The Bees are Buzzin’

The apple blossoms are blooming and the bees are busy pollinating. It’s a great time of year!

A Bee

The ground ivy is everywhere and I can’t complain as I walk through a sea of purple on my daily constitutional.

Ground Ivy

After spending a huge position of last year walking around with my macro lens and shooting the neighbourhood green spaces, I can tell you that it never gets boring. I have been having a blast this year with my macro. It’s one lens that will definitely stay in my bag for those special moments that can happen spontaneously.

Pink and Red

I’ve brought my 105mm lens on my walk today to reshoot the leaf from yesterday. The reason for switching to the 105mm was to see if I could get more of the leaf in focus. 

Pink Leaf Take Two

I think it did a much better job than the 55mm lens. You can see more of the veining in the leaf than with the 55mm lens. I’m much happier with this photo.

Japanese Spindle Tree Berry

On the opposite side of the creek, I found these pink berries. I only see them in late fall, and this year I’ve finally identified what this plant is – the Japanese Spindle. It’s native to China, Korea, and Japan so obviously someone planted this in their backyard where it’s made its way into the creek area.

Rosehip

I walked by the area where there were so many dogwood roses in summer. The roses are now gone, but a few rosehips have been left behind on the bare branches.

I spotted a lot of pink and red today on my walk. It looks like late fall isn’t so brown after all.

Deep in the Forest

I’m back in Claireville today with my friend NIgel. We met at the east entrance and decided to take a different path. We hoped to find some interesting things to photograph on this unused trail.

Deep in the Forest

Deep in the Forest

The trail is overgrown and I’m not sure if that’s because the main path is much easier to walk or if its because they have taken this trail off the map. It wan’t one that was well travelled in the past and with COVID and the parking lot shut down for a few months things that may have been the cause of this trail’s state.

New England Aster

New England Aster

When I first shot this photograph of the New England aster I thought it was a new flower that I haven’t come across before. I didn’t realize that this is how the aster grows. It’s prettier all curled up then when its open. LOL

Small Milkweed Bug

Small Milkweed Bug

Wandering into a large meadow in a small valley I decided to shoot a specific milkweed pod that came to my attention. It wasn’t until I was photographing it that I realized that there was this small milkweed bug making its rounds on it. It was a stroke of luck to catch this guy on this particular plant and we took full advantage of the situation. This was my favourite shot from our hike today.

Some Macro Photography in Claireville

I was in Claireville today with my friend Nigel shooting some macro photography. Mostly it was a hike where we took a few photos and chatted. It’s harder to get inspired once autumn begins to fade. It hasn’t gone yet but here in Claireville, autumn has mostly moved on.

Elfdock

Elfdock

But sometimes you find something interesting to photograph, if you look hard enough. These Elfdock were dried up and standing tall in open fields. Using a shallow depth of field, I was able to focus on just the one grouping and blur out the rest in the background.

Milkweed

Milkweed

It had rained a little this afternoon so this Milkweed still had some raindrops on it. This gave it a little more interest. I used the same technique as I did in the first photo to blur out the background, keeping the focus on the one plant. That’s the benefit to using a macro lens. When getting up close and personal with a small object the background becomes much softer allowing the focus to be on a specific part of what you’re photographing,

Common Blue Wood Aster

Common Blue Wood Aster

Deep on the forest trail we found these small blooms. Up until now I’ve predominantly seen the purple aster but this is the Common Blue Wood Aster. It seems that asters really like the fall weather. In my research, I found out that these small flowers are important food sources for butterflies, bees and other insects in the fall months. Once these flowers go to seed the birds will also be able to benefit in fall and into the winter months. Nifty little plants and another nice walk around the park.

Autumn’s Purple

Today I’m back to my regular walk around the neighbourhood. The autumn colours and the lushness of the creek path make it one of my favourite times of the year to walk here.

Autumn Path

Autumn Path

And it looks like we leave autumn as we entered spring – with purple flowers. Chicory seems to be around all summer right into the late autumn months,

Chicory

Chicory

What’s new is the purple bell-shaped flower that is growing through the chain-link fences along the catwalk leading to the schoolyard. I’m not sure of its proper name but I love how vibrant the colour is. 

Purple Bells

Purple Bells

As autumn starts to lead us towards winter I’ll be left without these vibrant colours. Luckily I still have some time before they disappear this year.