New Macro Photography Captures

SOFT PINK AND YELLOW IRIS

SWEET WILLIAM

PRICKLY THISTLE BLOSSOM

TINY LITTLE SWEAT BEE

PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER THESE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE COPYRIGHT, Protected by United States Copyright and the Property of FranzsFeaturedFotos, Peggy Franz

Macro Flower Photography and Meanings

Sweet Williams flowers are at the center of many romantic legends. One such legend is steeped in the poetry of the English writer John Gay, who wrote, Sweet Williams Farewell to black-eyed Susan: A Ballad. In this piece of poetry, both the sweet William and the black-eyed Susan were depicted as real people sweet William as a sailor, and the black-eyed Susan as his beloved, who must part from him. The story tells of the two meeting, then having to separate again sweet William assuring his love and fidelity all the while. Aside from having some artistic acclaim, sweet Williams flowers are also thought to be very useful in the culinary arts. These blossoms, which have a mild, clove-like taste, are mostly used as garnishes for cakes, pastries and drinks; however, they are also known to add a unique dash of flavor to salads, floral liquors, jellies and butters, as well as herbal tea.

Dahlia’s are spicy flowers, and their meanings range from a sign of warning, to change, to travel, to even a portent of betrayal. The varied symbolic meanings of the dahlia make this flower a wild card. Give to that unique, eclectic person whom you wish to compliment his/her wild side. Combine them with slender flowers like irises or tulips for a striking visual display as well as a combined symbolic message that says “temper your adventures with a kind heart.”

This is a capture of rain drops reflections on The Bachelor Button Flower. There is no secret there and it has nothing to do with processing either.Each droplet reflects its surroundings, so in each of them you can find many different reflections by simply changing the angle you look at it.A water drop is a spherical mirror which shows the reflective image inverted compared to the object (in this case).
To capture reflections in a raindrop you have to look for it unless you have serious knowledge of geometric optics.

If you don’t know the Bachelor Button by this name, you aren’t the only one. Probably, you know it by one of these names: Basketflower, Bluebottle, Hurtsickle, and Cornflower. Sometimes, this flower is known as the Boutonniere flower. But, all of these names will connect you to the same flower, which is the Bachelor Button. There is a story behind this flower, of course with a name like that. You will see that bachelors wore this flower if they liked someone and wanted to date them. The longer the flower stayed alive and the longer they wore it, it showed how strong their feelings were for that person.

BACHELOR BUTTON

PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER THESE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE COPYRIGHT, Protected by United States Copyright and the Property of FranzsFeaturedFotos, Peggy Franz

Pink and Red Beauties

Just some beautiful spring flowers I captured.
The Begonia Dragon Wing red, ‘Begonia x hybrida’, is a beautiful shade plant growing up to 15 inches tall with a a spread of up to 18 inches. Dragon Wing Pink Begonias perform very well in the landscape with excellent heat tolerance and garden performance. This plant is ideal for hanging baskets on the front porch or in large containers. Begonia Dragon Wings prefer planting beds that are well drained and organic-rich.

Dahlia-Dahlias are easy plants to grow and yield beautiful blooms from mid-summer through fall. In many respects, “dahlia culture” is similar to “tomato culture.” If you can grow tomatoes in your garden, you can successfully grow dahlias. The following notes will help you to add spectacular blooms and brilliant color to your garden!

Spring Beauty Rain Drops

Well ,I know lots people don’t like the rain. I look forward to it especially after a rain with spring blossoms . captured this right after a rain. The colors just bursted out from all the rain. This from our DogBerry bush.The dogberry bush, also called red chokeberry or choke pear, is native to most of eastern North America.

PHOTOGRAPHS ARE COPYRIGHT, Protected by United States Copyright and the Property of FranzsFeaturedFotos, Peggy Franz

My Cardinal Bird Captures

cardinal birds art

PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER THESE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE COPYRIGHT, Protected by United States Copyright and the Property of FranzsFeaturedFotos, Peggy Franz

NEW:)

The male Northern Cardinal is perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird. They’re a perfect combination of familiarity, conspicuousness, and style: a shade of red you can’t take your eyes off. Even the brown females sport a sharp crest and warm red accents. Cardinals dont migrate and they dont molt into a dull plumage, so theyre still breathtaking in winters snowy backyards. In summer, their sweet whistles are one of the first sounds of the morning.

True Love Cardinal Mates for Life

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Bucks and Babes Deer Captures

 White Tail   Deers Leaping

 

                                                                               

Elk in the meadow
I captured this photo of this beautiful Elk while hiking. I had to hurry up take the picture and get the heck out of the area. It is rutting season and I wanted no part of those antlers.

Taken on my hike in a park. I was being very still and quiet in between the trees. I sat there for a long while wanting to capture a tender moment. This is as close as I got to come. They looked right at me.I just love my deer.

PROTECTING OUR HEREO’S
This was captured at Jefferson Barracks Park. This little baby doe was lying on my Dad’s Grave 🙂 It made me cry, but such a great felling because my Dad Love Deer!

wildlife greeting cards

The Beauty of Butterflies

This page is dedicated to the enjoyment of butterflies, some of our world’s most beautiful creatures. The species I have photographed here are all Missouri native, with each specimen being a beautiful creature in its own unique way. Unfortunately, this kind of simple beauty that butterflies possess can often be overlooked in the busy-ness (business) of life. Thus I created a little interesting facts on different kinds. I hope you enjoy!

The Anise Butterfly
There is so many various kinds of Swallow Tails. Colors also depend on Male and female.The elegant Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) is often mistaken for the Eastern Black Swallowtail . The caterpillars look nearly identical! The adults definitely have differences in markings, that, when compared side-by-side, are evident. Captured this is my back yard.

Butterfly In Flight In the Swallowtail  Family    Not sure Of the Name of this one.

I captured this at Shaw’s Nature Reserve in Missouri.

This is the Black Swallow Tail

The black swallowtail, also called the American swallowtail or parsnip swallowtail, is a butterfly found throughout much of North America. It is the state butterfly of Oklahoma.

This is the Eastern Blue Butterfly

Eastern tailed blue butterflies can easily go unnoticed with their small size. Sneaking up on and capturing in the cameras view finder can be challenging. This eastern tailed blue landed on white clover. .Eastern tailed blues facts: wingspan 3/4 to 1 inch; males irridescent blue above and summer females brown above; found practically anywhere except deep woods; flies low to ground and perches low; lays eggs on legumes, especially clovers, beans and tick.

This is the Paper Kite Butterflies Not from Missouri

The Paper Kite Butterfly only has two rather common colors, black and white, but is still an eye catching beauty. The way the light shines through the wings is just amazing, and if there are other colors around it looks a bit like stained glass.This was capture at the Butterfly House in St. Louis, Mo.

The Blue Clipper

The Clipper is a fast flying butterfly and has a habit of flying with its wings flapped stiffly between the horizontal position and a few degrees below the horizontal. It may glide between spurts of flapping.

The Painted Butterfly

This is one of the most common butterfly species in the world. The only places it doesn’t live are on Antarctica and some remote islands. It even migrates to Hawaii and Iceland!

The Tiger Yellow Swallow Tail Butterfly

The Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucas) is a strong flier with distinctive yellow and black striped markings on its wings and body (some females are brown or black, mimicking the poisonous pipevine swallowtail). This relatively common butterfly has a wingspan of 3.5-6.5 inches (9-16.5 cm). Southern subspecies are larger than the northern ones.
These butterflies are called swallowtails because they have long “tails” on their hindwings which look a bit like the long, pointed tails of swallows (a type of bird).

PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER THESE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE COPYRIGHT, Protected by United States Copyright and the Property of FranzsFeaturedFotos, Peggy Franz

For more information on butterflies
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/species/Tigersw.shtml

Can I Bug You ? My Photography of Macro Dragonflies

I was visited by this funny green little guy while fishing. He came up on me just like he was asking me what ya doing.. Some interesting information.The dragonflies agile flight and its ability to move in all six directions exude a sense of power and poise – something that comes only with age and maturity. The dragonfly can move at an amazing 45 miles an hour, hover like a helicopter fly backwards like a hummingbird, fly straight up, down and on either side. What is mind blowing is the fact that it can do this while flapping its wings a mere 30 times a minute while mosquitoes and houseflies need to flap their wings 600 and 1000 times a minute respectively.I am amazed at these little insects. They are just amazing to sit and watch the behavior. 

 

As nymphs, dragonflies live in the water.
There’s a good reason why you see dragonflies and damselflies around ponds and lakes – they’re aquatic! Female dragonflies deposit their eggs on the water’s surface, or in some cases, insert them into aquatic plants or mosses. Once hatched, the nymph (or naiad, in this case) spends its time hunting other aquatic invertebrates. Larger species will even eat the occasional small fish or tadpole. After molting 9-17 times, the dragonfly will finally be ready for adulthood, and the nymph will crawl out of the water to shed its final nymphal skin.

A dragonfly nymph breathes through its anus.
A damselfly nymph breathes with gills at the end of its abdomen. The dragonfly nymph’s gills, oddly, are inside its rectum. That’s right, it breathes with its butt. The dragonfly nymph will pull water into its anus, where gas exchange occurs. When the dragonfly expels the water from its rear, it propels the nymph forward, providing the added benefit of locomoti

The male dragonfly has secondary sex organs.
In nearly all insects, the male sex organs are located at the tip of the abdomen. Not so in male dragonflies. His copulatory organ is on the underside of his abdomen, up around the second and third segments. His sperm, however, is stored in an opening of his ninth abdominal segment. Before mating, he has to fold his abdomen and transfer his sperm to his penis.

Long before the dinosaurs walked the Earth, dragonflies took to the air. If we could transport ourselves back 250 million years, we would immediately recognize the familiar site of dragonflies flying in pursuit of prey. Griffenflies, the gigantic precursors of our modern dragonflies, took flight in the Carboniferous period over 300 million years ago.

Thanks for looking and  you can catch me @ https://www.facebook.com/PhotographyByPeggyFranzFranzsfeaturedfotos?ref=hl

PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER THESE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE COPYRIGHT, Protected by United States Copyright and the Property of FranzsFeaturedFotos, Peggy Franz

For more interesting facts http://insects.about.com/od/dragonfliesanddamselflies/a/10-Cool-Facts-About-Dragonflies.htm

Another Adventure to Pickle Springs Natural Spring

Pickle Springs Natural Area is a deep, forested gorge consisting of geological formations and plants that are found in few other places. Visitors will find examples of a sandstone glade, talus, forest, savanna, as well as a number of rare species of plants and animals. The area is noted for its blooming wild azalea and wildflowers in the spring. Great after a beautiful snow fall as you see. According to local legend, the area is named after William Pickles, a settler from Illinois who owned the land until he was shot by a band of renegades during the Civil War. Pickle Springs and other area creeks flow into Pickle Creek, which in turn traverses into Hawn State Park.

The trail at Pickle Springs Natural Area may be short, but it packs in a ton of scenic beauty.

The 2 mile loop goes by sandstone canyons, glades, bluffs, waterfalls and wanders through a hoodoo complex.

Puppy Love

These are rescue puppies. They are about 4 weeks old. They are just so cute. I love puppy breath!!!

The Three Stooges Cute Puppies

These are rescue puppies. They are about 4 weeks old. They are just so cute. I love puppy breath!!! They  are Rescue puppies 🙂

Butterfly Sweet Pea Flower