Hello! Wednesday got off to a great start. After a few cold and rainy days, warm sun returned and sitting at home is absolutely out of the question... especially if you have to go to the office :) Yesterday I saw a blooming blackthorn in the park, so I decided that today I'll pass by armed... - and put in backpack macro lens 150mm.
So, today's walk was inspired and aimed for the macro (but a few nice #streetphoto also came in, as well). My blog goes with #WednesdayWalk challenge by @tattoodjay, and for #alwaysaflower by @dswigle.
As soon as I went outside, I stuck at the very first tulips flowerbed in the neighboring yard; the morning was not that early, more like a noon (yes, yes, today I was lazy :) ... and I found I didn’t the only one who wants to enjoy a warm May nature outdoors. A respectfully organized group of elementary school students walked past me to an excursion...
I am very into papping kidz, you know. Therefore, my tulips macro-photos became sandwiched with half a dozen photos of happy kids on a walk. I waved at them, and they waved back at me. The art of socialization!
That was a nice Wednesday start, but much more fun lay ahead of me.
Right at the park's entrance...
So yesterday I spotted in the park these few small but impressive trees. That is a real explosion of pink, almost like red maples in autumn. Well, there are some green leaves on these trees... but not much - they are visible only when you come closer. Otherwise, it's just one continuous ocean of flowers, an explosion of blooms!
By the way, I label it as "tree", but which one, exactly? if you assume this is an apple tree... you will be mistaken! Check the photo above for comparison: apple tree often has white (and smaller) flowers. And these pink ones are 2-3 cm in diameter! I faintly recall seeing red berries at this spot in autumn; therefore I am ready to assume this is more likely a kind of blackthorn ... maybe a blackthorn and plum hybrid? I feel excited; oddly enough, but I've never seen a blackthorn bloom!
These trees are delightfully appealing, from a distance it even may seem that this pink is artificial, that its kind of fake decoration. Is such a boisterity of pink really possible in nature?
One simply can't walk by without taking photos.
So did I... took a lot of them (but no selfies ;)
This is how I imagined the goal and results of my walk - and I got them, exactly as intended, in large numbers 😜 But that is not all. While I stood still focusing...
...a sparrow arrived! I feel sorry to add such a crappy pic to my post, but the sparrow did not let me to take better takes --
...literally, in two seconds he discovered me, and departured off.
At one of the leaves I found a tine ladybug!
The first ladybug of 2023 for me, and lets hope, not the last one...
Sadly, she did not pose me -- preferring to hide in the shadow or in the downside of the leave, and promptly ran away as soon as decided that I am too much of annoyance :)
And now goes the best part of my walk: golden beetle!
I heard some buzzing... inspected more attentively the tree and found this new visitor:
Rose chafer or the Green rose chafer, or Cetonia aurata (Lat.), or Золотистая бронзовка (Rus) isnt a rare beetle -- wiki says, it can be found throughout Eurasia (with the exception of mountains and deserts). It feeds on flowers of wild and garden plants, including fruit trees (but does not apply to pests and enemies of gardening).
The thing is, the last time I encountered it was ... I dont remember exactly - 10, 12 years ago?.. This beetle has amazing color and very photo-friendly. Best thing about it is, er.... that it is rather retarded than shy or scary buggie -- thus, it cooperated very well with me and camera. The rest of the day was spent fruitfully, I forget about my office duties and had nothing except the beetle shepherding fun.
And now let me add a few #streetphoto as a bonus. I headed to the park exactly for doing macros, but ofc I looked around and could not resist the pleasure of capturing some other folk's activities, which is always the most fun for me.
I noticed an ordinary girl who was sitting at a most ordinary bench, and did nothing. But if you take a closer look at the photo... you will see she is enjoying her drink, clutching a safe cigarette with fragrant smoke in her hand, listening to music (or some kind of self-education podcast, maybe? lol) ... and of course she enjoys a beautiful May nature, warm and sunshine as well as loneliness. A nice example of multi-tasking, only women are capable of that. Isnt that a proper case for #letmesmile with @elizacheng? now move on.
Kids and their parents enjoy the boat fun!
Watching activity at the playground was double, triple fun! (cause I walked away with some funniest captures, as the one above).
Now you may ask about the office... er... meh... Today I was late by a few hours. Thanks God my duties can tolerate this!!! All the amazing harvest I've got today totally was worth it.
| location: | St.Petersburg, Russia | May 2023 | natural light |
| camera/lens: | Canon 5D | Sigma 150mm | raw-conv |
Thanks for walking with me, see you next time.
