonfly, hibiscus, mallard, monarch, painted turtle, postaday, primrose

Yesterday I walked around Colonial Lake, five miles from home, to see what I could photograph during one of the hottest days of the year. An excessive heat warning is in effect until tomorrow evening.

The dragonflies enjoyed the heat.

Blue Dasher dragonfly.

The primroses were thriving.

Primrose.

The hibiscuses were in full bloom.

Red Hibiscus.

Bee inside pink Hibiscus.

There were many ducks, mainly Mallards, with some oddly colored ones mixed in with them.

Female Mallard and other ducks.

Monarchs were flying around.

Monarch butterfly.

Painted Turtles were sunning on an old tire.

Painted Turtles on all-season tire.

Lotus, Dragonflies 2020

Tags

blue dasher, dragonfly, eastern amberwing, lotus, photography, postaday

The Lotus pond near us now has only white flowers, and not very many of them. The plants look healthy enough, so maybe I came too late this year to take their pictures. Still, here they are, and by the way there were many dragonflies.

White Lotus 2020.

Lotus leaf with rain water.

White Lotus 2020.

Blue Dasher.

Eastern Amberwing.

Blue Dasher.

Dragonflies mating.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer Dragonfly

Tags

dragonfly, photography, postaday, Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Yesterday this female Twelve-spotted Skimmer dragonfly, shown in the following three shots, landed on some stones in our garden. This common dragonfly is found in Canada and all the American 48 states below it. Its male counterpart would have 10 white spots next to the brown ones.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer.

Dragonflies, Hummingbird Moth

Tags

blue darter, dragonfly, hummingbird moth, photography, postaday, red-tailed darter

I went to the Lotus pond again this year. It no longer has any pink or red Lotus, and now every flower is white. While taking pictures of the flowers, I noticed many dragonflies fluttering about and switched to photographing them.

As usual, there were many Blue Darters.

Blue Darter dragonfly.

Then a couple of dragonflies with a reddish orange tail flew by. I am going to call it a Red-tailed Darter, but if you know the correct name, be sure to let me know. It is about 30% larger than the Blue Darter, and I did not see them land on any plant or anything else.

Red-tailed Darter.

Then as I was taking a shot of a Lotus flower, a rare Hummingbird Moth flew toward it.

Hummingbird Moth.

Finally, a couple more shots of the dragonflies.

Blue Darter.

Red-tailed Darter.

Monday Monochrome: Lotus, Dragonfly

Tags

dragonfly, monochrome, photography, postaday, white lotus

Usually I photograph lotus blossoms in early morning, but yesterday I arrived at the pond around 2 PM. Sunlight was falling almost straight down on top of the flowers. Looking at the results, I thought a monochrome rendering of the images would be appropriate.

White Lotus.

White Lotus.

White Lotus.

Finally, a monochrome dragonfly shot, taken about the same time.

Dragonfly.

Wordless Wednesday

Tags

blue dasher, dragonfly, photography, postaday

Blue Dasher dragonfly.

Blue Dasher dragonfly.

Blue Dasher dragonflies: two to tango.

Early Lotus

Tags

carnegie center, dragonfly, eatern amberwing, lotus, photography, postaday, white lotus

This morning started with fog, followed by rain, then finally sunshine. After making sure the sun was there to stay, I went to the lotus pond near our house to photograph this year’s flowers. There were not many yet, it’s still too early for them.

White Lotus with visitor.

White Lotus.

Lotus leaves. Note the two fishes at the bottom of the leaf on the left.

There were many dragonflies flying around the pond. The Eastern Amberwings darted here and there, their orange color contrasting sharply with the green lotus leaves.

Eastern Amberwing dragonfly.

Summer Flowers 2016

Tags

cleome, crape myrtle, dragonfly, hibiscus, photography, postaday

It was cooler today, though not by much. It got as hot as 90 F (32 C) then stopped there before backing down a notch. I took the opportunity to go to a local park in search of summer flowers to shoot. Here are a few that are representative of this time of the year.

Cleome, easy to grow, almost like a weed.

Hibiscus, a favorite that comes in many colors.

Hibiscus, this one was too well liked by the bugs.

Red Crape Myrtle.

Finally I managed to catch a dragonfly almost in flight, but not quite.

Dragonfly landing on a twig.

From Flower to Seed

Tags

carnegie center, dragonfly, hosta, lotus, photography, postaday

Today I took a quick trip to the lotus pond in early morning, when it was still not too hot. The flowers were mostly gone, with fewer than a dozen left, like this one below.

White Lotus.

There were many pods, some filled with large seeds, right next to flower buds still trying to bloom.

Lotus seed pod.

Nearby, in deep shade, hosta flowers were in full bloom. The buds were white and a pale lavender at the tips.

Hosta flowers.

Finally, the dragonflies were as plentiful as ever. I tried to snap a few shots of some that were flying and buzzing around from end of the pond to the other, but nothing came out well. Finally, I had to settle for a stationary Blue Dasher basking in the warm sun.

Blue Dasher.

White Lotus, Dragonfly

Tags

carnegie center, dragonfly, lotus, photography, postaday

At the height of summer, a trip to the lotus pond near our home has become an annual event for me. The pond is not too large but well maintained, endowed with many white and pink lotus flowers. There are plenty of shade trees around it to protect photographers from the sun and the heat. This morning, at the golden hour I went there and “owned” the pond for a half hour before others arrived. All of the flowers were white, as the pink ones usually bloom as much as two weeks later.

For the following photos I used two Canon lenses: a 180 mm macro lens and a 400 mm lens, both reputed to be among the sharpest lenses with excellent colors.

Lotus with a dragonfly clinging to it, and a bee hovering above it.

White lotus.

White Lotus and bud.

White Lotus, with reflections of red and orange flowers in background.

White Lotus.

White Lotusd petal.

White Lotus petal.

Dragonfly on Lotus leaf.

Widow Skimmer

Tags

dragonfly, photography, postaday, widow skimmer

The first dragonfly I saw this season was a Widow Skimmer standing still at the tip of a dried twig. It stayed there for a long time, leaving only briefly and coming back almost to the same spot. That allowed me to circle around it to take shots from different angles, at least from the Delaware & Raritan canal bank.

Widow Skimmer along the Delaware & Raritan canal.

Widow Skimmer along the Delaware & Raritan canal.

Butterflies and Dragonflies

Tags

american lady, black swallowtail, butterfly, dragonfly, photography, postaday, slaty skimmer, widow skimmer

The Delaware Raritan canal lies less than 2 miles from our house. I went there today to see whether there were butterflies and dragonflies to photograph, and found four different kinds. I am no expert on these insects, so please correct me if I get their names wrong.

Black Swallowtail: this one was actually dark brown.

This next one, American Lady, landed on the gravel path right in front of me and flapped her wings until I got several shots of her.

American Lady

Slaty Skimmer

Widow Skimmer

More Dragonflies

Tags

blue dasher, dragonfly, eatern amberwing, photography, postaday

Here are some more shots of dragonflies. I was hoping to see other kinds of dragonflies, but only Blue Dashers and Eastern Amberwings were at the lotus pond yesterday.

Blue Dasher saying “cheese” for the camera.

Blue Dasher on lotus stem.

Eastern Amberwing: this one flew in from the lotus pond and landed on the gravel path just a few feet from me.

Blue Dasher

Summer Dragonflies

Tags

blue dasher, dragonfly, eastern amberwing, photography, postaday

What would summer be without dragonflies? This past week I went to the lotus pond near our house and photographed the following dragonflies.

Eastern Amberwing: small dragonfly somewhat difficult to photograph.

Blue Dasher on lotus bud: very common dragonfly in our area

Blue Dasher

Blue Dasher

There were several other types of dragonflies at the lotus pond, but the photos I took did not turn out well enough. Will try again another day.