Thursdays at Reynolda Gardens

This may be a new trend.  I went to Reynolda Gardens on Thursday again.  It has cooled down a little this week, and this time I went after work.  Of course I would go every day if I could!  Maybe I can just move into the play house.

Lots of butterflies today!  I even saw a Monarch, but it was too fast for me.

Common Buckeye

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

Some kind of cool drangonfly.  Blue Dasher I think.

Sundays at Little Walden

 I used to try and go to the Little Walden Butterfly Garden every Sunday,  and I did not really plan to go last week, but I just happened to pass by AND had my camera with me (have got to get back in the habit of taking it everywhere!) so I decided to stop.  It was pretty dang hot, so I didn't stay long, but I did get a few pics.

Eastern Tailed-Blue - I love these tiny little butterflies

Silver-Spotted Skipper

I don't know a lot about dragonflies, but I think this is a Common Whitetail

I also did some herb gardening this week-end.  

Fairy and Oregano

And I went to the Cobblestone Farmers Market at Old Salem on Saturday.  Took my camera, but my bag filled up pretty quickly and it was so hot (I know - again with the heat excuse) I didn't take any pictures.  The one below I took at home with my iPhone.  It should be cooling down a little this week, so maybe I will try again on Saturday.

Early Morning at Reynolda Gardens

One thing I used to do years ago was go to Reynolda Gardens before work, so I decided to do this Thursday morning, since the days have been so hot.  When I got there the sprinklers were on.  Oh yeah, now I remember!  They weren't on everywhere, but the ground was wet pretty much everywhere.  My feet got soaked, but I did not care, it was so nice.  And I saw some of these:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

And the water made for some pretty cool pics:

This is my fave.  I used the florescent white balance.  I love the blue tones.  Part of my homework for a year-long online (free) photography class called 'A Year with My Camera'.  It's pretty cool, check it out sometime.  I used the MCON-P01 macro converter on this one.  Not sure if they make these any more, I found one the other day for a pretty decent price and ordered it.  The one I have is kind of old, and has some scratches, but still works good.  I'll be curious to see if there is a difference with the new one. 

Better Late Than Never?

So I am going to pick up where I left off - almost 7 years ago!  Let's just say sometimes life circumstances take over, and not always in a good way.  Anyway, I'm back and excited to get out there again.  I have taken some pictures on and off, but not like I used to.  One thing that happened in my absence was that I got a new camera, an Olympus OM-D E-M5.  A great camera I am sure, but I never really got to know it like my E-PL1.  So this past week-end I decided to go back and try the E-PL1 again, and there was that old spark!  I don't have any new butterfly pics yet, but here is one I did take with the E-M5 5 years ago.  This one was featured in 'Explore' on Flickr, so that was pretty exciting for me.

Monarch at Reynolda Gardens