They come, They go …
Over the year the visitors to the garden vary according to the season, the weather, heat, rain, food, shelter, breeding cycle and probably other conditions we can’t know or measure – we don’t know it all, that’s for sure.
So I spend time in the garden tending the plants – which is its own practical value for peace of mind – and often I will come across a little wonder of nature, our nature. These are just a few.
And it only happens because I am present to see – and can still get back up off the ground where I usually shoot them, everything else is imagination.
Mark Berkery … CLICK any picture to enlarge in a new tab, they do look better bigger – FireFox – for me
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Nature's Place 
Hi. I have sat mesmerised at the quality of your images. I also love taking and getting absorbed in insect macro photography. Thank you so much for sharing. Margherita
Thanks Margherita. It’s a pleasure …
Amazing detail!
Amazing nature …
Nature RULES!
Sure does … :-)
EVERYTIME !
This is stunning Mark! The images are so sharp I can see the insides of the insects too. Too good!
Thanks Rex …
Reblogueó esto en La mutación Neomuray comentado:
Un blog para destacar con excelentes fotografías.
I have been in nature nearly every day in the last six weeks. I see the changing season in the animals and plants that I encounter. Your bee photo is stunning.
A good place to be … :)
Wonderful shots, so clean and sharp! It’s like you have an outdoor studio.
Thanks Sylvia. They weren’t always so clean and sharp, it took time to find and apply the principles and techniques I now use as second nature – it’s all here : https://beingmark.com/macro-illustrated/
Outdoors is a studio when you know your tools and subject well enough. One rule is never ‘chase’ anything, if it won’t sit long enough for a shot move on and you will see something else that will.
Fantastic pictures
Thanks Andrew, I prefer to acknowledge the nature first – fantastic nature. The picture or photographer is a smaller part of it …
I have so many little visitors like these in the garden. I often just stand (or sit if the grass is dry – and yes, I also have trouble getting up these days) and watch. I like to watch lol.
I’m always amazed that you manage to get your shots before they move on. Mine seem to move so fast it’s hard to keep track with the eye let alone a camera lense. I was jumping around yesterday trying to catch a Cabbage White Butterfly, bane of the gardener, to feed to a lovely active little spider I found in a new web. The Cabbage White won out :(
Chasing a butterfly is a youngers task, not for me. I get my shots by knowing from experience when and where (and how to) they are approachable, Then I usually have from a few seconds to a few minutes to get the shot.
The garden visitors are the best part of the garden. I have a little frog that lives in my strawberries and I see it every night when I gather my strawberries and I am watching it growing. Thank you for sharing your visitors.
Frogs are serene creatures. It’s good to have something like it to watch while it lives its little life …
Brilliant photos! What little creature is that first one?
Thanks Jenny, that’s a Blue Banded Bee, native to Australia and probably up into Indonesia/thereabouts.
How marvelous! I thought it must be a bee but it’s quite a bit different from the ones here in the northern hemisphere. Thanks for sharing!
It is marvelous, and different. And there are many more kinds of bee here that you don’t have. You also have many bees we don’t … the way of the world.
Indeed (:
The bee bears an interesting resemblance to a cat curled up near its food bowl.
It’s actually asleep. They grip something suitable in their mandibles, usually at the top of a grass or other stem and that way minimise the risk of attack by predators overnight.
Bees are such wonderful creatures- and so smart. We have bumblebees living in some hollow columns on our deck. They overwintered there last winter, and still came out foraging when it was warm enough to fly. I sometimes find them sleeping on flowers in the hanging baskets nearby.
Yes, when observed without particular intent it becomes obvious there is intelligence in the small creatures, worthy of respect.
Only occasionally have I found a bee in a flower and it’s a real treat. Also a dangerous place for bees to sleep, with the remarkable flower or ambush spider so common – hereabouts anyway.
Keep ’em coming.
Will do Karen … as long as there’s enough life in this old …
I love that first shot…so beautiful
Yes Laura, they are …
As always…humbling. They take my breath away with their beauty. I’d never have seen that from where I usually am if I see a spider—standing as far away as I can and hoping that it will decide to go away as fast as its 8 legs can carry it. But my favorite is the bee….the colors are so vivid. The bees I’m familiar with (and allergic to) are the black and gold striped variety.
Hey Sarzy. These bees have a sting but are not aggressive at all.
REMARKABLE photographs, Mark.
Thanks Lisa …
Yowzers! Talk about clarity photos! (Creepy bugs, though.)
Not to me though …
Very impressive photos!
Impressive nature …
Awesome macro !!!
Thanks HAY …
;)
Amazing photograph. Stunning close-up
Thanks S …
Welcome