Hepatica and Moss

I am always trying to find a photographic purpose for moss and rarely find one. This hepatica gave me an opportunity to put some color contrast with it.

Calming Water

I've always been fascinated by images showing smooth water in bright light.  For me the milky water matches the calming sound of the water rushing over rocks.

Technical: The Sony RX10ii has a 3 stop ND filter built in and ISO down to 64 making images like this easy.

Tiny Stream

I started playing with slow motion video using my iPhone last summer and found it was a great tool to modify time in nature.  One of the pitfalls I see on Youtube is using slow motion throughout the entire video, decreasing its drama. This short video has two slow clips interspersed with normal footage. A Sony RX10ii was used with speed slowed 8x (1second=8seconds).

Pushing through

Snow trillium are the first wildflowers of spring, usually preceding hepatica by a couple weeks. In the past the first week of April has been a good time to see them. With the hottest February in history I went out a little earlier this year and found them starting to bloom. They are not quite at peak but definitely in bloom.  They might be hard to find later in the week with the predicted snow storm.

Green

Hold that thought! It will be a memory for a few months. Recorded at Seven Mile Creek County Park, Nicollet County. This park will be closed for the season starting next April. It may be the last color a visitor will see in the park for a long time.

Peaceful Morning

A calm, peaceful morning is energized with the rising sun hitting the autumn leaves. It was also cool and gloves were needed for the first time this year. 

Snow Trillium and mittens

Snow Trillium and Oak Leaf

I photographed these snow trillium while laying in the leaves wearing mittens and long johns this morning. Apparently these beauties didn't get the message that is was cold. They are about a week later than most years and almost at peak. Photographed at Seven Mile Creek County Park, Nicollet Co., Minnesota

A Simple Pleasure

Sometimes we overlook the simple acts in nature. This clip is presented in real time, unedited except for the addition of background music. I invite you to sit back and enjoy one of life's simple pleasures.

Breaking Free of Winter

Snow trilliums are the first woodland ephemeral to emerge, well before the often photographed hepatica.  Everyone is asking the question, "How late is spring this year?".  In my experience snow trilliums are usually done blooming at the end of the first week of April.  This one is at peak and others were just opening. Technical: focal length 20 mm at f29, slight crop.  The leaf gives a size perspective to the flower.