I was planning to wake up early on Sunday so I could take a morning jog around our village. I also wanted to snap some photos for my weekly Flickr Group assignment. However, I slept late the night before and when my alarm sounded at 6am, I wasn’t really feeling up to it. So I snoozed for another hour, and then another half hour. By 7:30 am, I decided it was time to get up and face the day.

First I set up my studio lights so I could take photos of my paint palette (our theme for the week is “rainbow”). With that out of the way, I switched to my macro lens and went out into the garden. I took photos of the centipedes crawling around our perimeter, then I took shots of some flowers. I was looking around for some nice and new subjects when I happen to glance out into the front lawn. We have a tree filled with red blooms. I don’t even know what it’s called. I never paid attention to this particular tree. While the red flowers look pretty from afar, they look quite ordinary up close. That’s what I thought until I noticed insects flying all over the tree. Lots of butterflies, bees, wasps, and other moth-like insects. I got excited at the prospect of insect macro shots!

It was harder than I thought. Most insects would fly away as I point my camera. Only a few would stay put long enough for me to point, focus and shoot. Nonetheless, I was able to take a few decent ones.

This is my favorite. I love the faded colorful background which provided a nice contrast to the white butterfly. I wish I could have taken a closer shot.

This is a different white butterfly. I love how the blurred foreground and background show some movement around the main subject. A bit of the sky is showing through here.

I’d call this shot “Cliffhanger”. I don’t know what insect this one is. It looks like a moth. It wasn’t much to look at from afar but looking through the macro lens I realized it is a beautiful insect after all.

Here, I captured a similar moth-like insect from a different angle, revealing the white patterns on the wings.

I was a bit terrified to move close to this subject. In fact, I attempted to shoot some wasps but they wouldn’t stay still and I was afraid they would attack me. Then this bee landed on the flower in front of me while I was still in focus. It only took me a second to capture this shot.

Here is the moth again, shot from above. Beautiful, isn’t it?

I feel so blessed to be living in the suburbs where there is still plenty of land and trees, and opportunities to be close to nature without having to leave our home.

These shots remind me of a Bible verse, a promise from our loving Father to provide all our needs.