February — Something Red

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One place that is serene and beautiful for a stroll is Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.  The bountiful variety of flowers and plants make it a photographer’s paradise.  On a recent visit, I only had my iPhone 11 Pro Max to capture some of its beauty.  But next visit … I’m taking the big camera along!  By the way, if you are wondering what is that eyeball doing in that flower, it is part of Selby’s current exhibit of Salvador Dali’s “Gardens of the Mind” collaboration with The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.  Selby has put together cool designs inspired by Dali’s fascination with art, math, science and nature.  Dali’s interest in “divine geometry” is based on the idea that natural forms such as the nautilus shell, daisies and beehives grow at a constant proportion without changing shape. Many of these numerical ratios are found in Dali’s works and throughout the Gardens.

Week 13 — Macro in Mono

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Beetle in Flower at Selby Gardens, Sarasota.

I don’t do a lot of macro photography but really enjoy seeing other photographers’ macro shots.  On a visit to Selby Gardens, I practiced using my macro lens but with limited  success.  Definitely needed a tripod!  But I found this image was interesting as the beetle appeared to be floating above the flower when actually he was crawling around among the pollen filled petals.

Week 33 … #5 Macro … Beetle, Beetle

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June Beetle on Cacti Flower, Selby Botanical Garden, Sarasota

I have done very little macro photography but when we planned our visit to Selby Gardens, I thought it might be the perfect place to experiment.  I didn’t take my tripod and I quickly discovered that it’s almost impossible to capture a sharp image without one when doing macro shots.  But it was fun  …  learning and experimenting with the light and my camera settings but I’ve got a long way to go to capture good macro shots!

This was captured with my Nikon D810, 60mm, edited in Lightroom.