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 →
Serendipity. Isn't that a great word? Almost as good as propinquity. But I digress. I say serendipity because a couple days ago I was thinking about wildflowers and how much I'd like to discover some wood lily in my travels. My parents had one growing in the front yard when I was a kid, and... Continue Reading →
The day of my epic face-plant yielded another present that I would have definitely missed had I gone home. All three of you that read this thing know that I had (have) a mini-project (obsession) going with Indian pipe flowers. I don't know what it is about these luminous beauties, but I am so drawn... Continue Reading →
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 →
Ah Monty Python, what a bunch of mad freaks you were. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check this out - Part 2. You really have to like MP to find it funny, but I always think of it when anyone mentions lupines. And the other day when I shot some, I... Continue Reading →
This little wonder hides in plain sight. For years I've been marching past stands of them, ignoring them as just part of the undergrowth. This year though I looked closer and wondered what they were. Then the other day I noticed they made the most delicately strange little flowers under those leaves. I wasn't prepared... Continue Reading →
Crazy, huh? Spring is so...springy. The two Ws are just irresistible - wildflowers and waterfalls. I've shot these particular falls before, but after a big storm knocked branches and whole trees down so the cascades were a mess. When I saw fellow photographer Jeff Newcomer's recent post about Garwin falls, I saw they were clear... Continue Reading →
As these are pretty common flowers (apart from the columbine, which I shot a few weeks ago) I'm not including them in the elusive category. Popular and ubiquitous or not though, I can't resist them. Wait!!! How did that last one get in there?? Heh.
Do you remember me stalking a plant that wasn't blooming and me not knowing what it was? Well today was my lucky day and I finally found it blooming. It's columbine! Yay!! Another one I'd never shot before. I don't remember even seeing it outside of books. Sa-weet. The light was really spectacular, but... Continue Reading →
"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 →
I was right. It took two trips to get these in bloom. Somehow I'm not satisfied with my work, but for now it will do. The light went from terrific to flat in a short time and since it was still pretty breezy, I packed it in. Here's what I got though. Shot with a... Continue Reading →
My photographic journey with this flower has been an interesting one. Despite the long hours I spend in the woods and my quest for wildflowers to photograph, I'd never seen these beauties except in the photographs of others. A photographer acquaintance of mine even refused to disclose the location of the flowers a couple years... Continue Reading →
Phew. A second trip got me what I wanted. Hepatica in bloom. The wind though was relentless and the light harsh, so my photographic options were somewhat limited, but I got a couple that I'm happy with. This first one is the same group of flowers in the trail that I shot on my first... Continue Reading →
In the event that I get crap out of the camera tomorrow, here's what I shot today. All three were shot with my old Olympus 90mm. It's round-lobed hepatica, a very early riser in the spring wildflower pantheon. And one I've never shot before. The name refers to the leaves which are quite distinctive and... Continue Reading →
Late last year I visited a nearby Nature Conservancy property called The Cedar Swamp Preserve. Yeah, real romantic sounding place, right? Well it's got two great things going for it - Atlantic White Cedars and Great Laurel or Giant Rhododendron as it's sometimes called. This is a small preserve jammed between huge condo developments, some... Continue Reading →
So after the relatively bug-free California environment I get back up here and am basically in a cloud of mosquitoes every time I set foot out of the house. This time of year being a woodland photographer really sucks. Literally. Between the mosquitoes and the ticks I'm down a pint. No. Not really. But they... Continue Reading →
May in California is wildflower season and the high desert of the eastern Sierras is no exception. I took tons of photos, but due to the harsh light, relentless wind and time constraints (who can wait forever for the wind to die down on every single shot?) most of them are for my reference and... Continue Reading →
Back to your regularly scheduled program. More nature stuff. I am a bit bummed at the moment because I came upon a very active great blue heron rookery the other day and my old 300mm lens isn't up to the task. Most of my old legacy glass is still very good when paired with a... Continue Reading →
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 →
I have a love/hate relationship with spring. In the love category we have the fact that when a breeze hits your face it doesn't feel like it will freeze off. Also the twittery, fluttery birds all excited to be making more birds. Tree frogs. And the lovely green of the pale leaves as the trees... Continue Reading →
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 →
This is a new thing for me, choosing my best photos of the year. I’ve done it with books I’ve read and albums I’ve bought, but not things I made myself. It can be hard to subjectively judge your own work, but I think it's a worthy exercise for anyone who wants to get better... Continue Reading →
This idea has been rolling around in my head for some time. Months maybe, certainly weeks. I like the idea of it even though my back does not. Have you heard the term before? I think I must have picked it up somewhere since I'm not the type to go around coining phrases. It has... Continue Reading →
Let me count the ways - It's been truly wonderful this season. More to come.
After some weeks of relative sameness, the plants are beginning a new phase - the die back. I love the contrast between the still verdant leaves and the dying leaves. The textures are still terrific. And of course I couldn't resist a monochrome conversion. The shapes and light variation in the early morning is perfect... Continue Reading →
