Natural frames

I was having fun with leaves and depth of field to create a "frame" on the picture side, what do you think? ;-)

Framed

Autumn colors

Late mushrooms

The last mushrooms pictures of the year, with the most delicate colors shades :-)

Mushroom bokeh

Curly head

Golden colors

Autumn is such a wonderful season - probably my favorite one - especially when you have the opportunity to wander in a cute forest such as this one :-)

Beam of light

Golden leaves

Misty morning

Transparency

Delicate foliage details, back-lit by the powerful sunlight :-)

Light and shadows

Detailed

Leaf details

Photo mash-up #32

Today theme will be: flying insect stripes :-)

Happy striped day!

Lavender flower

I don't know why but I have an obsession with lavender. The smell, the color, the beauty of the inflorescence - I love taking pictures of this flower, and my macro lens helped me discover its details even more precisely :-)

Lavender field

Lavender macro

Lavender

Favorite summer pictures

Here are my top 3 insect macro pictures throughout the summer :-)

 

Waving bee

Blue butterfly

Bon appétit

Hide and seek

Playing hide and seek with a huge grasshopper ^^ What a shy creature! 

And difficult to spot: green on green is not quite the perfect contrast ;-)

Hesitating

From below

Hello there

Haystacks

Not everyone would enjoy looking at haystacks, yet they always prompt me to take out my camera :-)

Endless haystacks

Photo mash-up #31

Today theme will be: damselflies and dragonflies!

Happy damselfly & dragonfly day :-)

Butterflies

A collection of butterflies - OK the last one is not the cutest of all...

Balance

Blue wings

Vigilance

Apiaceae

The wild carrot is usually home to a huge variety of insects (bugs, beetles, even spiders...) and the white color of its flowers makes it very easy to detect them - simply put, a very good spot for insect photography in Summer :-) 

Have you ever noticed the little pink or dark bit which appears sometimes at the middle of the flower? I have been wandering through the countryside for years and honestly only discovered it now (the macro lens surely helped ^^). 

The carrot plant is also called Queen Anne's lace, because of the flower resembling lace - this pink center part supposedly being a droplet of blood from the Queen's finger after she pricked it on a needle while making the lace... In a more scientific style, it turns out that it attracts bees and other pollinators: the dark spot poses as a fake insect already happily resting on the plant (Nature does things well :-D)

Pink center

Striped wings

Patch of color

Minstrel bugs

With their bright red color - dissuading birds from eating them - those striped bugs could not but catch my eyes...

Out of reach

Symmetry

Suspended

Cute kittens

Awwwwwww!

Fake sleep

Swedish vegetation

Miscellaneous trees & plants encountered during my bicycle exploration in Göteborg ;-)

Birch trees

Little pine tree

Small river in the forest

By the canal

One of the cycling paths in Göteborg runs along the canal, which is a really nice part of the city.

There are public parks along the canal so many people were having a break on its banks when I explored the area :-)

Houses by the canal

Hiking signs

Keeping me company during my trips, many wooden signs were scattered along the way :-)

Forest path

Trip to Stora Delsjön

Thanks again to my hotel - letting me use one of the bicycles for free the entire day - I went on a trip to Stora Delsjön lake, the biggest lake in Göteburg. And it's only 20 min away from the city center by bike! You bet, I couldn't resist the idea :-)

The nature there is wonderful; it's very wild but with convenient hiking paths all around.

I'm at a loss for words to describe the amazing moment I had there - wished I could have stayed longer...

Peaceful lake

Photo mash-up #30

Today theme will be: pine trees :-)

Happy Pine tree day :-)

Bah bah black sheep

So the fences mentioned earlier were in fact designed for... sheep herds :-)

So cute, aren't they?

Sheep team

Ferry to the islands

Göteborg has really beautiful islands, both in its Northern and Southern sides. 

The Southern ones are especially easy to access, thanks to the ferries making frequent trips from the city to each island. I managed to explore almost all of those Southern islands in one day thanks to them :-)

Small harbour

Islands ferry

Ferry traffic