A Walk Around the Neighborhood - Photos

I was walking around the neighborhood this lazy Friday morning with my camera and I couldn't help but capture a few interesting images of the micro wonders in the area. The photo above was the first beauty I encountered during my leisurely stroll through a winding street layered with trees and flowers.

The photo below is an HDR version of the same image. I shot the subject using exposure bracketing. I'm quite amazed at the depth of tonal values that came out of the HDR process!

I'm not too familiar with flowers, but I think the one below is a branch of the daisy family. This would really make for a great desktop wallpaper!

Macro photos of a rose...

I don't know what to make of the one below. But it was peculiar enough to attract my attention. Every time I look at it, I somehow get the craving for fruits or vegetables!

This little creature was relaxing on a rose petal. It was small enough that my eyes almost missed it! It was barely a centimeter in size! You can see how close I was by the veins on the rose petal. This guy was the hardest shot of the day. I must've burst through a dozen actuations on my lens shutter just to get the perfect detail and clarity! Forget autofocus, I had to go manual and continuous mode here — and with the cold morning wind barreling down the street, every shot I took was either blurred or off my intended composition. I was so up-close to the little guy — maybe just 3/4 of an inch away — that, at one point, the wind blasted the petal right into my camera and I thought the little guy had been smashed on the lens glass like a fly on a windshield of car speeding on a freeway!

Whether it's a vibrant flower planted in the yard or the grunge texture of a rusted metal fence that surrounds a home, there is always something to discover and admire in the world. We don't often take enough time to appreciate the little things in life. We are usually preoccupied with the hustle and bustle of work, games, sports, family affairs, or online social interaction that we sometimes forget to experience the unique realm beneath our feet, above our head, in front of us, or all around us. We tend to feel complacent by thinking that we are the only lifeform on earth — and that our perspective is what the world is made of. We are wrong to assume such thoughts. Life has been surviving and thriving long before humans existed. If any, we are the aliens — the guest — on this planet. Once in a while, it's nice to take a short moment to kneel down and imagine nature through the eyes of a flower or bug. After all, they, too, have an equal place, value, and vested interest in inheriting the planet.

I hope everyone has enjoyed seeing the world through my eyes and lens!

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