I have converted my greenhouse into an outdoor office so I can study for my exams and write up this stupid manuscript I am working on without missing the summer altogether. It works well for reading blocks of text, but today I discovered just how horrible it is for viewing and editing my photos. With the reflection from the screen, I couldn't tell what was or wasn't in focus, let alone discern any subtleties of color or light. I'm wearing quite a busy t-shirt with MC Escher patterns on it, and about halfway through viewing my photos, I realized that much of the detail I was seeing actually came from my own reflection! I brought a towel out and draped it over the laptop monitor and my head to eliminate the reflection. It worked well, but was kind of smothering. I actually had to stop editing photos because I felt like I was going to choke to death.

Leopard's bane flowers usually have smooth tips, kind of like a daisy. For some reason, this one has serrated edges, kind of like little fingers.

When I got my new camera, one of the things I looked forward to most was taking macro photos of insects. I had to wait a while to try, since I bought the camera in the dead of winter. I got a few moth and spider shots in Costa Rica. I took more than 100 pictures of the same large beetle over the course of 2 days, and went out at night to photograph giant grasshoppers with long antennae. I also photographed a few different spiders. Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I reviewed the photos later. Some lacked critical sharpness -- including ALL of the beetle photos. The night grasshopper photos just looked bizarre thanks to harsh lighting from my head lamp. I might post some of these photos later when I am feeling less critical (or lacking blog material). In all cases, I didn't seem to be able to get as close to the tiny creatures as other macro photographers seem to get.

Now that I have my teleconverter, I should have no problem getting close! My problem has been, frankly, lack of bugs. It has been a cold, dreary spring, with temperatures more like March than May or June. Last summer, armed with only a little point-and-shoot, I seemed to be virtually tripping over ladybugs, spiders, bees and caterpillars. This year... nada. I took a few bee shots at the Mendel Conservatory, and the results were miserably blurry (there's no such thing as autofocus with the teleconverter).

Today, the sun came out for literally 15 minutes, and I got a chance to practice with this little fly in a now-open leopard's bane (view big for best effect). Hopefully this will be the first of many insect photos this summer!

This is a leopard's bane. The leopard's bane has been one of my favorite flowers for a few years now. I discovered it when I was a kid, and I went shopping for perennials with my mom and my grandma. I was allowed to go pick out a couple of plants of my own. I chose a leopard's bane. Its bright yellow flowers stood in stark contrast to my mom's flowerbed, which was a uniform pink and purple. My grandma was aghast that I could choose such an "ugly" plant. The leopard's bane thrived, and eventually even my grandma asked if she could have some to put in her garden. I have several plants now, and each one can produce 40 or more flowers at a time! This bud is just about ready to burst.