Looking At Things A Little Differently: A Walk With My Macro Lens.

As you may have noticed, I have been devoting a lot of my hikes, and blogs,  to looking for  the many of birds  that live in our area and which I have discovered.  with my 400mm lens.  I love this new hobby  but today I decided to take a walk with my macro lens.  I also love to see how beautiful the natural world is close up. And, once again, I wasn’t disappointed. 

I walked through my neighborhood first, looking at everyday flowers and weeds then I took the same walk through the ponds and wetlands I have been taking every evening after work. This time, however, I got a much closer look, and it was just as beautiful. 

It is still very early in the growing season and many plants are just beginning to put forth their first leaves, such as the oaks. 

Others, like the birch and the  ginkgo tree growing in my front yard  already have developed their leaves. And their intricate designs sure look pretty through the macro lens. 

I also found it interesting to see the young fruits on some of the trees and plants. These small buds will develop into raspberries by early summer. 

And these buds will  grow into grapes by summer’s end. 

It is hard to believe these tiny and delicate buds will form black walnuts in the fall. 

I was hoping to find a lot more insects, especially bees pollinating the flowers but I actually only saw this one. I hope it is because of the cold weather and not a result of the insecticides so widely used these days. 

I also only saw this one spider, a close up, of the critter on the leaf above. 

I headed into the woods and turned over a few logs and rocks hoping to find some interesting bugs and insects.  I didn’t find many except these ants and their eggs which,once exposed were quickly carried underground by the worker ants. 

I also made this interesting discovery when I turned over a log, a nest of some small mammal, I believe to be a mouse. I didn’t want to try and find out since I didn’t want to disturb it. You never know what you will find if you keep looking. 

I found a few blueberry or, as we call them here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, huckleberries. It is amazing to see how the young berries develop. 

I headed back home and noticed the ants on my mom’s peony buds. 

They are attracted to these buds for some reason and I was able to get  some close ups photos of these  busy creatures

some folks may not find these close ups photographs to be as pleasing to the eye as a beautiful cardinal or warbler, but they certainly are beautiful, in their own way, and I sure enjoy this perspective too, Here is a link to some more photographs from my walk today. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/photographs-page-2/nggallery/photographs-page-two-blog/macro-walk-may-17-2016

~ Photography is the power of observation, not the application of technology. – Ken Rockwell