Canadian Close Ups

Here are some more images that I took on my recent trip to Canada. I was very surprised to see such beauty at such high altitudes! The colours in real life were stunning. All of these flower photos were taken high in the Rocky Mountains:

The above solitary Bluebell was taken in Kananaskis, close to some famous ski resorts, you can see the morning dew glistening on its petals.

This Indian Paintbrush was just a few steps away for the Bluebell. Apparently it was a good year for theses lovely flowers. So many people were saying they hadn’t seen so many in bloom for years.

The next flower was photographed at the Devonian Botanical Gardens about an hours drive from Edmonton. Its is quite unusual as there is no green in it at all! If someone knows what it’s called please let me know!

The following three images were taken in the gardens in front of the Fairmont Hotel right beside the wonderful Lake Louise. They are all types of poppies. The first image has a very strange “thing” attached to it. Whatever it was looked very hairy, was as light as a feather and fell off the flower as soon as it was touched! I thought it might be some sort of caterpillar, but I’ve never seen anything like this before! Any ideas?

The next two are just plain beautiful!

The next photo was taken at Moraine Lake. I was busy taking phoos of the striking scenery there, when right behind me were these beautiful patterns on the rocks. They are different types of lichen. Lichen is strange stuff, a kind of mixture of fungus & algae & grows on rocks and trees. Whatever it is, it looks cool!

Here are some insects I came across. The first image is of a spider that spun its web
between a few blades of grass on the floor. The only reason I didn’t step on it
was because it sparkled like diamonds on the floor with the beads of dew that
had rested on its web, and it was TINY! The whole web was barely more than 2
inches (5cm), and the spider itself, hanging up side down beneath its web was no more
than 2 or 3mm long! I had to get my special close up lens to get this shot.

The next two images were also taken at the Devonian Botanical gardens, the dragonfly was flying around by the lake and I managed to capture the shot while it was resting on a leaf. The butterfly was inside a temperature regulated greenhouse though, so not really a true Canadian citizen, but beautiful nonetheless!

There are lots more images, but I suppose I’ll have to get writing a book to fit them all in! So, that’s it for now, there will be more soon though!