Gratuitous Bug-and-Flower Time!

After shooting a portrait session for Joey at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, I did what I love to do-- ran around the place scouting for pretty flowers, lovely bugs, and all things tiny to capture with my fabulously wonderful macro lens.

Sweet like candy to my soul is the macro. There are literally tiny things EVERYWHERE that we never get a chance to see up close, and the macro lens allows me to find those things and share their beauty with you. I squeal inside with delight when I see a butterfly swirling around a bright flowery bush, because I know that with enough patience, that bug will land and I can get a picture of its fantastic wings. Dragonflies and bumblebees are worthy targets as well... or any other bug I happen upon that doesn't scare the daylights out of me.

Don't even get me started on flowers. I wish I had 900 frames, and could line my walls with macro floral shots... but alas, I don't live alone, and not everyone has the high bright-popping-color-tolerance I do...

So I keep on snapping away, and rotate the prints out now and then. One of these days... ONE OF THESE DAYS... I will have a room devoted to nothing but the insanely fascinating artistry of nature. God's hands at work.

Happy Birthday Kendall!

If you follow my work regularly, you'll know that I've been photographing my sweet little friend Kendall since birth... I can hardly believe she is THREE already! She is a hustling, bustling, bright little lady who evidently believes that "Taytee" (that's me) lives at a local Mexican restaurant called Lupe Tortilla (whenever Kendall's mom and I want to go out for lunch, this is our no-fail restaurant since they have a sandpit playground where the kids can amuse themselves while the parents chat).

Her mommy was nice enough to hire me for the day of Kendall's playdate-party, and I had the opportunity to photograph the birthday girl and several of her closest friends-- some friends more on the shy side than others. The Moms provided fun hats, glasses, and feathers for dress-up and the kids had a blast! Gideon was quite the ham with his sombrero, and I made a new little friend who had lots of fun playing with pretty red butterfly wings.

Kendall is the pretty little lady in the first and last photographs...

Ooooooh, flowers!

So I was rooting around in Mercer Arboretum one day before a bridal portrait session, wielding my macro lens (it's great for capturing tiny details), hoping to catch some pretty bugs and blooming flowers up-close and personal. Mercer didn't let me down! It had rained pretty hard earlier in the day, and the sky was blessing me with that not-too-bright light (photographer's dream!) that really allowed the vibrant colors to come through. Some of these images actually made their way into frames and are displayed throughout my home-- really interesting macro photography is one of my favorite hobbies. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do! For the entire Artistry of Nature collection, visit the gallery.