Capturing nature's wonder through lens

On an icy winter morning, a Carolina chickadee hung upside down from the branch of a crabapple tree.

The situation was exactly what Linda Hoopes was looking for. For months, she had been on the lookout for the acrobatic bird in her Greenwood backyard. Now was her chance to capture it on film.

The small bird was in search of food, and had found an insect’s cocoon. Leaning back and using its body weight, the chickadee was devouring it. Crystals of ice and snowflakes gripped the delicate thread the bird was suspended from.

With a digital camera and a magnifying lens, Hoopes has tried to capture the minute magnificence of the natural world. Her subjects have ranged from a honeybee’s wings frozen in time to the kick-back from a drop of water in the sink to the delicate crystals of a fallen snowflake.

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