Signs of summer life

After listening to Lady Antebellum's song "American Honey" (My favorite song from the group), I felt a desire to revisit the summer life. While some go for a picnic, hike, or fish, I grab my camera. I pulled my beloved 100mm macro lens and MR-14EX flash from "hibernation" and took them out for a "spin".

I visited the areas of the Rancocas Woods in New Jersey. It is a state park flanked by a series of county parks along with various development. Not necessarily a rural area in New Jersey, but close. I strolled along the flowers looking for little wildlife that reminds me of the season that I have been waiting for since September of 2010. I spent about an hour looking for subjects and the rest was spent simply enjoying the weather.

The majestic monarch butterfly.

Can anybody say a ball of Japanese Beetles?

Here we see a small fishing spider. This is a small one; they can get bigger. 

This dragonfly is behaving more like a butterfly. 

As I entered the Rancocas Creek along the nature trails, I noticed some damselflies. Since much of the lighting was obstructed by the thick forests, I felt flash was a must. Although I was getting sharp pictures with the flash set up, I was not getting the true blue color of the flies. So I turned the flash off, adjusted my settings to let in more light and held my breath. I always felt that shallow depth of field was usually reserved elsewhere instead of macro, but what a difference! These are the same flies taken twice; one with flash, and the other without.

The same damselfly taken both with and without flash. 

And again......