As I mentioned in my last post, I got a new Nikon D7100 with Nikkor 18-300mm lens. I have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks taking mostly macro shots with it, mostly in my garden. I was going to post some of the pics yesterday, but couldn’t find them. I figured it was my error, not the computer’s. True dat.

Phew, I found my “missing” photos. For some reason, Aperture has set up two different “libraries.” After using a PC since 1983, it is hard to make the switch to an iMac. Egad, that is 30 years that I have been using these new-fangled things called computers! Well, I’ll get the hang of using them one of these days.

This is the shot I was looking for yesterday.

I would love this shot more if it were of a monarch butterfly caterpillar, and not a blasted tomato hornworm!

I wanted to wait to kill the thing to see if my shot came out. It did. But when I went to dispatch the model for the photo, it was nowhere to be found. Oh, well, one more hornworm moth will enter the world.

Female blossom for a winter squash

I love to photograph squash blossoms. This one got fertilized about six weeks ago.

The squash got fertilized and the ovary began to swell.

I don’t know what it is, as it grew out of the compost that I added to the garden. When it was at this stage, I thought it might be a Green Kuri.

mystery winter squash

It is currently dark green, flat, and striped. Looks like it will make two servings of baked squash. What do you think it is?

Fiery Skipper

I love all of the Fiery Skippers that come to our butterfly garden. I haven’t tired of photographing them yet.

Echinacea, aka coneflower

I experimented with vignetting in this close-up of a coneflower. I may see if there is room to squeeze a couple more into the butterfly garden.

Monarch butterfly on bloodflower milkweed

Monarch butterfly

Monarch butterfly on bloodflower milkweed

Tiny orange orchid with a space alien face

Cabbage butterfly, an undesirable alien

These white butterflies are hard to photograph. They never hold still. And they lay eggs on my Brassica crops and make green worms that eat my kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc.

Housefly

I’m really not choosy about my subjects, am I? If it holds still, I’ll photograph it.

One of our two “new” hens. They are a year old now, and great layers.

Can you see the “dinosaur” in this hen? One of them is really mean and pecks me whenever she gets a chance. She reminds me of the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park. And I raised her myself from day-old chicks. Ungrateful bird. I get my revenge, though. I scramble her unborn babies for my breakfast!

One of my harvests from several weeks ago. This is the ONLY summer squash we have gotten so far from three plants.

Another harvest

Our granddaughter Megan with her butterfly garden.

Our five-year-old granddaughter Megan loves to garden. She has planted, tended and harvested radishes, corn, and wax beans from a self-watering planter box. She told me that she wanted to catch butterflies to study them. I told her that a better way is to attract them with a butterfly garden. I brought her another planter box and some flowers (lantana, yarrow, coreopsis, and zinnias). I showed her how to transplant, and she planted half this box herself. There were Fiery Skippers on it the next day, as well as bees and flies of various kinds.

This is a pretty little fly. Can’t remember it’s name, but it is not a biting fly nor a housefly.

This fly was on her garden the next day. It was a new species for me, but now I’ve already forgotten what it is called.

Our grandson Mike, who will be two in October

OK, what is Mike doing next to a fly? Hey, I’m taking the photos in chronological order, what can I say? This isn’t a macro shot, but he is so adorable that I had to include him.

Anna’s hummingbird

Megan also said that she wanted to “attract colorful birds to the yard” and asked if I knew how to do that. Yes, I do. We also brought her a hummingbird feeder. Three Anna’s hummingbirds found it the next day. Megan was thrilled.

Western Fence Lizard

This handsome guy was posing for me on the back wall at our son’s house. Um, but since it doesn’t have a blue throat, it is probably a female.

Some kind of biting fly on a mint flower head in our garden

Cabbage butterfly nectaring on a strawberry flower

Honeybee nectaring from a bloodflower milkweed

I think this is some type of hairstreak butterfly.

Buttercup squash ovary

If this female flower got fertilized, it will make a nice buttercup squash.

Female watermelon flower bud

The ovary on this Crimson Sweet watermelon bud is hard to see, and impossibly hairy. I hope it gets fertilized, because I would like a watermelon.

Paper Wasp on lantana

Assassin bug, a beneficial bug in the garden

This is our entire crop of blackberries, not ripe yet.

I know some of you are picking pounds and pounds of strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc. Count your blessings. This is my ENTIRE crop of blackberries. Whether I get them or the birds get them remains to be seen.

That brings me up to date on macro shots with my new camera, with a few other pics thrown in for good measure. Hope you enjoyed the show.