It’s been a busy week here, keeping up with the business and training my new pup.  I’m having to type with one hand and hand the puppy with the other, just like when my little ones were infants.   After taking last week off for pup-ernity leave, I got back in the studio this week with 3-year-old twins, and have a newborn session up before we head into spring break.  But the lovely weather also inspired me to take the trusty macro lens out to capture the blooms I’ve got in the garden before tomorrow’s rain tramples them!

I am loving the spring-like weather we have had the past couple of weeks, even the rain!  I have the first signs of spring showing in the garden, with the crocuses in full bloom, and a few early daffodils as well.  Just had to share one of my beautiful crocuses.  They are so short-lived, but always a welcome sight after a long winter.

I was playing around in the yard with my handy macro lens, and caught this mosquito snagged in the spider’s web.  Now that’s why we love the spiders, even when they look as creepy as this guy!   And I also managed to catch a tiny fly taking a nectar-bath on one of my daisies.   Yummy!

Yesterday I was in the backyard spreading grass seed while my daughter played happily on the swings.  I came to the section of my lawn where the oak had uprooted last spring, and found it still a mulchy mess, with tiny sprouts of grass valiantly trying to survive the chemical warfare from the deteriorating wood.   In contemplating what do to about this desolate patch of the yard, I came upon a tiny little pair of toadstools about the height of a quarter.  Looking closer, I thought–with an imagination fueled by living with two preschool girls–that it looked like the perfect little home for a garden fairy.   I brought out my trusty macro lens to catch some photos, and left them on the camera until this morning.  When I opened up the images, I realized I should have trimmed a little more of the tiny grass sprouts around it, and wanted to go outside and try again.   Well sure enough, the fairy must have realized I found her home and moved on, because the little house was all shriveled up, and hardly recognizable this morning.

I am always amazed at how closely insects resemble aliens from sci-fi movies.  These are just a few creepy critters I found in my garden and captured with my trusty macro lens.  Despite how big and intimidating they appear here, have no fear, in real life they were only about 2mm long and quite harmless.  The first guy was a fly who was enjoying the raindrops on the hood of my car.

As we go into a rainy weekend I thought I’d share a few more macros of the flowers in my garden.  This time washed with spring rain.  If you look closely in the drops of the purple flower you can see my reflection!

I just love the first flowers of spring.  My garden has lovely spring bulbs that are blooming, and with the help of my little 3-year-old assistant, I was able to grab a few fun macro shots.  These flowers just have the most amazing details.  For my fellow photographers–these are all in full sun, shot using a golden reflector and my little assistant serving as a gobo to block direct sunlight.  That setup allowed me to grab better detail with my 100mm macro lens.