I’m really interested in the summer sun lately, especially as interpreted by my 50mm f/1.8. When I got my zoom lens earlier this year, I stopped taking out the prime on walks since it was so much easier to be able to zoom in and out with my 50-200mm. But I decided to change it up and go out with my prime and I remembered how wonderful it is with sunlight! I use that lens all the time for food photography, but I fell in love with it all over again when I took it outside. It’s just a reminder that I need to change things up every once in a while. It’s always nice to be surprised.

I was out on one my photowalks and I found a tree that was covered in butterflies and moths. I guess it had flowers that they like to eat or something? I don’t know, but I’ve never seen that many butterflies together in place before, it was amazing.

Blackberries in May (top left), June (top right) and July (bottom).

I’ve been taking pictures of these blackberries since May (and actually before, since I realized that these were Blackberry flowers) and I was finally able to pick them recently. Now I have a freezer full of blackberries and I just have to figure out what to do with them.

I know I probably take too many photos of flowers, so I think I’m going to try only posting flowers only on Fridays. Those pointy red things probably aren’t flowers, but I have no idea what they are so they’re going in this post.

Carolina Saddlebags Dragonfly

Atlantic Bluet Damselfly (?)

I’ve been trying to get pictures of dragonflies for a long time, but it’s so difficult since they hardly ever stay still. I finally got this one and another damselfly (which seem to be much easier to get photos of). The key is to go out on an exceptionally hot day because it seems even the flies have a harder time buzzing around in that kind of heat and they’ll sit for much longer! I’ve already gotten a few more good shots of dragonflies (that I haven’t processed yet or else I’d include them) by going out during this heat wave. I was sweating buckets, but it was worth it!

Red-winged Blackbird

Female Red-winged Blackbird (or possibly an immature male)

These are from a trip up to Shenandoah National Park/Skyline Drive back in June. I wanted to go on a hike up there and this one was supposed to be “easy”. Ha! Well, to be fair, hiking down to the falls was pretty easy, but then of course we had to hike back up and I am not good with inclines. At all. It was pretty awful on the way back.

And sadly, we hiked all the way down to the falls and I couldn’t even get a good photo because so many people were standing right in front of it. The picture I did get of the falls is just a very small section at the top, it was definitely a very large waterfall once you got all the way down there. It was pretty, but I’m not sure it was worth it. I did get that photo of the adorable chipmunk on the way, so that’s something.