Zooming – July 2024

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As I reviewed my group of zoomed images from July, the favorite subjects of the month emerged: hot air balloons, animals (birds, butterflies, a squirrel), museum and monuments, and (of course) plants dominated by flowers. The places included areas close to home, Springfield Botanical Garden, Oklahoma City (First American’s Museum and Oklahoma City National Memorial), Tulsa (Philbook Museum), and Joplin (Wildcat Glades)

The hot air balloons are from a Balloon Glow event. They didn’t leave the ground!

I enjoyed the pottery room and garden structures at the Philbrook, the light of late afternoon as I walked around the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and the wall art in the First Americans Museum).

Animals included a robin, a green heron, a skipper, a swallowtail (not sure what kind), a fox squirrel, and a juvenile male mallard.

And then there were plants. Most were flowers but there were seeds (dandelion puff), a pine cone, and olorful new redbud leaves.

It was a good month for photography and being outdoors. Only the pot and the wall art are indoor images.

My Favorite Photographs from 2023

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Photography is something I enjoy frequently (one of those hobbies that pop up almost daily!). I’ve picked 2 photos from each month of 2023 for this post. Picking favorites is always a bit of a challenge; looking at the collection as I write this post I realize some were chosen for the light

  • A heron in morning light

  • A backlit dandelion

  • High key image of iris…and then a turkey using the same technique

…some for the subject

  • The busy fox squirrel

  • Two insects in one flower

  • The egret struggling to control a fish

  • The feet of the American Coot

…some because they prompted a strong memory of the place.

  • Driftwood at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge

  • Sculpture in the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House Garden in St. Louis

  • Metal iris and sunrise at my parents’ house

  • Geese on the snow and ice in my neighborhood in Missouri

  • Cairn as the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden in Springfield, MO

  • A flower blooming in December at Josey Ranch Park in Carrollton, TX

Enjoy the mosaic of images (click to see a larger version).

Fox Squirrels

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The fox squirrels are very active in my parents’ backyard this time of year – chittering in the high branches, chasing each other around the treetops and along the fence tops (spiraling up and down the trunks)…dashing through the thick vegetation in the garden and a row of low bushes that separates the yard from the driveway.  This is the time of year the squirrels are enjoying the bounty of fall food….and increasing their interaction to produce the next generation of fox squirrels!

The squirrels ate the best parts of a bowl of scorched popcorn I threw into the garden within 24 hours!

They are more fun to watch than the birds!

Zooming – March 2023

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The optical (and then digital) zoom on my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) is used on almost every picture:

  • To do composition in the field rather than cropping later

  • To get close without physically being close

  • To see better than I can with my eyes (using the camera like binoculars)

My favorite image this month is the backlit dandelion puff. Enjoy the March zoomed images!

Fox Squirrel

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Last time I was in Carrollton, TX, I paid more attention to the squirrels in my parents’ yard. They are a little larger than the squirrels I see in my Missouri yard and have a brownish orange underside. I realized that they are fox squirrels. I enjoyed photographing one munching on some food we had put out for the birds. The squirrel was down on the ground…up on a perch in the tree where a large limb had been removed…giving me opportunity to see it from almost every angle. I wondered if the squirrel was pregnant because it looked very rounded! Late February is a likely time the young would be born.