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

Sundays at Little Walden

The Tanglewood Butterfly Garden and the Little Walden Pond are becoming a tradition for me on Sundays.  It's so peaceful there I love it.

There were tons of Skippers there today.  They especially seem to like the Lantana.  I should get more for my own garden.

These 2 are the same Skipper.  This is a Zabulon Skipper.  So bright and colorful!  I love when they open their wings.  They remind me of tiny little fighter planes.

I wasn't sure what type of Skipper this was, so I checked by book, then checked on-line, then rechecked my book, and I think this is one is actually a Zabulon also.  This is a female and the first one is a male.

I got a new lens (Olympus M Zuiko 45mm f1.8) for my camera (Olympus E-PL1) this week-end.  I have wanted this lens for a looooonng time!  By itself it is not the lens to use for butterfly shooting, but with my MCON-P01 macro converter, it's not too bad.  It takes some getting used to, I am used to zooming in and out whenever I need too and the new one is a fixed length.  But so far I am really enjoying it.  All the photos from today were taken with this lens.

I even got to use it when I got home and had a visitor in my own butterfly garden.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail