Click HERE for the full Grotto gallery

Some morel mushrooms I found last week in southwest Iowa. You’ll see four if you look close.

A big wolf spider in my basement.

Four O’Clock stamen super-macro.

Sigma 150mm 2.8 EX Macro + Sigma 2x TC + 68mm Kenko extension tubes.

Burpee’s Marbles (Yellow & White) Four O’Clocks in my garden.

Dondiegos mix Four O’Clocks in my garden.

Some Kaleidoscope Four O’Clocks in my garden.

Big Toadie has lived in my garage for the last several summers, and comes out at night and eats june bugs and other insects under the outside light. She is a Woodhouse’s toad. It’s great fun to catch june bugs and pitch them to her.

1/13 second exposure of fog in the beam of my Jetbeam flashlight, with a creative white balance adjustment.

Fog droplets in the beam of my flashlight. A 1/6 second exposure.

Tiny water droplets illuminated in the beam of my Jetbeam BA-20 flashlight on a foggy and breezy night.

A full-frame photo of a daddy longlegs shot with my 1D3.

Sigma 150mm 2.8 EX Macro + Sigma 2x TC + 68mm Kenko extension tubes and Sigma EM-140 DG ring flash.

Handheld. It’s not possible to focus and breathe at the same time with this setup.

I don’t think I ever saw the eyes of a daddy longlegs before I shot this. Notice the leg stubble.

ISO 800
F/32
1/300

I used Lightroom’s Split Toning feature to add some much needed color to this photo.

A few yellow morel mushrooms I found this last week in Mills county.

Some more morel mushrooms I found this week in Mills county.

Some 2012 morel mushrooms from Mills county, in southwest Iowa.

In the last rays, of the setting sun…

Fog droplets on a bald cypress leaf.

A female praying mantis on the front fence.

The best kind. 150mm macro.

A Chicory blossom at Glenwood Lake Park.

A huge old wolf spider in my basement. They’re such cooperative subjects. They tend to freeze when they realize they’ve been spotted.

I found these morel mushrooms last week.

A couple of Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) blossoms from last summer.

A couple of late night long exposures of a common grey tree frog. It was clinging to the front of my garage under the light. The first one is 30 seconds, the second is 10 seconds. I shot these on a hot night last August. 300 mm macro. I could go for some of that August heat & humidity right now.

A large Woodhouse’s toad that lived in my garage for most of the summer. Note the extremities of a daddy longlegs sticking out of its mouth in the lower photo.

A very small tree frog on the back of my shed. Approximately 1.25″ long. 300mm macro. Note the tiny spider webs in the large version.

I was chasing this tiny baby American toad around in the dark with a flashlight the other night. I didn’t think it was ever going to hold still long enough for a shot. Eventually it stopped for breath up against the side of my shed and I got a few quick shots.

Sigma 150mm 2.8 EX Macro + Sigma 2x TC and Sigma EM-140 DG ring flash. A great setup for nighttime macros with my Canon 1D3.

A pink crabapple bud from the tree in my front yard.

A Prairie Fire crabapple tree in my yard.

A tree frog I shot in June at my Dad’s place in southeast Iowa.

There have been quite a few white-lined sphinx hummingbird moths on my lilac bush just after dark.

A spot of color for ya.

A few more from last month.

I found this very large wolf spider in my basement yesterday morning. I believe it’s taken up residence under the dryer. It’s a beauty !! Hopefully, I’ll get some more photos of Smiley.

A floating seed that was temporarily stuck on a very thin strand of web which is barely visible in the full-size version of this shot.

I was taking some empty jars down to the basement the other day when I heard a peeping sound coming from behind one of the boarded up windows in the back room. I did’nt give it much thought, but when I heard it again a few hours later I went outside to check it out. I found this baby sparrow – just out of the nest – stuck in the window well. I got ahold of it and turned it loose after a few pics.

A tiny morel mushroom forces its way through the leaf litter.

Some Downy Phlox I saw when I was out mushroom hunting.

A morel mushroom at an undisclosed location 😉

Another one from last weekend.

Another spider from my basement. I was going to post another ice photo, but I just could’nt do it…

This was the first Monarch I saw last spring. I posted an open-wing photo last May. I’ve wanted a photo of one of these tattered travelers for a long time.

The lens was partially obscured by a tree branch blowing in the wind. That’s why it looks green. Not exactly the effect I was going for, but I like it anway.

Terry, crowing his little heart out. He’s a nice rooster. He hardly ever attacks people, and even then they’re mostly just scared. Mostly.

I thought it was a puffball growing by my compost bin – until it popped and there was nothing inside. I’ve never seen anything like it.

A strange little puffball-type mushroom I found in my yard. If you know what it is, let me know.

I found this one when I was out mushroom hunting last May. It appears to be from the previous summer.

May 2007 was a very photographically diverse month for me – a grass fire, flooding, fighter planes, plus all the usual stuff. And I almost got a funnel cloud too !!

The fruit of an Eastern Wahoo tree. I shot this one last Fall.

Spider update: I saw the wolf spider in the corner of my basement and a dozen babies were running loose. When I came back with the camera, she was nowhere in sight, but several babies were still there. As you can see from the earlier photo, it’s getting crowded on mom’s back.

I found this wolf spider & her brood in my basement this morning.

A praying mantis captures a katydid on my front fence.

A night shot of a spider. You’ve got to watch your step around here or you might just get one of these stuck to your chest.

A night shot of a strange looking black grasshopper.