Reconnecting with nature through hiking, camping, and paddling
I spotted this Horned Grebe swimming in one of the canals at The Great Dismal Swamp. It didn’t seem to mind me watching it at all. It just swam around, in and out of the shadows and would occasionally dive under water. I was able to get quite a few photos of it but this is one of my favorites.
This flamingo stood out among the group of its peers. It was a bit more relaxed and kept lifting its head, lending itself to a nice avian portrait.
This Mourning Cloak butterfly stops to rest and feed in a patch of tiny, purple wild flowers. I encountered it while hiking with a friend this spring in the Great Dismal Swamp near Suffolk, VA.
Five of the eight legs of this spider were on the surface of a small pool of water. The other three were resting on a leaf floating on the surface. At first I thought this spider had been stranded on the leaf but I later realized it was probably waiting there for lunch to come along.
Like all the photos on my blog, you can click on the image above to see a larger, high resolution image of this photo.
This female cardinal enjoys the sunflower seeds at my backyard bird feeder. I was out taking photos and the feeder was in full sun when I snapped this photo.
When I arrived at the edge of the lake, this stump was absorbing the sun. As the dark wood warmed snow was converted into a small cloud of steam. As a result, this photo shows all three forms of water: frozen (snow), liquid (water), and vapor (steam).
Morning sunlight begins to fill the garden at the start of a beautiful day.
Sunlight gently warms the garden flowers and chases away the mist on an early fall morning.
Walking around the grounds of the Highland Meadow Vineyards on an early morning in September, I caught the sun beaming through the trees illuminating this fountain.