Poppies from May

 Some favorite poppy photos I forgot to share.

"Abstract" poppy

Red field with the rising moon.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Azaleas and Other Spring Flowers

 Pink Azaleas and Swallowtail

Lavender Azaleas

White Azaleas

White Dogwood

Goldpetal Farms sunflowers

 I visited Goldpetal earlier in the season late in the day for some pretty sunflower and zinnia photos.  I stayed for a rainbow and sunset.  I wasn't in a very good position for the rainbow and the sunflowers were super high at the time, but I did what I could.  There were some really interesting tall clouds that day too. 

Sunflowers in the Zinnia garden

sunflower bud

Striped sunflowers

Cool clouds

Different angle for a bee photo.

Swallowtail butterfly

Butterfly Season is Here

I cut some lavender colored lilacs recently and got to see my first butterflies this Spring.  I grabbed my cell phone and photographed a few Eastern Tiger Swallowtails with nice complimentary colors, purple and yellow.  There were lots of busy bees too, so I moved very slowly.

Summer in Shenandoah

We took a very brief weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park and took a short hike to Black Rock summit so we could see all the rocks. We also attended a lecture on birds of prey & met a tiny eastern screech owl. When photographing animals I always focus on their eyes and try to blur out distracting backgrounds or simplify them.