After the Rain: Garden Photography

| Allison

Hello, dears!

These kinds of posts are some of my favorite to make, as you might know if you’ve been around here a while. 😉 Today I have a bunch of pretty nature photography for you, including butterflies, flowers, and raindrops found in our garden.

I took these photos the day after a glorious, answer-to-prayer rain finally came to end a summer drought. When you’re a farmer whose main key to success (the right weather) is totally out of your control, it teaches you dependence on God like nothing else, and also makes you so excited about rain that you’re riveted to the window, the weather app, and the rain gauge like they’re the most suspenseful movie ever. 😛

Everything was so beautiful and fresh the next day that I kinda just dropped everything and took a bunch of pictures. XD I hope you enjoy the results!

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Here’s a little snapshot of our garden to begin with. I should have gotten a wider angle, but I like how this looks anyway. 🙂 We’re finding out the soil is not nearly as good here as where we used to live, but nonetheless our big garden is doing pretty well (mostly thanks to my mom 😉 ).

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I took most of these pictures in the wildflower/flower garden areas because AHHHH. How could I not with such pretty lighting??

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Megan and I planted a ton of zinnias in one of our flower gardens, which are doing quite well at the moment. So many colors! (Side note: I quite like the composition of this photo.)

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At our previous farm, we had trouble growing melons that actually ended up producing. But here, they flourish! We’re growing watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, and gopher melons (which are pretty similar to cantaloupe). Isn’t this baby watermelon cute, all covered in raindrops?

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Okay. If we’re talking flat, marker-box colors, orange is one of my least favorites. But in nature, it can be breathtaking. I absolutely love the rich, sparkling jewel tones in this marigold! (Heh, can you tell I’m an artist? :’D )

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GAHHHH. Macro photography is so fuuuun! Raindrops are so beautiful! And I love the way these marigolds look – it’s like clouds with a silver lining, except not. Because it’s a gold lining. And it’s not a cloud, it’s a flower. *blinks*

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Mom planted a ton of okra this year, which has grown into quite the forest.

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Okra is a very interesting plan all around. It’s huge, has gorgeous, creamy flowers that look like they should be in a flowerbed, but also has slimy green pods that you can eat. O.o

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We’ve tried cooking it several different ways, but we always come back to slicing it, coating it in seasoned cornmeal, and frying it in oil. Tasty.

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Enough about okra. Moving on to hummingbirds! I was crouching down, photographing zinnias, when I heard this whirring, buzzing sound, and looked up to see a hummingbird getting a snack.

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She was a little too far away for the best photos, but at least you can tell it’s a hummingbird!

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Morning glories are definitely a problem in our wildflower gardens. They have such beautiful, vibrant blooms, but they’re pernicious as a weed, and annoying to extricate from flowers when their vines tangle and strangle them like pythons or something. 😛

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Zinnias have such a perfect petal structure that they almost look fake sometimes!

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AHHHH, this is definitely one of my favorites in the post! Bachelor’s buttons are one of my favorite flowers – I love their delicate, lacy foilage and petals as well as the variety of blues and purples and pinks they come in. The lighting in this picture is just… *happy sigh* :’D

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Black-eyed susans seem like a very country flower. Cheerful, authentic, but pretty humble and ordinary in style.

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Oooohh, I love this one! It’s kind of a cliche picture, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t pretty! We have swallowtail butterflies all OVER the place around here. Most delightful. ❤

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Some butterflies have lovely wings but ugly bodies, but I think this one is gorgeous all the way around. I’m not sure how you couldn’t like butterflies. They’re just so gratuitously beautiful and dainty!

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The structure of spiderwebs always amaze me – so many things in nature amaze me and point to a Creator! That’s why I love nature photography so much: I love beauty and details, and both abound when you set out with a camera to look for it.

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We shall end with this bald little pincushion flower. XD Even though the petals had fallen away, I thought it looked really neat with the cactus-like spines spearing those waterdrops.

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Ahh, this photoshoot makes me happy. I just adore macro photography and wildflowers and butterflies, if you haven’t noticed, and I hope by now you like them too. XD

Which picture was your favorite? Are you a fan of macro photography too? Do you like okra? And do you have a garden?

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. Photos taken with my Nikon D3400 and a 50 mm lens, sometimes with this macro extension attached. Edited with picmonkey.com.

74 thoughts on “After the Rain: Garden Photography”

  3. YAY!! I love you nature photography posts so much! ❤ That is so awesome y'all got rain! 😀 Your photography is literally better every single post. These pictures are BEAUTIFUL. I love your macro photography!! I also love okra! 😛 And no, I do not have a garden. 🙂 Awesome post! 😀

    -Laura ❤ 🙂

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  4. AHHHHHH I LOVE THESE. I think the marigold pictures are my favorite. Those were gorgeous, oh my! I ought to plant marigolds next year. And ooh, those swallowtail pictures turned out really well too!

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      2. And thank you! We had some bad hail recently that it didn’t like too well, so the harvest might be lighter than I was expecting, but I’ll be happy if there’s anything we can batter and fry that starts with an ok and ends with an ra 🤣

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  6. Ooh! I love these so much! I love the marigold ones and the spiderweb! As always, His Creation is stunning. I really need to get out more and enjoy the nature. I have a habit of sitting inside most of the day with books and coffee and my computer. XD

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  7. You and your macro raindrop photography are like peanut butter and jelly 😆 Gorgeous photos, I love all the bright colors and the lighting!

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  18. These are such beautiful images. The last butterfly picture I took was too busy because I don’t have a macro lens. I also love that you got 2 shots with the hummingbird, they are so fast. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Aww, thanks! Yeah, macro lenses are great for blurring out backgrounds, although the 50mm or even the 35mm at 1.8 do pretty well too! Thanks so much for the comment! 😀

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  20. Gorgeous!! 😍🌿 Your style is wonderful and I love the color!! Would you be interested and ok with me using two of these for the next P&R issue? I’ll email you more about this! No worries if not! These are so pretty!

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  21. Love these! Beautiful photos! I just started a new blog dedicated to trying out all kinds of new hobbies and documenting the process. My most recent post is the first of a photography series! Check it out!!

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  22. I’m so glad you got the rain that you needed! Also, I love your photos. The pictures of the bright, vibrant marigolds are great–that second photo is especially stunning. I don’t believe I’ve ever eating an okra pod, but I have eaten milkweed pods. Are they at all similar?
    That’s so cool that you were able to capture a hummingbird! I actually saw a hummingbird today, and they are such amazing creatures. Also, I do love your butterfly pictures. They’re super sharp and colorful. Finally, that spiderweb photo is gorgeous! I think you could use it as a background or texture. I love the creamy blur.
    As you know, I have been trying to grow some things in our garden. Happily, we have harvested many cucumbers, and now I’ve got some butternut squash fruits coming on the plants. 🙂

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    1. I AM TOO. Thanks, Sassafras! I love the marigold pictures too. WHAT? You can eat milkweed pods? I had no idea. So no, I don’t know if they’re similar or not. XD
      Hummingbirds are amazing, absolutely! Thank you so much again. ❤
      Well yay, I'm glad your garden is doing well! Ours is too, but I'll save that for the email I just sent. 😉

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  24. Pingback: After the Rain: Garden Photography — A Farm Girl’s Life – Rexton digital

  27. I absolutely love your pictures…i love the one with the spider web the most..it looks so abstract and surreal…which lens did you use for macro photography…I’m planning on buying a macro lens soon for my Nikon… btw you must check out my recent post where I posted some nature photography pictures on an Hawaiian island 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much! I like the spiderweb one too. 🙂 For that picture I used my 35mm lens, I believe, but for macro photography I recommend getting the Fotodiox Macro Lens Extension Tube Set which you can find on Amazon for only a little over ten dollars! Hope that helps. 🙂 Sure, I’ll check out your post!

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  31. Thanks for the post Allison! I LOVE nature!!!!!! SO MUCH. Especially looking at the moon😍😍

    And….I don’t like okra, once when Mum was being particularly healthy she put it in soups and made us eat it. My sis called it “saliva soup” because of the slimy texture….sorry!

    Ahhh I LOVED the ones you took of the hummingbird, hummingbirds are sooooo cute!

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    1. Ooh my pleasure, Bethany! I LOVE NATURE TOOOO!

      EWWW, HA HA! That’s hilarious (but also gross). I’m sure that would have been disgusting! Fried okra is much better. 😉

      Aww, thanks! I think hummingbirds are cute too. 🙂

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