Queen Anne's Lace and backlighting

Don't you just hate it when you step outside to catch a breath of fresh summer air and you see photos that have to be taken? It happened to me the other day. So back inside I went, grabbed the camera and the tripod and spent an hour photographing the incredible crop of Queen Anne's Lace that has taken over my yard this year. I think it's just a wildflower, but no idea where it came from. I have probably 100 plants in my yard. My favorite method of photographing flowers like this: strong backlighting and a black background. I darkened the background in editing a bit. I shot these with a 70-300mm Nikkor with an extension tube, but I'd kill to have my old 200mm Micro Nikkor back. A prime lens is a bit slower to work with because you have to adjust your distance instead of the lens' zoom, but the sharpness and clarity of a prime lens are generally far superior. The lesson here: don't go outside unless you want to take some pictures--they're everywhere! Please visit my main site. There's a gallery of close-up flower photos there, too.

Fly Delta!

“Effective immediately, Delta will officially ban shipment of all lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo trophies worldwide as freight,” according to a statement by Morgan Durrant, a Delta spokesman. “Prior to this ban, Delta’s strict acceptance policy called for absolute compliance with all government regulations regarding protected species. Delta will also review acceptance policies of other hunting trophies with appropriate government agencies and other organizations supporting legal shipments.”

Way to go Delta.

(Photo from Google Image Search, photographer not credited. Please correct if you know the photographer.)