On the way into the park we saw a family of swans on their way to a Sunday outing.

Closer look at the second group.

We found a dock to set up the tripod, but someone else was there first... he let me get a few pictures before he finally got tired of us and flew away.

If you've ever heard the phrase mean old coot and wondered what it was about, this is the answer. This is a mama coot (meerkoet in Dutch) with her three little ones, who are already practicing their crabbiness.

I think this is a Sympetrum sanguineum, bloedrode heidelibel or ruddy darter, but it could be any of the other half-dozen red dragonflies which live here. Only the males are red, the females are brown with red-brown tails.

One of the great things about macro photography is that you can take pictures of things that you can't see in real life. This is part of a random picture of the surface of the pond. Not only was the water strider in the picture, but also hundreds of these tiny yellow bugs (there are at least 5 in this clip). I think they may be just-hatched water strider nymphs, but I don't know.

This picture contains what I think is the shed skin of a dragonfly nymph.

Finally learning to use the aperture control on my camera. Changing the aperture from 2.8 to 5.0 allows the entire flower to be in focus.

A lovely metallic green needlefly. I'm not sure what kind this one is.

Same needlefly, this time in silhouette.

More experimenting with depth of field. Here the flower is the focus, but the plantains (wheat-looking things in the background) are just enough in focus to give a sense of scale. The two photos below are of the same flower, but up even closer.

There is an actual flower garden at the Beatrixpark too, and it seems there's always one species that the bees are obsessed with. This time it's these blue compound flowers.

A close look at one of the bumblebees.

A blue bud in macro.

The bees also liked these white flowers.

Looking at the base of a flower cluster. I particularly like the weird twisty leaves.

Another bee

There's something hypnotic about the centers of echinacias.

The bees agree.