Hidden Nature

I recently bought a macro lens for my camera, and have been trying to learn how to use it. Yesterday afternoon after a rain shower, I looked out and noticed that the sun was shining and everything looked so pretty and fresh after the rain. I grabbed my camera with the macro lens and went outside to see what was going on.

I thought it would be fun to take some closeups of ordinary things in our yard, and I started with our Lorapetalum plants which are covered with fuchsia blooms.

Here is a close up view of one of the blooms [you can click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like].

Our Little Gem Magnolia trees have almost finished blooming for the summer, and when I took the picture of the Lorapetalum, I noticed the seed pods on the magnolias.

Here is a close up shot of the pod ...

Rocks in our pond ...

And the "macro" view ...

This is a Sasanqua plant on the side of our house. As you can see, it's loaded with tiny buds.

My "macro" skills still leave a lot to be desired, but, hopefully, practice will help ...

It's hard to believe that all those buds will look like this in just a couple of months (I took this photo last year) ...

I think seed pods are sometimes as beautiful as flowers in full bloom. I captured these Cleyera seed pods after they had burst open to reveal the fruit inside ...

I have several Lantana plants in a flower bed in our back yard, and the Gulf Frittillary Butterflies love them. I was literally walking amongst them when I took these pictures.

This close up of a Lantana blossom that's not fully open reminds me of a kaleidoscope.

Ivy growing in and amongst the Majestic ferns in the flowerbeds along our path leading to the back yard.

These two close ups are Mexican Petunia blossoms ...

When I went back outside later to get a full view shot, I was upset to discover that the wind had blown all the blooms off. I found this picture that I took a couple of summers ago which shows the Mexican Petunia in the background. Notice the butterflies were swarming the lantana then, too.

My pictures aren't perfect (and probably never will be), but I'm having fun discovering all kinds of "hidden Nature" through my macro lens. I'm going to get my tripod out which will help, but it's kind of hard to drag a tripod around when you're chasing butterflies!