"A Small, Colorful World." Photo of the Day: October 17, 2015

"A Small, Colorful World."

"A Droplet" Photo of the Day: August 30, 2015

"A Droplet".

Photo of the Day: August 9, 2015 "The Blue Flower"

I honestly had some post-processing fun with this photo! I really wanted the colors to "pop" within the image, so I played around in the final stages of production to ensure strong color throughout, especially with the flower itself.

Photo of the Day: August 2, 2015 "Butterfly at Lunch"

I shot this photo today while at the Minnesota Zoo outside in a patch of flowers. This gorgeous insect was feeding while I photographed it for a few minutes before it fluttered away. I intentionally blurred the background intensely to direct all of the focus onto the beautiful butterfly and the flower that it was resting on.

Photo of the Day: July 27, 2015 "The Dart Frog"

This cute little amphibian was living in its tropical exhibit at an aquarium that I visited today. It is known as the Blue Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates azureus) and is native to south america. I have always had an interest in amphibians and the various species of dart frogs have always been some of my favorites!

Conservatory Plant Life

Hey everyone, this is just a quick post on some photos that I got on a recent trip to a local conservatory. Since Spring is taking its sweet time to arrive here in Minnesota, it was nice to spend some quality time shooting indoors in a tropical environment. 

I also want to say that I have been busily working on creating my own online portfolio website (I am using smugmug). It is quite a process to get it up to my standards but it is beginning to take shape... Regardless, I hope to have it up and running this weekend and will obviously post a link to it here. 

Finally, I did something that I should have done a long time ago and that is change the url of this site. Back when I first started my photography blog back in 2008 it was called "WP Nature Photography" and the url coincided with that and was "wp-nature-photography.blogspot.com". As my experience grew and my love of photography spread to much more than just nature, I changed the name to a much more appropriate "Wyatt Prosch Photography". However because of some obvious negative results (lost comments, lost bookmarks, etc.) I put off changing the url to the proper title. 

I finally did the other day, so I apologize for some of the setbacks that you may notice as a result. In due time the blog will be back up to full speed! As always, thank you for looking!

A Colorful, Flowering World

We are blessed with the beauty of flowers and all that they do for wildlife, the environment, and the enjoyment that they bring us people. From smell to visual appeal they truly make our world a more beautiful and interesting place. These photographs are of some various species of flowering plants, all taken in different areas of California. Which one is your favorite?

P.S. I cannot wait for it to be warm outside soon! The frigid temperatures of a Minnesota winter are starting to take its toll...

Shore Crabs

Several days ago I posted how on a recent trip to Washington State I traveled out to Whidbey Island, which is several miles off the coast, near Seattle. In that post I showed you some photos of a baby seal that I had come across, however that wasn't the only animal inhabiting these rocky beaches.
There are several species of small shore crabs in the area, and watching them scurry around the beach is very entertaining. Photographing them posed to be somewhat of a challenge as they don't sit still for very long . Though there are some larger species of crabs living along the coast of the Pacific Northwest these little crustaceans are my personal favorite due to their unique behaviors and "attitudes".

Giant Slugs and Overripe Fruit!

Sit down children and listen up because I'm about to tell you about one of the weirdest animals of all! There are many different species of slugs in the world but some of the most fascinating definitely come from the  Ariolimax genus. The common name for these critters? The Banana Slug. These large slugs get their name from their coloration, which is typically yellow (sometimes BRIGHT yellow!). Some, like the one pictured, are darker in coloration with black spots. This gives them the appearance of an overripe banana.

Native to the western U.S. and Canada, these slimy invertebrates supposedly ooze green liquid when crushed (I have not seen this first hand, but my mother says that she accidentally stepped on one years ago). Also, due to the slime on their skin, if touched the area of skin on your body that made contact will go numb for a while. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that these things can get up to 7 inches long! That is a very large slug but it doesn't compare to a species native to Europe that can grow up to a foot long...but we can talk about that some other time.

Tropical Flowers

I don't like rainy weather, and today it has been raining all day (bummer). My main computer - which stores my images - seems to be infected with some sort of serious virus (super bummer). The forcast shows that here in Minnesota we might be getting some more snow within the next couple of days (seriously? I thought that it was Spring). And to top off my list of reasons to be grumpy, the Twins lost again last night (where is Joe Mauer when you need him?). However I have still been enjoying a good day and, discovering that this blog has been seriously neglected for awhile, decided to post!

Anyway, here are some photos of some species of tropical flowers (these flowers in particular can be found in the rainforest of Southeast Asia). Which one is your favorite?

Monarchs and Swallowtails

I love photographing butterflies. Fortunately there are many different species where I live and my personal favorites (the Monarch and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail) are shown here.

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) which is shown above has a wingspan of up to 5 1/2 inches and usually is yellow with black markings. However, some females are black like this one.

The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a slightly smaller insect that the Swallowtail, with a wingspan of 4 inches or less. These creatures are usually orange with black marking but some individuals in Hawaii are known to be silver in coloration. Monarchs are famously known for their long annual migrations from the United States to Mexico.

Cylindropuntia bigelovii: "Teddy bear" Cholla

The Teddy bear Cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii) is a species of cactus native to the American Southwest and the Northern parts of Mexico. The name "teddy bear" comes from its very soft appearance but it is covered with extremely sharp spines, so the name is quite decieving. These plants can stand up to 5 feet tall and in May and June produce small fruits and flowers. These photos were taken in Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.

I'm back!

Hey everyone, sorry that I havn't posted in a while, I've been on a vacation. So to start things off again here is an image that I captured of a colorful Mushroom in Northern Minnesota about 2 months ago.

Also, it appears that the layout for this blog doesn't load correctly if you use "Firefox" as your internet browser. Any other browser should work fine. Just letting y'all know.

The American Toad

The American Toad is one of the most common amphibian species in the U.S. They come in all sorts of colors and are medium sized (4 inches). Here are some photos that I took of some of these amazing little creatures.

Some Insects...

Photographing insects can be very fun and challenging...especially the ones that have quick escape routes (such as those that can fly, hop, etc.). Nonetheless, I love macro photography so I love shooting these little guys.

Happy June everyone!

 This first photo was taken directly after a thunderstorm. It is a close up of a Fir Tree branch. (Note the "upside-down" reflections in the water droplets)

This next photo, a panorama, I took during sunset over a lake. I think that you will agree that it is quite beautiful.

Winter, Winter, and more Winter...isn't Spring here yet?

I'll be honest. Winter isn't my favorite season. Here in Minnesota, it gets WAY too cold for my liking. However with the cold can come some great photo opportunities (snow, seasonal birds, etc.) so I try to get out and photograph as much as possible in this giant outdoor freezer. Here are a few photos that I took a couple weeks ago.

Some Pine Tree branches covered in snow and ice.

A male Northern Cardinal. (Note that this isn't a seasonal bird species here, we have them year-round)

Some snow close-up.

Remembering Summer...

Happy Winter everyone! Sorry that I havn't posted in a while, the Fall/Winter scedule caught up with me, eating away my time. Anyway, before I enter into many posts displaying photos of Winter I thought I would have one last Summer post. These three pictures were all taken this past July outside of the Twin Cities here in MN. Enjoy!

Louisiana Purchase

On this day in history - October 20 - in 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase. The land purchased contained all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River, most of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Thats about 23% of the territory of the United States today! And it was all for a mere $15 million!
           Such a huge accomplishment is worth taking a moment and thinking about how lucky we are to have this land within our borders today. So many unique and exciting places can be found on this land, and it is a place where many Americans live (I included). So lets take a moment and be grateful for this!

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is my second favorite National Park that I've ever visited (sorry, Yellowstone grabs the #1 spot on my list!). Since no words can describe how it feels to look out over the Canyon, hopefully a panorama photo might help... (click on the picture to expand)

Heres a little guy (I believe it is a Fence Lizard) that was sunning himself on a log next to the Canyon. I only got a couple of photos before he darted away. Also, if you look at his neck, he appears to be shedding.