Water gardens, and the benign insects they attract

This morning I was kindly invited to participate in a photo outing with the Carolinas Nature Photographers Association. We were permitted to shoot at Water and Garden Creations of Frank L. Schwartz (in Johnston County), where there were a variety of lotus, waterlilies and other aquatic plants. It was a great place to photograph, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

I was hoping to "catch" some dragonflies. The weather began with a fully overcast sky and reasonably cool temperature, so we suspected there might not be much dragon activity. The bees were out, so I went after them, as well as the flowers themselves.

I used lens tilt to get everything in focus for this one:

After awhile, a few dragonflies did appear, and with some patience I managed to photograph them in a variety of poses and with various perches and backgrounds.

As I had a 600 mm setup for the skittish dragonflies, I used it to get extreme perspective for a flower portrait.

The bee is in flight, and seemingly so is the flower.

Wherever there are insects, there are usually spiders. This one was pointed out to me by a fellow photographer. I had to hang out over a pond to get this shot (with a 100mm macro lens).

Finally, no story of photographing around still water would be complete without an example of reflection.

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