The exuberance found in the abundance of yesterday’s wildflower blooms and butterflies was short-lived; the quality of photos made was disappointing, at least to me. This constituted another visit to the Middle Fork Barrens Natural Area Thursday. Armed with different equipment and camera settings, yesterday’s path was retraced and more photos made—this time with a tripod and faster shutter speeds to partially mitigate for undesirable winds. Actually, the results were only just a bit better than yesterday; I am my own worst critic. 

• 

• 

These are some of my favorites.

Beauty is found by looking closely at things around you—high and low. Western Daisies are such stand-out flowers (third and fourth photos). Blackberries should be plentiful this year as blackberry blooms are everywhere (next to last photo).

And of course, delicate butterflies such as the Little Wood-Satyrs (first and third), Horace’s Duskywing (second), and Gemmed Satyr (last) .

Even a Variegated Meadowhawk dragonfly made an appearance.