Mostly Photos

Grazing Geese /  by Todd Henson

Grazing geese at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia

One of the early photo trips I took within the first year of purchasing my first DSLR was to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia, an absolutely beautiful park. Any time of year you can find something worth photographing, and for most of the year the park is full of blooming flowers.

In this case my brother and I visited the park to attend a photography show in early March, before there would have been much in bloom. But I found this grouping of Canada geese grazing on the grass along the shore of Lake Caroline. It’s a very simple photo. What drew me to the scene was the monochromatic color scheme and the arrangement of the geese into a line.

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Sunrise from Leesylvania State Park (2008) /  by Todd Henson

Sunrise from Leesylvania State Park

One afternoon while going through my older photos I stumbled across this one, which might be my first sunrise with a DSLR. I believe I’d purchased the camera two to three months before this, and I decided it was time to try a sunrise, so I got up early enough to arrive at Leesylvania State Park and watch the sun rise above the far shore of the Potomac River. The distant shore is in Maryland and I was in Virginia. There was a single sailboat in the water somewhat near shore. I tried to position the sun so its reflection was completely in the water, creating that line of reflected sunlight. Nothing spectacular, but I still have fond memories of creating this one.

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One Afternoon Six Critters /  by Todd Henson

Sometimes I’ll go hiking with one primary goal, such as checking on the pink lady’s slipper orchids, but I end up finding many other subjects, as well. I love those days, when nature just seems to jump out at you and yell, “Hey, look at me!” And of course, I listen. 😀

Below is a collection of six different critters I happened upon one afternoon while out hiking.

Common Whitetail Dragonfly

Common whitetail dragonfly

Dragonflies are back. I just love watching and trying to photograph them. I was only carrying my 105mm macro lens, so I didn’t have a lot of reach, but with a little patience I was able to capture one image of this dragonfly when it rested on a log nearby before flying off once again because I was too close.

Six-spotted Tiger Beetle

Six-spotted tiger beetle

Six-spotted tiger beetle. For this photo I used multiple images to create an unplanned focus stacked image with more depth of field than any of the individual shots.

These are very distinctive beetles and fairly easy to see on a sunny day because their metallic green body really shines and they move around very quickly. Motion and color are two of the elements that help me find subjects and this beetle has both. They are usually very skittish and run or fly off when I get too close, which is usually too far away for a decent photo. But in this case I managed to approach one slowly enough, and was actually able to shade it with my shadow so the bright sun didn’t cause glaring reflections on the metallic body. These are fascinating beetles.

Speckled Renia Moth

Speckled Renia moth

This is a very small moth, one I see around quite often but am rarely able to approach close enough as they either blend in so well I don’t see them or they flit off before I get close enough for a photo (this seems to be a common theme). But I happened to see the motion of this one as it flew in front of me and noticed where it landed. So I got down on my knees, slowly approached it and managed to capture this view.

Eastern Fence Lizard

Eastern fence lizard from above

The side of an eastern fence lizard

Another skittish creature that often blends in well with its surroundings is the eastern fence lizard. This particular one has lost its tail, which is usually much longer. It didn’t seem to notice me when I happened to be right beside it while it was on the side of a downed tree so I was able to capture a nice closeup with the macro lens. I then tried to slowly move above it to get a side view but only captured this one image before it turned its head, saw me, and ran off.

Eastern Tailed-blue Butterfly

Eastern tailed-blue butterfly facing left

Eastern tailed-blue butterfly facing right

This is a very small butterfly, another that I’m rarely able to approach close enough. But as happened a lot on this trip I was able to approach it slow enough to capture a couple images while it rotated itself on the rock it had landed on. This one doesn’t have much of the tail from its name. I don’t know if it wore off, or perhaps this is a young one, or they vary from individual to individual, or I’ve completely mis-identified the species.

Black-and-gold Flat Millipede

Black-and-gold flat millipede all straightened out

Black-and-gold flat millipede moving over some leaves

I found this millipede directly in front of me on the trail making its way across it. Thankfully I was able to capture some photos that are reasonably sharp despite the motion. I love the colors on this one. I don’t know if I’d seen this species before, but have now seen a couple more since then.

Have you ever seen any of these critters? What did you think of them?

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