Looking up to mushrooms
An up from under look at getting low to show off the beauty of mushrooms.
Elusive Wildflowers – Part 14 – Pale Corydalis
Just a quickie. This one was really hard to photograph because the plant is a big, sprawling mess really. At first I thought it might have been some long-finished columbine. A little closer and I thought it might be a kind of bleeding heart, then I noticed the flowers were missing their other half and had... Continue Reading →
Elusive Wildflowers – Part 12 – Purple Gerardia
While wide-spread with many varieties, purple gerardia is new to me. Mostly because I think it gets lost in the overabundance of late summer. That and it grows in some pretty poor soil, basically sandy areas which are largely seen as waste lots full of weeds. Be that as it may, I got right down... Continue Reading →
Elusive Wildflowers Part 8 – Cardinal flower
Wahoo! Another beauty photographed. Never have I shot these before, but while out doing some river work (my favorite, the Piscataquog, and I'll post about that soon) I found some near a pond's runoff streams. This flower has become quite rare in some areas due to people picking and digging it up a lot. I... Continue Reading →
Elusive Wildflowers Part 7 – Horned Bladderwort
Another one that isn't so much elusive, as limited in photographic potential. It's limited in a few ways. First it lives in bogs and fens which are relatively rare habitats made rarer by man's manic need to fill in wetlands and build subdivisions on them. If you live in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee or Illinois the... Continue Reading →
Elusive Wildflowers Part 5 – Grass Pinks
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... Continue Reading →
Requiring Some Delicacy
They aren't showy or rare, but I couldn't resist the artful arrangement of leaves in the early morning sun. I have shot them before, but not with a flower closed like this. I think it adds a tiny bit of the unexpected. Some tension maybe and makes you imagine the days to come.
Elusive Wildflowers Part 1.3 – Hepatica in bloom redux
"It looked like I had another chance at the twenty dollars." - Philip Marlowe, The Little Sister There's never a bad time for Raymond Chandler now is there? When I went to see if another flower was blooming, I found that the hepatica still were and this line from my favorite Chandler came into my... Continue Reading →
A Moment of Macro
Earlier today I took a quick stroll around the yard, looking at this and that, checking on things that might be emerging. It's not officially spring, but it sure feels like it out there. We've got spring peepers peeping already and I saw a garter snake around the 10th. Amazing. Anyway, on my quick stroll... Continue Reading →
Strangest Thing
The immortal last words of McManus (The Usual Suspects) perfectly describe what's happening with this picture on flickr - I put it up a few hours ago and it's had a hundred views coming from an unknown source. The Unknown source gag is something that frustrates the crap out of me with flickr. I've put... Continue Reading →
And in a moment it’s gone
From this morning. I couldn't resist the patterns or the light.
Indian Pipe Wildflower Study 2011
This year I set myself a goal. A mini-project if you will. Borne out of the fact that I hadn't been able to take a decent picture of indian pipes. Seriously. I tried. I'd see some next to the trail and set up. Everything sucked. I even shot some in winter and those are passable,... Continue Reading →
The Power of Scouting
Up until recently, I've been a catch-as-catch-can type of photographer. If I was going somewhere, I took my camera and tried for photos as I went. Rarely did I return to a location to do better or capture a different aspect of the place. Now though, I understand what scouting a location can do. Remember... Continue Reading →
Into the Great Wide Open
Phew. Our most recent heatwave is over and I can probably get back outside. I say probably because it's horse and deer fly season and those just make me miserable. They're relentless and will bite you to death if given half a chance. Lately I've been playing a bit more deliberately with bokeh and its... Continue Reading →
A Photographic Cliche – Wildflowers
I can't help myself. I'm a nature and outdoors photographer. That means I shoot a lot of wildflowers. Yeah, it's a cliche, but sometimes they are just so lovely I can't pass them by. This year I'm trying to capture the quality of light as well as the flowers themselves and so far it's been... Continue Reading →
Not your typical wildflower
Let the microscapes begin! Not the most beautiful or delicate of wildflowers, but one of the first to appear. I went wandering in one of the many nature preserves in Andover, Massachusetts the other day and one section of the swamp was covered with skunk cabbage. I read that they can come up so early... Continue Reading →
Mining Bee Macro
A follow up to the last post, I went out back to the carpet of whitlow grass again and found it buzzing with tiny mining bees (1.5 cm or 5/8 in). The sun being strong, but slightly diffused by clouds I went back in for the camera. So glad I did - Isn't she sweet?... Continue Reading →
Spring has Sprung
Remember that scene in The Jerk when Martin ran all over yelling "The new phonebook's here! The new phonebook's here" ? Well I felt like doing that about spring today. This is what tells me it's arrived - It's whitlow grass and there's a big patch of it in my backyard. They're the very first... Continue Reading →
