As many of you know, I’m rather challenged when it comes to challenges. Since I retired, I no longer have a calendar on my wall. I’ve been using my cat Maxine’s pill dispenser to tell me what day it is. Such is the life of a procrastinator.

But after coming across a couple of Lens-Artists photography challenges, I’ve decided to turn up the heat on myself. Seems all I need to do is post within the proper week, note the proper references, and show off my photos. For this week, I’m responding to Patti Moed’s “Focus on the Details” photography challenge.

When I think of details, I think of macro photography. Currently I use an iPhone 8 Plus which has some macro capability but not a lot. Most of the following photos were cropped so you could best see the detail that caught my eye.

My husband is a macro photographer, focusing primarily on flies. He’s developed a keen eye and I can count on him to find interesting insects. He pointed out this long-legged fly (Dolichopodidae, dolis for short) for me to photograph. Green on green on green rather blend in together, and the fly itself is only the size of my littlest fingernail.

I lose some detail with cropping, but in the above photo you can still see clearly the green of the fly and its delicate wings.

This handsome insect is a lightening bug or firefly, depending on what part of the U.S. you reside in. He’s hanging out on the leaf of a Georgia Aster I have on my deck. Currently I have 15 potted plants on my deck. Not only do I enjoy watching them grow and bloom, I love inspecting them and seeing what new visitors we have.

On a visit to one of our favorite trails, we were entertained by two damselflies that followed us, dancing around our heads and landing on leaves as if ready for their photo op. Again, the photo above is seriously cropped so it’s a bit fuzzy, but you can see the beauty of this damselfly with its turquoise and dark blue colors, and what appears to be white spots on its wings. Frankly, I did not even notice these spots until I cropped the photo. The second damselfly, which managed to evade my camera, was black with white spots on its wings. Maybe they’re siblings.

Flowers were my first focus when I started photography, and I hardly miss an opportunity to get up close and personal with them. Above and below are photographs of irises, the above being a Walking iris (indeed!) and the below being a African Iris (Dietes vegeta), per my limited knowledge. (I’m hesitant to name plants if I can only rely on Google and not my field guides.) You can tell right away that they are both irises, but they have intriguing differences in their colors and markings. I’m fortunate that both of these irises reside in my neighborhood.

I hope you enjoyed this photo gallery. If you care to participate in the challenge, please include a link to Patti’s original post, and use the Lens-Artists Tag so others can find you in the Reader.

Ciao for now!