
Summer Blooms
A sampling of summer wildflowers: herb Roberts, Philadelipha fleabane, and maiden pink blossoms.

A sampling of summer wildflowers: herb Roberts, Philadelipha fleabane, and maiden pink blossoms.

Lions, tigers, and bears are plenty scary at the human scale – and not to forget other apex predators such as sharks and wolves, which

One of the more unfortunate insect names, although presumably accurate: the root-maggot fly in all its glory. As an equal-opportunity photographer, I’m not above grabbing

Providing a sense of scale in macro photographs is difficult; by definition, macro photography is the reproduction of subjects at life-size, meaning 1:1 or better.

Oh, to be a beetle living within a daisy blossom! It seems like such an idyllic life – but then, we know that insects hardly

The simple hoverfly may not look like much. It is a ubiquitous visitor to my gardens throughout the summer, and an often-unappreciated pollinator. Generally smaller

Late summer is mantis season, where any of the young who survived their vulnerable early months have reached their full-grown size. As adults, mantises are


BRENT PENNINGTON – Grasshopper nymph on a lavendar stalk in Scranton, PA, on 14 June 2024. BRENT PENNINGTON – Grasshopper nymph in Scranton, PA, on

A northern starflower blossom. These delicate white flowers rise mere inches from the forest floor, seeming to prefer the muted light that reaches them beneath

Carpenter bees get a bad rap. Their nature drives them to find tree trunks, into which they chew deep burrows. Unfortunately, they are not discriminating;

Being unsure of the species didn’t stop me from admiring this little fellow when I found him living on the trellis that’s home to my

As spring progresses, the spring beauties and Dutchman’s breeches give way to a more diverse collection of wildflowers. Cutleaf toothwort, Dog violet, Small-flowered Crowfoot, Bitercress

Moss is biologically fascinating, and although it’s often overlooked, it can also be quite lovely. The varieties are vast, and honestly I don’t have a

This collection of Eastern Spring Beauty blossoms (Claytonia virginica) comes from last spring, over a period of several weeks around the Lee Hill and Rowlands

After three consecutive weeks of checking the trailsides at Lackawanna State Park, the first spring wildflowers have finally appeared! The Spring Beauties, which are aptly

It’s sleeting as I write this, another cold gray day. The schools are closed and folks are working from home to avoid the roads, which

A bit out of the ordinary, since most of my macro photography focuses on living subjects – insects and flowers and anything else that’s both

A quiet moment in the forest, which is perhaps defined by such moments.

BRENT PENNINGTON – A Goldenrod Crab spider waits amid dewdrops atop allium blossoms in Scranton, PA, on the morning of 12 August 2024. BRENT PENNINGTON