Nature photography: show us your best pics

All gorgeous but I love that green and pink one! Unusual colors.

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Thanks! If I recall correctly, it’s a variety of Malachite butterfly. Aptly named, if so!

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I tapped-out of working early to get some rare sun at the High Park Turtle Pond:



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My parents and two of my sisters came to visit this weekend. They’re headed back to Idaho tomorrow, but my dad wanted to see Lake Michigan and we also went to High Cliff State Park. The leaves are starting to change.

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Still on the Botanical Garden/Conservatory of Flowers kick, this is one of my favorite pics, a Lantern Tree before the blooms have begun to open

Edit: here’s one that has started to open

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Four seasons in Wisconsin.

I just loved the colors popping in this one:


Local lake in late August:

Pampas grass is so pretty in the fall!

More fall. Just because.

Hoarfrost:

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This tree didn’t fit in the previous post, but it’s trying to fit in anywhere.

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Oh my goodness that fall photo is stunning. :green_heart: :orange_heart: :yellow_heart:

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That tree is more flexible than I am.

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Me too! I’m stumped (:smirk:) how it successfully grew like that.

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I apologize if this has been discussed earlier… knowing how people are taking some of these photos would be cool to know. There are some macro shots that I don’t think I can get with my iPhone.

When I first played around with photography in my younger days (80’s) I had a Minolta X-700 that I loved but lenses were so expensive. I really miss that camera and debated on investing in a DSLR but some of these iPhone photos I take amaze me.

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Newer phones take some pretty dang good pictures. What I’ve found with my iPhone (12 mini) is that it takes good photos at the normal zoom, but if I use the “zoom in” feature, the photo quality quickly goes to crap. I also find it hard to use, whereas holding and operating a big DSLR is quite natural.

I have a Nikon D750 and I like it a lot. But DSLRs seem to be on their way out:

Mostly what I hear is the lens is more important than the camera body. But I’ve never been able to bring myself to spend more than $1000 on a lens, so I use a pretty middling Nikon 24-120mm zoom lens as my everyday lens. But then again, I’m not a professional, and I’m not printing photos at 24" x 36". I also have a cheap macro lens, a Tamron AF 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 which I bought for $200. It’s pretty good for the price!

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I’ve got about $3500 in Canon EF lenses, so this move away from that mount is somewhat of a bummer. Supposedly they have an adapter to the new RF mount that works well.

Been several years since I’ve used any of that expensive glass, my little Lumix FZ80 has been my go to camera lately. So who knows if I’ll ever get a new Canon body to upgrade my 40D.

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Yup. I have a Note 10+ and it’s not much better. Does great up to 2x, but anything past that (it goes up to 5x…so it says) and things quickly start to go downhill. But it’s GREAT for wide angle shots. So now when I go somewhere I just put the big lens on my DSLR for zoomin’ and Macro shots and I use the phone for landscapes.

Shenandoah again:

Please enjoy the Happy Tree-

And some berries from Waterton:

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My iPhone X takes great pics, but many of my posts here are photos from my 15 year-old Fuji DSLR. Only 7 megapixels, but it’s got some really good glass on the front. Power zoom and macro mode as well.

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My pictures are either from my Samsung phone (which does pretty well at normal range but zooming in can be hit or miss; zooming in on distant objects sucks but zooming in on close objects can be pretty good) or from my digital point-and-shoot that does pretty well for not being very fancy. I can do panoramas and zoom and put some different effects on my pictures and it’s easy to carry around. I really prefer using a real camera over my phone, but my phone will do if necessary.

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I’ve been using Canon EOS Rebels for ages (back in the film days I used a Pentax). Lens quality is absolutely paramount, something I didn’t believe myself until I got a decent telescopic lens and saw what the camera could capture. I am astounded at what cell phone cameras can capture now, though I realise there is likely a bit of algorithmic trickery behind those juicing the contrast and saturation for you. Those kinds of things I prefer to control myself.

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Today’s theme: flowering trees!

I don’t know what this is; it grows in my neighbor’s yard and a bunch of the branches stick into my yard. It’s more of a large shrub than a tree.

There are a flowering plum tree in my yard. It flowers before it leafs out, and for about three days it’s completely covered in these tiny white flowers. The bees love it.

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Lovely! Here are some of the flowering trees in my area.

Eastern Redbud

Spicebush

White Mulberry

Royal Paulownia

Pawpaw

Tulip Poplar

Tulip Tree (actually a type of Magnolia)

All but the last are native or naturalised here.

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The trees are starting to change around here and while we’re not at peak color yet, I saw a gorgeous tree when I was walking this morning.

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