Category: Pt. Defiance Park

I’m still thinking about/working on that Portrait essay, but Fall/Winter is setting in here in the Pacific Northwest as we’ve been slammed by major storms with high winds and some of the heaviest rains I’ve ever seen here. So, I had to take advantage of today’s non-rain to get down to the Point Defiance Rose Garden.

What I saw there confirmed that summer is definitely over,

though there’s a few late roses still to be seen if you look hard enough —

and get here very soon.

The dahlias are in slightly better shape. They’ve already cut the flowers off in two of the beds and many of the big flowers are drooping under the weight of the rain, but some, like this yellow beauty.

clearly reveal their sunny heritage.

The rain has obviously been hard on all the flowers,

but for me raindrops can accent their beauty.

The best looking flowers, though, were to be found in the Fuchsia Garden,

perhaps because they were smart enough to bring their umbrellas with them.

If you live in Tacoma and haven’t seen the dahlias yet, better get here very soon, even if you have to bring an umbrella with you.

If you’ve worked with tools as long as I have, you’ve probably noticed that the tools you own play a large part in determining not only what you’re able to do, but also what you’re apt to do. Since I bought my Canon 100mm macro lens I can’t go to the Pt Defiance Garden without also focusing on the insects, which, in turn, has made me more aware of various parts of plants.

For instance, I couldn’t help but notice how many of these small butterflies/moths were around.

Curious whether it was a butterfly or a moth, I discovered it’s called a â€?”Skipper” and it’s one of those insects which defies classification since it shares characteristics with both the butterfly and moth family.

I tended to ignore the bumblebees I posted in the earlier entry, but I think this might be the unidentified insect I posted at the same time though I didn’t realize it when I took the picture.

I wonder if there are flies/bees that are in the same category as the Skipper?

Sometimes when you look real closely at nature you find things you don’t expect, like this shot:

Of course, the shot also exposes one of the serious limitations of a macro lens: sometimes it’s impossible to keep everything in focus. Though I kind of liked the mystery of what the spider itself looked like. It’s clear that it would present a real threat to all those insects pollinating the roses.

Nor could I resist the temptation to shoot this miniature rose,

which, due to the magic of the macro lens looks exactly like a full-size rose, though in reality it was slightly larger than my thumb.

And, looking around, I couldn’t resist the temptation of trying to capture the center of this flower.

almost a mandala within in a mandala.

The dahlias at Pt Defiance Park are at their peak now. Every variety, even some new ones I don’t remember ever seeing before, is now in bloom. I’ll have to admit, though, that some of the older varieties remain my favorites. How can you not love a flower that looks as beautiful from the back

as it does from the front?

How can you not love a variety that can produce blossoms as varied as this

from a single plant?

Apparently some people are never satisfied, though, because they keep producing new varieties like this one,

which I did find quite appealing, or this one,

which I find less appealing.