Sudbury photographer Ray came down for some sights, including the Pink Ladyslippers (that I posted here a couple of times recently).  He brought his CamRanger  along which allows him to use his iPad to remotely control his (tripod mounted) camera.  CamRanger can also provide a motorized tripod head to remotely pan and tilt his camera.  Very handy for exposure bracketing, focus stacking and situations where having two eyes on the subject is important.

Unfortunately the day was overcast, cold (12ºC), with a gusty light wind blowing.  The wind made flower pix difficult as we need to close the lens down more than usual (to increase Depth of Field)  and shoot faster than normal (to minimize motion blur).   In addition there are the obvious challenges of composing a moving bloom and getting a good focus on it.  Good  practice, though.

The chill in the air kept the pollinating insects (butterflies, hoverflies, miniatures, etc) in cover.  That meant that their predators, (dragonflies, birdies, etc) were also at rest, conserving energy.  The warblers were silent and swallows were not seen.

As the day progressed we got a little sunshine, which brought out the food chain, enabling the keen photographers to exercise their shutters.  When it finally warmed up in late afternoon Ray had to depart for the drive home.

Here are some of the pics taken in the few hours that he was here:

This High Bush Cranberry uses the same strategy as the Hobblebush (posted a month ago) by rimming its fertile blossom with showy infertile perimeter flowers to attract pollinators.  Those inner blossoms will open up in warm sunshine….

Lupins that I seeded at my old place 20 years ago.  Every year the roads maintenance folks mow them down so I got these two pix before their cropping by clever humans:

The wild irises are unfurling amoung the heaths in the little swamp near the end of Riverside Drive.

This is a very small potentilla, about the size of a small fingernail.  There are many species of  Potentilla (Cinquefoils) growing around here, all with the characteristic, yellow, rose-like, 5-petalled bloom with 5-pointed leaves.

The Pale Corydalis has a very long blooming period with many plants spent after opening their seed pods.

Another “flower fly” visiting a Canada Anemone.

Looks like a Fiery Skipper to me.

A grasshopper (Cricket?) that I’ve not seen before and can’t identify …

Unknown beetle checking out an Ox-eye Daisy.

Clubtails came out for a while during some warm sunshine….

All of the above pix were taken with my 100-400 mm (200-800 mm EFL) lens from the vehicle.  The one below was taken with my Olympus 60 mm f/2.8 Macro from a Unipod in gusty wind.  This was the third day that the white spider was in that plant (Solomon’s Plume).  I hope that it will stay there until I can get a better photograph on a calm day  It might be a White Crab Spider.

I am hoping for some warm, calm weather to work both of these lenses to their limits.

 

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