It has begun! Temperatures are dropping below zero at night, allowing me to photograph frost in the morning. This winter I intend to spend a lot of time photographing frost, ice crystals and snowflakes in preparation for a book on snowflakes I’m publishing next year. I can’t wait!

These two photos are taken from the black trim around my car’s windows. This one shows what appears to be rectangular crystal formations. Interesting, as water usually freezes into 6-sided crystals. One study published in 1954 shows ice forming rectangles at very cold temperatures, but I think the more likely explanation is that this is the rectangular edges of hexagonal crystals. Science!

The below photo shows growth of a much more smooth design, almost looking like leaves.

Much more to come at the temperature continues to drop. Stay tuned!

I like setting a goal for myself when I am out taking pictures. On a recent trip to a patch of wildflowers, I heard something unusual. It was a bee, but with a high-pitched sound coming from its wings. I traced the sound to this little gal here:

After some research, I have concluded that this is a female Leaf-cutter Bee. In the Megachile genus, probably M. rotundata or M. brevis. They store pollen on the underside of their abdomen and not cavities in their legs, like most other bees. This little one was sticking her backside in the air when she entered a flower, likely to prevent any pollen from falling off from abrasion against the flower.

I really didn’t know much of this when I was taking the photos, but I learned a lot about my subject after I took the image! Anyhow, back to goals: I set a goal to grab a photo of this particular bee species in flight. They would jump very quickly from flower to flower, which gave me plenty of opportunities. I got this after about an hour:

Part random chance, part skill, part patience. I would have gotten that shot if I didn’t tell myself exactly what image I wanted to walk away with. I would have been happy with the first one. Macro photography is a great way to learn about nature!

As many of you know, one of my favourite areas of photography is macro. Seeing a world that we never pay attention to, or normally cannot admire the details of, fascinates me to no end. Take for example, this image of a honey bee in flight:

The proverbial bee’s knees of bee knees in action! Or, a red dragonfly resting its wings for only a moment before continuing its hunt:

Many of these images are taken between 1:1 lifesize and 3:1 lifesize. However, one of the wonders of this type of photography is that the closer you get, the more details you see. This image was taken at 6:1 lifesize and cropped significantly, giving you the eye of a Deer Fly filling the frame:

Check out the gallery, I’m sure you’ll be fascinated. I have more of these – I’ll post more soon for those interested. and hopefully get out photographing more before the end of summer!

A while ago, I posted my photo called “Web of Wonders”. I didn’t invent the idea by any means, but I have been experimenting more with it. Here’s another image, created with the seed of a dandelion-like flower instead of a spider web:

The method is simple: spray the seed’s “webbing” with water from a mist bottle, place flower in behind, and shoot. Because I’m using an off-camera flash, I’d need three arms to properly set everything up. I was in the wildflower fields in Barrie at the time, so I simply waited for a passerby and asked for their help. They were amazed at what the camera created as much as I was.

I created another one with the help of my lovely fiancée Desi right here at home. We used a spider web and a rose to create this “web of love”:

The most difficult part about taking these images is the extremely shallow depth of field. We’re dealing with less than a millimeter of focus, and no tripod. It takes patience, but its worth it. I have another one that I’m still working on that I will post some point soon.

Its that time of the year…. wildflowers in bloom, looking to attract insects. A spent some time recently down by the wildflower fields here in Barrie, not looking for the flowers, but rather what was attracted to them:

The above photo is of a Pearl Crescent Butterfly, a tricky one to identify! I find that the natural beauty in such small spaces to be fascinating and eye-opening. I stayed pretty much within 15 square feet for a few hours, and found dozens of unique insect species coming and going. This gallery is a collection of 15, but I’ll make another post soon with more. Here is another interesting one from the set:

I’m not sure the exact species of this green wasp, but the shimmering armor on these creatures always impresses me. One of my biggest joys of photography is seeing the world beyond my own vision, and this set is a perfect example: