Mid August Panorama and Bloom Day

We're half way through another month and it's time to double up on a panorama shot and bloom day.  Bloom Day is a project at May Dreams Garden that invites people to share what is blooming on the 15th of the month.  August's post is here. We don't have much blooming this time of year, mostly the butterfly bushes, the hibiscus and some phlox hanging on.  The panorama is very green (plenty of great weather here outside of Washington DC.)

The most activity we are having out in the garden is actually harvesting the tomatoes.  It rained on Tuesday so we didn't get out there and on Wednesday Gloria picked a quart of cherry tomatoes.  We just keep them on the breakfast bar and they're handy for healthy snacking, just grab a handful as you're passing by and looking for a quick nosh.  The vegetable garden (on the far right) is almost completely overtaken by 3 tomato plants and the cherry plant is taking over the heirloom and jumbo plants. This was the harvest a couple weeks ago.

On to what's blooming.

Across the back fence are 4 butterfly bushes, but we have had very few butterflies this year.  I'm seeing a lot more bees (and a dragonfly earlier this summer) than butterflies.  For this post I didn't see any butterflies, but there were a couple of bees.

I don't know if it's the cool summer, or the damp spring but even the butterfly bushes don't look as healthy as in past years.

At least some pollinators are able to take advantage of the bushes.

And as a bonus - just because I like this picture - I'll let you see the dragonfly from earlier this summer.

And because it is bloom day, not because they are particularly photogenic, here is a shot of some of the phlox still holding on.

The big bloomer right now is the hibiscus in the front yard.

OK, I was playing with the macro setting in the camera and got this "in your face" shot.

Here are some more shots of the Queen of Sharon hibiscus.

I had to get a ladder out of the shed to get up high enough to get  these shots, it's blooming right at the roofline and that's a rain gutter just behind the blossoms.

I love the gentleness of these blossoms.

Macro Hibiscus

On my way out for my walk in the woods yesterday i spotted some hibiscus blooming in the front yard. I'm not out front as much as the backyard - so I don't get as many pictures of the front.  The hibiscus are usually well over my head, so it was nice to see some down where I could get some decent angles.  The light was cooperating mostly, morning sun, but not too harsh.  I had my camera with me, since I was heading out to the wildlife refuge.

I've been experimenting with the macro settings on my camera. Hey - I'm a guy and it's a technology toy - I need to experiment.  I can't (and don't want to) get ultra close to the bees and butterflies or the birds.  So, I've been experimenting with the macro settings on more stationary subjects.  And the hibiscus volunteered.

Here are two of the blooms at my level on the bush.

And with the zoom I was able to get a decent close-up shot.

But them I switched over to the macro setting (and to a bloom with less shadow at the center.) You can see some fun details like the spill of pollen on the petal below the stamen.

And even closer in macro mode. More details of the pollen on the stamen and on the petal below it, and the veins and coloring of the petals.

The I switched over to a super-macro setting and got really really close (much more than any critter would allow.)

The detail of the pollen, and the coloring in the petals is amazing - I never could achieve that much detail with just a zoom (not with my camera.)

Then I combined the super macro shot with some post processing digital zoom and got this:

WOW!!

I'll keep experimenting and keep posting about my progress.