Here in the Keweenaw, and across the whole U.P., we are surrounded by the beauty of mountain views, sunsets, forests, and lakeshores. While Dan Urbanski has supplied us with many scenes of such granduer, he also has a wonderful way of directing our focus to the intricate, delicate detail at our fingertips. This splendid invader in Patty Urbanski's garden is a sure sign that summer has reached its maturity.

Thanks, Dan.

Whenever we feature something REALLY close on the Pasty Cam, I often think of a shot from another Pasty Cam regular, Daryl Laitila. She gave us a taste of wild blueberries just about a year ago. It's fun to look back:

Yeah, invaders upon invaders - we returned from
our annual camping trip to find that the deer ate
most of the sunflowers, hostas, and decorative
cabbage! Oh well, that's life in da UP.

Those blueberries are still on the vine in August.
Patty picked a handfull in a minute today near
Betsy.

Dan, a SUPERB job on this beautiful sunflower. My friends all look forward to the pics I send them on my e-mail that you have taken and marvel at the sensitivity of your "eye". The U.P. is becoming well known all over the country! Keep up the marvelous work.

Dan,
What a beautiful flower...another gem! My daughter's birthday was the 21st, so I sent her your picture...Leo's love yellow! I love this site as we get a variety of the U.P.in pictures.

Hi Dan, what camera and lens did you use for this awesome flower photo? Learning myself, Lory from Oregon.

Lory,

I used an Olympus C2500L digital camera. It has a zoom lens that I used in "macro" mode. I had to wait for calm winds that finally happened late in the day. I set the white balance for a warming effect to offset the evening blues, and a reflector below the camera to create highlights from a cloudy sky.

If I were using a conventional camera I would have used a 100mm macro lens and an 81A warming filter.

The main trick is timing. Sunflowers evolve rapidly, and you have to catch them when they are just starting to develop the their inner flowers at the center.

very nice dan