Macro

I have owned my present camera [ a Canon Power Shot A2000IS] for about a year.  In that time I have done little other than to use the "auto" mode or the setting for night shots, experimenting with the zoom feature.

Two booklets came with the camera, but I have small patience or skill in fiddling with "tech-y" stuff.

To be honest, I like things to work "perfectly" without a lot of practice.

I have been increasingly unhappy with attempted close-ups which missed the beautiful details of flowers or insects.  The camera manual turned up in one of the boxes I rootled through this week.

This being a day of weather unfit for woman, man or beast to attempt strenuous labor, I decided to play with the camera settings.

The flower garden is languishing in the heat, but I have hoped to let seed heads ripen and self-sow.  I've noticed that the hummingbirds and butterflies don't care that the flowers are shabby, so that has been another reason to leave them in over-blown and untidily flopping dis-array.

Two of the spicebush [Eastern Swallowtail] butterflies were damaged and clearly near the end of their short lives. This one was dull and ragged but still gamely flitting from flower to flower.

The monarda is going to seed but still appealing to the butterflies and humingbirds.

Still not as sharp a photo as I would like.  Butterflies don't oblige by "holding still."

A gold-spangled fritillary on a red zinnia.

This tiger swallowtail was huge--and very busy. 

I remember a summer when I was about 12 and decided I should acquire a butterfly collection.

I fashioned a "net" from a piece of my mother's old nightgown fastened to the wooden dowel from a windowshade and I was off for hours, trailing butterflies through the pasture.

Today I tripped over cucumber vines, ran around the edge of the flower garden, trying to get a good shot of this creature.

Today's hibiscus. A thank you to Chris J, for suggesting the color "Chinese Pink."

I tried repeatedly for a shot of this opening bronze sunflower.  The bloom is above my head and the wind was blowing just enough to make the photo blur.

I took this shot in the evening with the overcast sky darkening into dusk.

Another of the "dwarf" sunflowers with an insect visitor.

Detail of a dark sunflower in bud.

A bud of the tall golden sunflower.

Buds on the pink hibiscus.

My proficiency in photography has a long way to go.

I will always be an amateur with an inexpensive camera.

Still, the quest for photos to share is yet another interest and a continuing joy.

For as many remaining years as I can be out and about to explore the intricacies of Creation, I will never be bored.