A New Lens

On Wednesday of this week I received my new Canon 100 mm, IS, f/2.8 macro lens and this morning I took it to the San Gabriel trail to try it out.  This was an exceptional August morning here in Georgetown, Texas as we have had an unusual cold (?) front and the temperature is a cool 72 degrees as I begin my walk.  They (the weather liars) are promising some rain as well.  It has been 50 days since we had any precipitation.  The lack of moisture is very evident and many of the plants are stressed and shedding their leaves.  However, our very wet spring has recharged the springs that feed the San Gabriel and they continue to flow, albeit at a slower rate.  And Lake Georgetown continues to release water so the river is in good shape. 

I truly love this trail.  I discovered it shortly after moving here in 2008 while leading birding walks for the Recreation Center.  Actually, I choose my current neighborhood because of its proximity to this trail.  It is but a short half mile trek to the low water crossing where I begin and by the time I return home it is a nice 3.5 mile walk.  The river provides some nice scenery, is canopied for the most part by trees and their is abundant understory for birds, insects and animals  to utilize.  I often encounter deer, birds, dragon & damsel flies, bees, reptiles and one time a ring-tailed cat.  Here are a couple of pictures of the more scenic areas.

All three of these were taken with the new lens and photos were bracketed, then processed using the new Lightroom 6 HDR option to complete them.

In addition to the nice scenery there were still a few plants in bloom in spite of the lack of recent rainfall.  I am attaching several here.

The first one has become one of my favorites, Texas Lantana.  This hardy plant I well remember from my childhood.  I particularly enjoy the native, wild variety over the more recent hybrids.  It is a great plant to attract butterflies.  The second one is Low Wild Petunia and adds color along the trial. It is abundant in bloom at this time.  The third is American Beautyberry whose fruit is now ripening just in time for the fall bird migration and the final flower is the Common Sunflower.  As you can see from this picture there is a bee actively working to pollinate this flower.  Shortly the plant will produce seed that are especially appealing to finch of which we have three species.  Our resident species are Lesser Goldfinch and House Finch who will soon be joined by wintering American Goldfinch. 

Our final picture is of a female  Common Whitetail, a rather common dragonfly for this area.

So much for my first experience with the new macro lens.  This type of photography opens up an entirely new field and one I am looking forward to spending more time pursuing.

Jim