Zooming – October 2015

I managed to limit myself to 5 collages gleaned from snippets of photographs from late September and early October. The majority are from Longwood Gardens since that is where I took a huge number of pictures.

They are all botanical except for two: can you find the bee and milkweed bugs.

There are four clips of water lilies (pink, purple, white, and a giant that is white a pink)…the bee is on a water lily but it is clipped a bit too tight to see that one so I didn’t count that one. Can you find the fiddlehead clip?

Can you spot the poke weed? Hint: the stem is bright pink and the berries are dark purple. The connection of the stem to the berry is something I had not looked at closely before.

Longwood Gardens Water Lilies – September 2015

I like the water lily court at Longwood Gardens and have posted photographs from it several times before (see the links at the end of this post). I tried some different techniques when we visited the gardens last week can got some better results than I had previously.

I tried to position myself so that my shadow fell on the flower – so the light was less harsh. The colors seemed ever more vivid and the surface tension where the petals touched the water was visible. I always think the center of waterlilies are surreal looking both because of their structure and their colors.

Sometimes water lilies look a little like tulips. This one was just opening.

Once open…the bees find the flowers irresistible. Many times there are several bees in the same flower.

Longwood puts black dye in the water of the pools to reduce algae growth but it helps with photography as well. Either surface tension or reflection is common.

Most of the time we think of lily pads as being green but they often have a lot of red – particularly when they are new.

This flower was partially submerged. I also like the water accumulated on the battered lily pad above the flower.

The flower was in the full sun but I managed to get golden reflection rather than overly bright areas. This is the flower of the largest water lily pads.

There are subtle color changes of the petals that are hard to notice with the flowers are in full sun.

Notice the framing of the flower (below) with the scalloped edges of the lily pads.

I was surprised but the increased detail visible in the petals when the flower is not in full sun.

The flower seemed to glow – surround by green…and the water tension visible where the lily pads touch the water.

Shading the flowers took some effort…but I like the quality of the images more than ever!

Zooming - August 2015

I did lots of hiking with campers in August…and managed some local photography jaunts (like the Butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens). As I was creating the collages for this month, I started experimenting with a better way to upload them…so click on any collage below to see a larger version of it! Some highlights of the zoomed images this month are:

• Feather in the grass
• Butterflies and moths
• A toad
• Milkweed pods infested with ?
• Crabapples on the ground before they could mature
• Water droplets on a leaf after a rain storm
• Lichen and moss
• Empty wasp nest
• Golden rod
• Water lily
• Magnolia seed pod

 Enjoy!

 

Mt. Pleasant Farm - August 2015 (part 2)

I am continuing the series of nature photos from my trek around Mt. Pleasant Farm last week. Friday’s post contains the earlier ones.

The last hike of the day started in the Honor’s Garden….and a frog in the lily pads. It sat very still ---- plenty of time for the campers to get a photo.

There was one water lily flower nearby….quite a scene in the small pond.

The garden is planted with plants native to the area. It is full of summer color in August.

There are several water features.

And the Joe Pye Weed is very popular with all kinds of insects.

I was pleased to photograph both a male

And female tiger swallowtail within a few minutes!

Just outside the garden was a sweet bay magnolia with seed pods is very stages of development.

We hiked down toward the meadow and along the path that borders the stone wall and line of large trees.

We reached the stream and many of the campers focused on trying to capture ripples and reflections. I liked the small leaf that was the bright color in the rocks along the bank.

We started back up the hill from the stream and noticed that dark, angry clouds were taking over the sky. We took a few more pictures as we walked back…..and were very close to the nature center when the first rumble of thunder came. That was the end of the outdoor nature photography for the afternoon!

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens - June 2015

Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens are full of lotuses in bloom this time of year….and dragonflies and waterlilies. We made our first day trip to the place last week on the first sunny day after a huge rain storm. Some of the grassy paths between the ponds were flooded but the circuit wide path was passable. We’ll go again before the end of season.

Eventually I’ll get better at recognizing the different dragonflies. The Blue Dashers are the only ones I recognize easily (the ones that look like they’ve been dusted with light blue powder).

The surprise this year was pots of red hibiscus near the visitor center. I wonder if I somehow missed them last year.

Enjoy the Kenilworth Gardens via the slideshow below!

Mt. Pleasant Farm - June 2015

I am missing treks to Mt. Pleasant Farm for elementary school field trips. Since they have ended I’ve been doing other things/other places but I did take one short hike around one of the loops last week - just because I was missing the place.

The water lilies in the water feature of the Honors Garden have buds.

The summer flowers are beginning to unfurl.

The early ones - like butterfly weed - are already attracting butterflies.

I was thrilled that a bluebird stayed on a branch long enough to be photographed.

This is my favorite to bring groups to look up the stream and ask ‘which tree trunk has been has been across the stream the longest.’

One sharp eyed second grade student looked through the foliage and pointed out the shelf-fungus on the stump beside the stream nearby.

Last but not least - the milkweed is just about to burst into bloom. Hopefully the Monarch Butterflies will find the plants and plenty of eggs….and set the stage for a larger than usual cohort of Monarch Butterflies in summer 2015.