The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

I was sitting inside watching golf on the television when it dawned on me, "Why am I sitting inside watching golf on the television?" I have been noticing a wasp's hole near where I park every day and have been saying to myself, "Self, you should mount that excellent Sigma 70mm macro lens on your camera and see if you can't capture that dangerous rascal one of these days."  I have been saying that for weeks . . . so . . . no time like the present.

Taking a photo of wasps is not a very smart thing to do, really.  You are so scared of getting stung that most of your shots are blurred because of the shaking camera.  In addition, wasps are shy creatures:  I waited way too long in scorching heat and melting humidity and all I got was this this little guy peeping out of his wasp hole at me for 15 minutes.  Oh well . . . . there's plenty more in the garden to look at this beautiful morning.

There had been a heavy rain last night (like EVERY night for the past two weeks), and there was still a lot of moisture on everything . . .

It's fun walking around in the garden with a macro lens!  My Sigma DG 70mm f2.8 Macro lens is about as good as it gets for this kind of close-up work.

A very tiny world magnified inside this single drop!

The light was clear and very low . . . and passed through these red fronds.  The dew drops were on the back side of these!  Amazing!

Deep in the undergrowth . . . little gems.

There was so much to see this morning!  I lost my breath when I saw this.

Deep down at the bottom of the garden little magnifying lenses point out additional detail.  Wonderful.

A single dew drop crowns this magnificent red bud-with-a-flowing-bud.

It didn't take long for the sun to dry off the dew from these red flowers.  It was 90+ degrees and humidity 90%+ as well.

The rains blew a lot of leaves off the trees . . . at first I thought it looked messy . . . but then I looked closer!

I love the sparkle of this pink leaf.

A sensuous palm frond, vaguely human.

With all the rain we have been having over the past several months, everything is growing like crazy.

Not only is everything growing like crazy, it is growing everywhere!  The variety of plant life growing on this garden path stone is incredible.

An old dead tree stump had new lichens growing on it.  WOW! What planet did this come from?

Another strange lichen.  I wish I had some extension tubes for my macro set-up . . . guess I'll go to the camera shop this afternoon!

This is about the maximum magnification I can get without an extension tube on my macro lens.  This is at 100%, no crop.

Our star fruit (Carambola) tree is starting to drop fruit.  Pretty tasty, but a strange texture . . . .

Snail Love . . . . mating at the bottom of the garden!

Oh!  So that's where the Chinese stone garden lantern went!

I noticed this flowing  thorn bush before I went into the house . . . and noticed that I hadn't noticed how beautiful the stalks were!