Most of my free time lately has been used configuring a new Lenovo Linux laptop and setting up a new Zenfolio gallery. I did get out to the botanical garden yesterday for a short time and captured a couple of shots that I like. Hope you like them too.

Both were taken with the Tamron 70-300 LD Di; the dragonfly was handheld, the moth (?) was using a tripod.

[LaRee]

Wow Scott that second shot is amazing! Both are beautiful. I'm tellin' ya that tamron 70-300 is a great lens. And I'm not even going to add "for the price" like most folks do.

Your Zenfolio gallery is shaping up quite nicely!

[Peter Zack]

Allow me to chime in with congrats on the wonderful shots. Marc summed it up perfectly. Both are great but the butterfly is outstanding.

[Heinrich Lohmann]

Nice images Scott, the second one is an exellent photograph. Thanks for posting and take care,

[sajmmiller]

Both are nicely done Scott.
Stephen

Thank you Stephen. Much appreciated!

[sajmmiller]

Well done Scott! Excellent job on the series, and #2 is wonderful. Are the botanical gardens busy with activity nowadays?

The second shot captures the beauty and detail together, as opposed to just detail, or just a pair of wings but detail on the head/eye is missing. That's always been one of my foremost goals when photographing macro: what about the more difficult task of capture the combination of beauty and detail of the flower and insect together? Composition and framing is critical in that regard.

It's time to pull out the macro lenses, now that my wildlife photography for the competition is done! There was very little macro photography in dry, hot, deep south Texas...

Cheers,
Marc

Hi Marc,
I've never seen more than a handful of people at the botanical gardens during the times I've been there. I think their special events do draw a fair number of people though. It's a great place for macro photography, and a big plus that they are now open until 8PM most evenings. In case you are not aware, Saturday mornings are free.

I'm glad you liked my photos, and I really appreciate your detailed comment. Because of you and other's on this forum I've learned a lot, and hopefully will continue to do so. Thank you!

I'm glad that your South Texas competition went well!

I've been at Solar Splash ( Lake Fayetteville ) the past few days which has been a different kind of photographic challenge for me, but a lot of fun. I'll post a few shots to the forum after I get caught up.

[scott-devon]

Beautiful shots, that butterfly one is amazing.

[sajmmiller]

Wow Scott that second shot is amazing! Both are beautiful. I'm tellin' ya that tamron 70-300 is a great lens. And I'm not even going to add "for the price" like most folks do.

Your Zenfolio gallery is shaping up quite nicely!

Thank you LaRee! I agree whole-heartedly about the Tamron 70-300. I'd been using my Tamron 90mm macro, which I also love, but switched to the Tamron 70-300 to increase the subject to camera distance in hopes of scaring away fewer butterflies. I thought I might be disappointed in the image quality compared to the 90mm macro, but I was surprised yet again by the image quality from the 70-300.

I'm really enjoying Zenfolio -- Thanks for looking.

[sajmmiller]

Allow me to chime in with congrats on the wonderful shots. Marc summed it up perfectly. Both are great but the butterfly is outstanding.

Thank you Peter! I greatly appreciate your comment.

[sajmmiller]

Nice images Scott, the second one is an exellent photograph. Thanks for posting and take care,

Heinrich,
I'm glad you liked them! Thank you for commenting.
Take care,

[sajmmiller]

Beautiful shots, that butterfly one is amazing.

Thank you Scott! The best part is that I learned the difference between a moth and a butterfly.