Summer Photography 2022 - Part One

 I have to say, I didn't take as many pictures this past year as I normally would. A lot of that was due to working, tending to the garden or swimming. And not to mention, we had some really, really hot days this past summer. Like weeks and weeks of temperatures in the upper 90s - which is why there was a lot of swimming involved, lol. 

Of course I still managed to get several hundred pictures of nothing. Well, they're not nothing to me, but they can get quite repetitive to most people, myself included sometimes. I had quite a few (like 200+) summer pics picked out, but got it down to like 60 or so, which is why I'm going to break the summer photos posts into two parts. 

I'll stop rambling and get to the pics, hope you enjoy!

Pretty purple flowers.

And white flowers with pink centers.

And blue flowers.

We legit had so many different flowers planted this year.

Super bright foreground lighting makes for a studio effect.

Macro fly on a daisy.

I love these wild lilies.

Butterflies are so hard to capture, but I managed to nab this guy.

Not for very long, though. Butterflies look so pretty on flowers.

Some type of bug in the garden.

This spider looking black and red bug was obsessed with the cucumber plants this year.

These pictures should've been after the next two, because he hid on the bottom of the leaves when I kept taking his pics.

See, this should've been first.

He as not a happy garden bug, very camera shy.

Bug on a dandelion.

Of course I have to have pics of dandelion seed heads - they're some of my faves!

I'm obsessed with taking macro shots of dandelion seed heads. So pretty!

Not much left of this dandelion seed head.

A mosquito in our azaleas.

We bought this azalea bush a few years ago when it was tiny, but it's gigantic now.

Tiny ant on the azalea flower.

He's a cute little ant, as long as he's outside, lol.

Pretty columbine flower.

I've always loved raindrops, but I've never had a powerful enough macro lens to get the shots I want. This is probably one of my favorite waterdrop pics I've ever taken.

I also really enjoy this raindrop on a leaf.

This is a perfectly round raindrop.

One more raindrop on a leaf for good measure.

More bleeding hearts, just because.

Raindrops on one of the plants.

It was a mad obsession for a couple days.

More raindrops, on a red flower this time.

Raindrops on a purple flower.

A wet dandelion seed head.

I love this dandelion seed head macro shot.

Yikes, more raindrops, lol.

This looks like a little sailboat on this blade of grass.

Raindrops on grass.

One more wet dandelion seed head.

Spring Photography 2022

 I didn't really take too many photos at the start of the year, so it was around April when I finally started to get into it. Not that there's really that much to photograph - I try to wait on things to start blooming before I really get into taking photos. Then you have to find a good balance of lighting, which can be tricky in early spring. Cause it's usually cloudy, rainy or windy. 

I don't really think there are any stories to be told, just random pictures to be shared. That's mainly what this post is - a photo dump. I took all of these photos with my Nikon 105mm 2.8 VR lens that I got for Christmas... it's spectacular! And let me just say that macro shots are nearly impossible when it's windy. Nothing exciting and rather boring, but I think these are decent photos to be shared. Hope you enjoy! 

Bleeding hearts are some of my faves, but a nightmare to get a good picture of.

Pretty white flower.

Dandelion seed head.

Naked dandelion.

Macro mutant fly hybrid thing.

Tee tiny little ant.

I don't know what kind of horned bug this it, but it was a great model for macro shots.

I wish I could explain how tiny this flower was - it was legit like 

If anyone knows me personally they know how terrified I am of spiders. Since this lens is so long I don't have to get super close, which allows me to take pictures of these creepy crawlies.

This guy was perched under our porch light.

Tiny blue flower.

It's a bugs (ants) life.

These guys passed by each other like a morning commute to work.

More macro flowers.

It's an obsession.

Leaves are still my fave.

Tell me this crisp green leaf isn't the prettiest thing.

I wanted a printed green leaf like this on glass.

Last green leaf for good measure

Pretty reddish green leaf.

I would also like this printed on glass.

And maybe this one.

Or this one.

It's s good thing Fracture is super expensive, otherwise I would have glass walls.

Need this on glass too.

Beautiful yellow butterfly.

The butterflies around here love the lilac bushes.

Dandelion.

Up-close macro dandelion

Pretty iris.

More bugs on leaves.

This little guy was a good bug model.

I think this photo of our side yard would've looked better edited, but I was playing around with the Tokina wide angle lens here. I also don't know why we even have that dog house still - Max literally never sleeps outside.