New Hanover County Arboretum is a gem of a day trip located in Wilmington North Carolina. These spectacular gardens host educational programs, publications, and events.

My visit was in July of 2019. It was a touch warm that day (lol!) but I enjoyed photographing quite a bit of the gardens, sculptures, Japanese Tea House, water gardens, and Children's Garden. 

Here is a small gallery of flower photography from the flower gardens there. The variety of pollinators, that are very fond of these gardens, are minimally represented here as well.

I do not know the names of the flowers. If you know any of the names feel free to post them in the comments! 

The New Hanover County Arboretum Water Garden's Dragon Sculpture. 

New Hanover County Arboretum Water Garden's koi fish. 

Tiny forest are essentially miniature landscapes that can be found almost anywhere if you have a lens that sees them.  In this case I was exploring some old wooden fence post tops with a Canon 100mm Macro Lens 

These little natural fungi and moss forest have quite an array of: colors (especially for February), shapes, and plant life.  Here are some top down images of the tops of the posts. 

Some side view images. The narrow depth of field is helpful to highlight one particular plant in the forest. 

This subject is something I look forward to photographing more in the future. As the seasons change the variety of plant life must change with it so it will be interesting to go back to these same posts and see how they change. 

These images, and many more, are available for purchase through my Gift Shop. 
For images like these visit my Macro Photography collection. 

​If you don't see one you'd really like Contact Me. 

Animal Photography isn't something I have a tremendous amount of patience for so I rarely go out to photograph animals on purpose. 

​Generally I go on a photo adventure to a specific area to explore nature photography in that area. If there happens to be animals there (alive or dead) I'll photograph them. If not, so be it. 

​I never realized that I had amassed so many animal photos until I started looking to put things together for this blog post. There are hundreds!  

​So this will be Animal Photography Blog Part 1 about Animals That Fly. Featuring: birds, ducks, eagles, butterflies, dragonflies, and a variety of insects from the Kingdom Animalia​.

The subsequent blogs will feature other animal related themes. I hope you enjoy them!

Macro Photography is photographing subjects that are often quite small in a way that creates a larger than life sized image. Macro can be for scientific purposes, or, simply a tool to explore the tiny little scenes that play out around us every day. It's a wonderful type of photography that opens up all sorts of new areas of interest but it also requires a little more patience and control with the camera. Check out my top 3 tips below!

Macro Photography Tips:

1. You will need more light than you think: If it's not a bright sunny day you may need to add some light. There are a few different types of Macro Flashes on the market but if you're not quite that dedicated to macro then simply get creative with whatever you have. You just need to bounce some extra light into the area immediately in front of your lens. On on camera flash modifier can work to do this as well as a reflector. 

2. The DOF can be wickedly shallow: When you are in this tightly to your subject a good amount of background blur is essential in some cases. A sturdy tripod will be a good way to deal with the very shallow depth of field you may elect to use. If you subject is moving then simply move your body back and forth instead of continuously refocusing. 

3. Shoot a lot of frames: When you think you may be done shooting your subject, shoot a few more frames. These small subjects and shallow depth of fields make even a half a millimeter off a very big deal. 

4. Don't take it to seriously in the beginning: Jump in there, have fun, shoot a lot, and explore the tiny scenes on our planet!