Elusive in the sense that they require a specific and rare habitat, not that I don’t have them nearby or that they are scarce in that location. I’m lucky. I live near a kettle bog (two actually, but one has more trail, luckily the closer one). A kettle bog, named for the shape of the depression in the earth it takes up, is generally very old (Ponemah bog is about 12,000 years old), was created during an ice age, has no incoming supply of water other than from rain and also has no outlet for that water other than evaporation. Over time it will shrink and shrink until there’s nothing left. Until then though, there are tons of relatively exclusive plants that you can find an enjoy in a bog. Too bad the word bog isn’t is pretty as one actually is. Typically a bog is not a nutrient rich environment, so the kinds of plants that live in one are adapted to this low-cal diet. Most of the flowers are pink and one of the showiest is grass pink, a type of orchid. Pardon the all portrait orientation – the landscape shots just didn’t work.
Because the path is a wooden walkway that is sunk deep into the vegetation and water of the bog itself, it’s not possible to step off the path without getting very wet. Plus stepping off will damage fragile plants and animals so even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t. Being stuck on the walkway though limits the photographic possibilities somewhat. And often times I couldn’t do the amount of scene-clean I wanted to do in order to eliminate distracting elements. But that’s the beauty of things sometimes; nature is messy.
All of these were shot on a tripod using the OM 90mm macro. Apertures were between 5.6 and 8. I did a little tweaking in Lightroom, but not much – mostly for color correction since dawn light seems to be tough for a digital sensor. Luckily the wind was very calm and the lighting was totally lickable. The dew was pure luck though. I forgot that it was rather chilly last night and there was even fog over the pond itself. I only had eyes for these beauties though and even tried one with the newly-risen sun straight on. The blossoms themselves are only about an inch at their widest and I’m glad I caught them at the beginning of their bloom cycle so that there aren’t old flowers hanging on the stalks.
It’s a tiny bit bright, but that’s how it was; bright, clear and fresh, with birds singing. Something right out of a Disney movie (but without talking rodents).
Great shots ! Well taken! =)
Lovely shots!