Celebrating Green

 A couple weeks ago the pale purple of this hepatica was the center of attention on the forest floor. April showers have now turned the forest floor green. I enjoy photographing in a light drizzle to catch the water droplets on leaves.

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.

Looking Up

This could be taken both literally and figuratively with the strong line and bright green leaves.  The warm greens were maples just starting to turn yellow last week, a much different woodland than today. Tree trunk lightened with the shadow tool in Lightroom

Lines and Color

One of the biggest challenges in capturing the landscape is finding or creating order in apparent chaos without over simplifying and creating a boring image. My eye starts in the lower left and bounces around this image but eventually gets to the white sky. The fallen log blocks my eye from following out the bottom of the image. What do you think: chaos or complexity?

Cute/Not Cute

Cute: tree frog on a leaf
Not Cute: tree frog calling at random in the attic

We had an unidentified creature making sounds in the attic on Labor Day weekend. The first thought was a chipmunk trapped, perhaps in the furnace. An emergency service call determined it was not in the furnace. When the calling recurred after the service call a Google check determined the sound to be a tree frog; an expensive lesson on frog sounds.

Turk's Cap (Michigan Lily)

This is my favorite July wildflower, followed closely by the butterfly weed. The intense red and petal design drew my attention to this particular flower. Do you see the diamond made by the petals? Playing with the f stops gave a muted green background. A soft vignette was also applied in Lightroom.

Could you please move?

This chance occurrence took place when I was scouting for a macro class at Eastman Nature Center in Maple Grove. I first discovered the frog and then noticed a meadow hawk dragonfly eating a deer fly. While photographing the meal it moved to the back of the frog creating this unique image.

Cottonwood Color

I walked along the Cottonwood River one morning last week and its namesake trees produced this brilliant reflection on the river.  With most color past peak it was good to see some color remaining.

Technical: 70-200 lens, strong contrast curve used in Lightroom

Clinging to Summer

Geese are in the air, cranes are gathering, and hunters are chasing bear but I'm not quite ready to let go of summer. A few asters and bottle gentian are the only flowers that remain on the prairie. There are a few more days to photograph them, I plan to make the most of the remaining time.

August Green

I spent a hot, humid morning photographing these guys one morning this week.  I love their facial expression.  Green, heat, and humidity will soon be a memory, bring on autumn!  Technical: 180 Macro, f/3.5, 1/200 sec., ISO 640

Flower in a Cup

This image was taken a couple weeks ago at Black Dog SNA.  The plant is a cup flower with unique leaves that form a cup at the stalk and collect water.  With the state fair in progress you have heard of everything available on a stick, this is a flower in a cup.

Composing a Bog Image

"A"

"B"

Sometimes a slight change in position or focal length creates a significant change in where your eye goes in an image.  My eye path in image "A" seems to stop at the top of the green foreground, eventually leading my eye to the left upper corner.  "B" starts my eye at the bottom, leads it to the upper left, over to the upper right, and out of the frame. Where does your eye go?

Bog Landscape

When our daughters were growing up one of their questions was "Are we going on a hike or a walk?  A walk was on a groomed trail and a hike was on an uneven trail.  Going through the bog is beyond a hike. I used this for a desk top image for a couple days but got claustrophobic and took it down.

Ladyslippers

I've been looking for orchids the last couple weeks and the showy ladyslippers are at peakin northern Minnesota.  This shot is in contrast to the previous ladyslipper post which was shot from below.  In my orchid search there has been more adventure and blood loss than image production.  I'll be eating liver to restore blood lost from mosquitoes before I head into the bogs again.  Technical: 85 mm kit lens, f 22, human shadow for light diffusion

Crab Spider on Lady Slipper

Continuing the exploration of the this lady slipper.  The spider is what originally attracted my attention with its white body on the green petal.  I would have expected it to be more camouflaged on the flower while waiting for lunch to land. The challenge of the composition was showing both the spider and flower but keeping the spider as the subject of the image.

Small Yellow Lady Slipper

Time for a little color. I came across a group of lady slippers while driving around in the rain last week.  After slipping on the rain gear and throwing a chamois cloth over the camera I spent an hour looking for compositions.  Technical: underexposed 2/3 stop to preserve the highlights in the flower.

In the Rough

Yesterday I helped judge a photo contest in New Hope.  It was great to see photos representing enthusiasm for the outdoors.  Most images were from photographers in the rough, technically speaking.  It would be easy to criticize their attempts if not for remembering when I started with a Kodak Instamatic and my feeble attempts to record what I was seeing.  Some days I feel the same frustration I did back then.  Check out the work of these enthusiastic photographers at: 

New Hope Photo Contest

Early Autumn

Another sign of the changing season.

Pitcher Plant and Ferns

I spent some time at Hunt Hill Audubon Sanctuary, Sarona, WI, earlier this month.  Pitcher plants were everywhere and the first couple times there was a temporary boardwalk into the bog.  Hunt Hill has a diverse range of habitat in a relatively small area.  I'm looking forward to returning throughout the seasons.