I am glad that I protected one section of my wildflowers from the deer. The main flowers in bloom right now are a variety of different colored Zinnia and Cosmos. These, especially the Zinnia are attracting Monarch Butterflies, Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies, and Clearwing Hummingbird Moths. Plus there are several other smaller butterflies, bumble bees, honey bees, and wasps that are also being attracted to the flowers.
Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.
The Monarch Butterfly is back in my wildflower garden. It likes the Zinnia flowers. Images taken with three different camera lens combos (Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens; Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens; and Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens).
Monarch Butterfly Leaving a Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
At this time of the year, the dawn clouds don’t seem to be as impressive. Dawn is earlier (before 05:30) so I might miss them, and the sun is further north so some of the colorful clouds may be hidden behind the trees to the north-east. During the day I spent some time with a new camera/lens combo (Nikon D850 camera and 70-300 mm AF-P lens) doing a flower/wildflower walkabout. It is an interesting combo. Individual images from the slides hows can be viewed here.
Early Dawn Panorama. Composite of three image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Dragonfly. Image taken with a Nikon D850 Camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Flowers – more experiments with focus bracketing and focus stacking. Yellow Moth Mullen, Dianthus (Pink, Telstar, Picotee?), Pale Purple (unknown), and a large Yellow Zucchini flower. This time I used a tripod for the camera, but the flowers still moved with a slight breeze. I can see that I did not go for a deep enough bracket as there are some artifacts in some of the images. Helicon Focus does a good job of aligning the stack of images even with some motion due to the slight breeze.
Verbascum blattaria – Moth Mullein. Composite of 24 focus stacked images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)Dianthus flower cluster. Composite of 50 focus stacked Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)Light Purple Widflower. Composite of 25 focus stacked images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)Zucchini Flower. Composite of 11 focus bracketed images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)
