Tiny Overlooked Garden Gems

Just wanted to share some of my macro photography which has been my passion for at least 10 years. Yes I do get stuff published, mainly butterflies though not as much as I'd like. Well over 100 photos one year, last year 2 :(, one in the works right now for a book on Pacific Northwest insects. Once I got an e mail for a photo request of a butterfly it was sent to John, Jay and Randy, that is my Dad's name, brother's name and my name. The John on the list was John Shaw one of the most published nature photographers in the US. Guess what yours truly provided the image!

I do have one of the largest collections of butterfly photos found in the Southeastern US. If you have not visited my main site Rlephoto.com please check it out.


This little Planthopper, Acanalonia conica
is about 1/4 long and can be found in the garden mid to late summer. Leaf hoppers can be quit colorful, I find myself looking for them a lot in the garden, but getting photos of these little guys can be difficult, I got lucky here. I found this guy on a Swamp Sunflower that we divided from a friends garden and put into ours. Swamp Sunflower is "sticky" and seems to attract leaf hoppers and crab spiders quite well.

The leaf hopper below I found on a field trip and am not sure what kind it is, but it is a stunner.

I used a canon D20 camera with a 180mm macro lens with a flash unit to enhance the ambient light of my subject. This is just a primer of the type of photos to come, so please subscribe to this blog and be sure to stop back again.
Thanks!