Sunflower Love

I went back to the sunflower fields this morning not expecting to find much after 2 weeks of blooming and 2 days of torrential rains.  I was hoping to capture a butterfly on one of the blooms but came away ecstatic after this Indigo Bunting posed for me so nicely.  I also came away cursing the Washington Post for their recent article on the sunflower fields.  There were hundreds of people there this morning.  I couldn’t believe the traffic and hordes.  This was quite a shock for me as I am used to having the place all to myself. Anyway, what could be nicer than a blue bird sitting on a yellow sunflower, so I am not complaining too loudly. 
______________________
Tiny Tuesday For August

I can’t believe it is almost August and in two days I will be hosting Tiny Tuesday for the entire month.   This will be the third August I have hosted this fun challenge which began in May 2015 and was the brilliant idea of Walking Wombat. 

Last year when I was hosting, Hobbs suggested I do a tutorial on insect macros.  While I do not claim to be an expert in this, it is an area that I really enjoy and practice a lot, so I put together some tips that may help any of you who may be new to insect macro photography.  If you follow the tag #InsectMacroTutorial, you will find my five entries from last year that include tips for shooting and processing.  If you aren’t new to macro, feel free to give it a pass. :-)  If any of you have some real expertise and you have anything you would like to add, please let me know and I will include it along with this week’s results. 

The tutorial starts with the Dragonfly.

There is no theme for this week.  Just get out your macro lens, close-up filters, extension tubes or find the macro setting on your camera and shoot something small, very close up.  Be sure to tag your images with TT#114.  I have grandkids here this week, so I will try to get the challenge results up by Thursday, but no later than Friday.