A Walk in the Wildflowers

| Allison

Hello, dears!

My sister Megan and I planted a TON of flowers this year. We were skeptical at first about whether they’d work since we hadn’t tried wildflowers here before… but wow, did they grow! We now have two little wildflower patches overflowing with blooms, plus a longer stretch of flowers near the end of our family’s garden. And, knowing me, you’ll not be surprised to hear that I have taken tons of pictures. 😉

I’ve narrowed down some of my favorite pictures to show you guys today, including a goodly selection of macro photography. I hope you enjoy these bright and colorful beauties at the golden hour!

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Ahhhh, SO. PRETTY. The flowers in this picture are mostly yellow and blue, but right now there’s also a lot of pink blooms. I took these photos a while ago so the garden looks different now. 😉

flower 1

We planted these two gardens mostly with packs of mixed wildflower seeds from various stores, mixing in a few of our own seeds we’d saved from former years.

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A neat bonus to having a wildflower garden is that it attracts a bunch of interesting insects and butterflies! And these easy to photograph moths. 🙂

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This little guy wasn’t shy at all. I photographed him with my macro lens (see “P. S.” at end of post), which requires you to get right up next to the subject – and he just sat there sipping nectar.

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Ooh, I love this one! Moths look really neat (and slightly creepy) up close, particularly their eyes and proboscis, or tongue.

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Look at the intricate center of this flower!

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Ooh, I’m pretty proud of this one. It is extremely difficult to get sharp focus with the macro lens extension tubes I use, but with a lot of patience, many blurry photos, and a little bit of sharpening in my editor, you can clearly see the astoundingly beautiful pattern of this bachelor’s button bud.

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The macro lens has a tiny depth of field, which means only a small part of your photo will be in focus. I could either focus on the center or the petals here, so I chose the tips of the petals, just for different. 🙂

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Hello again, moth! I took SO many pictures of these guys. I love their neutral browns with the bright blue bachelor’s buttons!

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Some of our bachelor’s buttons are actually white, lavender, or pink, since we got a variety pack. I absolutely love them! They’re definitely one of my favorite wildflowers.

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I also love the simplicity and daintiness of cosmos flowers. Aren’t they lovely with the sun shining through?

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These coreopsis are super bright and showy! I love the vibrant yellow and red together.

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These annoying Japanese beetles are all over our garden, though not as bad as they used to be. Don’t eat the flower!

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We shall end with this beetle-free photo, bathed in my favorite kind of light. ❤

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Ahh, those photos make me happy. 🙂 Nature photography is one of my favorite kinds because it’s so relaxing and enjoyable. You don’t have to worry about posing anyone or even styling your subjects perfectly – you just play with your settings and have fun. I hope you enjoyed scrolling through the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Which photo was your favorite? What’s your favorite wildflower?

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S.  Photos taken with my Nikon D3400, a 50mm lens, and this macro lens extension tube set. Photos edited with picmonkey.com.

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62 thoughts on “A Walk in the Wildflowers”

  1. AHHH SO PRETTY. We have those yellow flowers growing around as well as black-eyed-susans, your favorite wildflower I can’t remember the name of that looks similar to a bachelor’s button and also daisies. They just grow in random patches all over the property. And sadly we have Japanese beetles too. On the apples. They fly off onto my head when I pick them. *sighs*

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    1. AHH THANK YOU. Oh lovely! You mean chicory? Yesss, I love chicory. We have a lot of chicory, Queen Anne’s lace, and black eyed susans around here… and yeah, Japanese beetles. Ugh.

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  3. AHH, GORGEOUS! *heart eyes* The light in these is so beautiful. ❤ All of the macro photos and the very last one of the purple flower are my favorites – they're all amazing! Your photography is just getting better and better. 😀

    -Clara ❤

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    1. Thanks so much, Fiona! The moth pictures are probably my favorites too. 🙂 I love wildflowers in general, but I love chicory and bachelor’s buttons especially! ❤

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  14. Those were lovely, Allison! Thank you so much for sharing. I especially loved the close up of the pink flower.

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  25. I loved the close-up and side view of the moth with such clarity on both his eye and the probiscus. Great!

    We plant some of these same flowers. Clara’s first pink lavatera just opened yesterday, love their stripey-ness inside.

    Here’s a suggestion, our girls love to make bachelor’s buttons daisy chains and wrap them around their heads, or clip them into hair pieces. So summery!

    One of my all-time favourites for wildflower gardens is Shirley Double poppies.

    Great nature photography! Joy!

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    1. Thanks so much, Aunt Luci! I love that picture too. 🙂

      Really? That’s so neat! I bet you guys’ flower garden is beautiful too.

      Ooooohhh, the flower chains/crowns sound lovely. I’ve made some before, but I’d like to make more.

      I LOVE poppies as well! Sadly we don’t have any in our wildflower garden, but we did see some wild ones around our farm this year. 🙂

      Thanks again for the comment! I love hearing from you guys. 🙂

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  26. Hey Allison!

    Somehow, each latest photo shoot is more amazing than the one before. 😉 You are seriously gifted with a photographer’s eye! I don’t know if perhaps you’ve heard, but an homeschool organization by the name of HSLDA is hosting a photo contest. God brought you to my mind when thinking about it, and I’d say you have a pretty good chance of winning if you enter. 🙂 Not to mention that the first place prize is $300!

    Here’s the link if you want to take a look: https://hslda.org/content/Contests/Photo_entry.aspx

    Keep up the good work! ❤

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    1. Aww, thank you so much, Camille! You’re super sweet. ❤ OOH! I've heard of that contest, but I went to check it out again after I got your email! Sadly I don't think I can participate since I'm not technically in school anymore. :/ But I really enjoyed browsing through the winning photography, and I'm so happy you thought of me. ❤

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  30. So pretty! I really like the super up-close photo of the moth on the purple flower. The blurred out background looks really nice. 🙂 I actually planted some wildflowers this year; it was a butterfly mix (so the package said), but only a couple of the seeds actually sprouted and produced flowers. But the plants that did grow made a lot of flowers, so it’s okay. 🙂

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Your comments make my day! Please keep them clean and respectful so everyone can enjoy this blog. :) Thank you!

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