Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Macro…the magic of milkweed

I’m fascinated by milkweed.  In summer, the plants bear pink flowers.  In the fall and winter, the hard pods offer a textured outside with a smooth interior, while the seeds are attached to white fluff that can take off with the wind.  I love the contrast and find them very photogenic.

What I like most about milkweed is that it provides nectar for a variety of butterflies, the monarch foremost among them. Hummingbird, hummingbird clearwing moths, bees, and a variety of insects also feed there.

The name milkweed derives from the milky substance the oozes from the stem or leaves if they’re damaged.  Although the leaves are poisonous, the caterpillars of the monarch butterfly eat them safely, rendering them poisonous to predators. The large milkweed bug pictured below also feeds on the seeds, making them poisonous to predators as well.  The damage the bugs do isn’t great, even though they swarm the plants.  I managed to isolate just this one for the photo.

There are a number of varieties of milkweed.  The one pictured below is the common milkweed or Asclepias syriaca.  Despite their (to me) beauty and uses, milkweed propagate easily and can become a nuisance.

To view Sally’s thoughts and photos or to find the other photos linked to the “Macro” challenge this week, just click on the link.

Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Nature…a drop of color

I’m craving color in these days of black and white beauty, so here’s my entry for this week’s nature theme at Sally’s D’s Mobile Photography Challenge.    Ahhh, I do love my iPhone 5s, not only for ease of carry, but for the excellence of its camera!  Now I’m never without a camera.

This is also my mom’s birthday as well as Pearl Harbor Day in the U.S.  My mom lived in California, so I know that wasn’t her best birthday ever.  But I hope this one is.

Wordless Winter Wednesday

Tentative love

Usually on Monday I participate in Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge.  But Sally will be not only cyber-free but visiting relatives this week, so there’s no challenge.  Instead, I thought I’d share a photo I took earlier this year along Naperville’s Riverwalk, a lovely length of pavement that winds through the downtown.  I took my camera and sat on a bench, waiting to see who or what came by.  This meeting brought a smile to my face.  The little boy wanted to pet the dog but as you can see, he was a bit cautious.

Do you prefer color or black and white?

Wordless Wednesday…milkweed

Weekly Photo Challenge: Ornate… Everyday French ornate

And the Weekly Photo Challenge theme for the first week in November is…
(drum roll, please)…
“Ornate.”

An outdoor faucet…

A village water source…

An everyday home in French wine country with everyday Burgundian roof tiles.  Hey, it’s someone’s everyday home…

Wordless Wednesday…Blowin’ in the wind

Let there be light!

This weekend, we ended Daylight Savings time.  Of course, the total number of light hours didn’t change, but they were certainly redistributed!  Now we have sunset at 4:46 pm, much earlier than I’d like.  Winter would be much more fun if there were more light hours in the day.  There’s something about cold AND dark that makes me feel much colder than the same temperature with light.

I’m usually taking my walk in the early morning hours, greeting “the dawn’s early light.”  Today I was enjoying the unseasonably warm weather in mid-afternoon.   The light is very different then.  But it still has the ability to lift my spirits even as it creates an entirely different look in nature.

A Facebook photo group I’m in is featuring light this week.  So I’m going to pull a few of my photos featuring light to share, hoping that they light your week while bringing pleasure to your soul.

Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Nature…a trio of mornings

Every morning in the park is an adventure and none more so that seeing what the sky will look like when I come around the first bend to the open prairie part of the park. Since “Nature” is our theme today, I’d like to share three very different morning views. Feel free to tell me which you prefer.

Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge Week 4…Simplicity

Sometimes less is more, as Cee demonstrates this week in her “Compose Yourself Photo Challenge”, “Simplicity” edition. The “simplicity” challenge: Show us 4 to 6 photos that you have taken that are extremely simple. Show us your uncropped and unedited versions. Sharpening and saturation is allowed.

Here are my four simple originals:

For some additional fun:  Cropping: show us one before and after cropped simplicity photo.  Color vs. B&W: show us the same photo one color and one black and white photo.

Here’s my cropped photo. ( Click on any photo to see it larger.)

Here are the color and black-and-white versions.