Dots of color.....

A few days ago I was in northwest Wisconsin on my way to Pattison State Park. I wasn't familiar with the road I was on and found myself driving past a prairie like grassland with individual pine trees sprinkled across the landscape. Every so often I thought I was seeing vibrant dots of orange amid the green grass.  

 

I slowed down to better see what the color was, and finally pulled over to find beautiful wood lilies in full bloom under big billowy clouds.

 

 

 

Lucky for me the flowers were growing at a state wildlife area and the land was publicly owned.

 

 

 

So I grabbed a camera and a couple of lenses and went to see what I could do.

 

 

 

I had a 180mm macro on, but quickly realized I wanted to capture the flowers in their environment not tight images of the blooms.

 

 

 

I switched to a 10-22mm lens and got low to the ground to try and capture the color of the flowers and the drama of the sky above.

 

 

 

It was 75 degrees and got pretty hot laying in the grass and waiting for interesting clouds to form and blow over.

 

 

 

I tried a few images with fill flash and a reflector off to the side to bounce some light under the flowers.

 

 

 

I spent almost two hours trying to capture the colors and skies.

 

 

 

Before I left I did take the time to isolate individual flowers with the macro lens.

 

 

 

The breeze was pretty persistent and it took some patience to make sharp images but,

 

 

 

the time was well spent and I was really happy with the images I captured.

 

 

 

I'm thankful for happy accidents. Like taking an unknown road and finding vibrant dots of color.

















They say a picture's worth....

 

a thousand words. So in this post I'm just going to show a lot of pictures and use very few words.

 

 

A field of orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum L)flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The yellow flowers are Canada hawkweed (Hieracium canadense)

 

 

 

 

An oxeye daisy in the same small field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little patience while waiting for the wind to stop paid big dividends.

 

 

 

A fog/steam blew off of Day Lake and across the road as we headed home.









A little color....

 

It was 80 degrees and 90% humidity when I was making these images on Friday evening. This is a harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) flower in the Madison Arboretum.

 

 

 

There were plenty of mosquitoes as well, but they didn't seem like much of a problem after my experience up north a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

 

I was sweaty, sticky, and uncomfortable as I made these images of a black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta).

 

 

 

I kept searching for flowers that were still in the light as the sun was going down behind some trees. I like the light and shadow on this image of phlox.

 

 

 

About half an hour earlier I was trying different compositions of reflections under this bridge at nearby Vilas Park.

 

 

 

 

 

I think I prefer the first one of the three.

 

 

 

I didn't have much time so I just kept searching for light and color. Like these smooth phlox blooms.

 

 

 

Here I photographed tall beardtongue or 'false foxglove'  (Penstemon digitalis).

 

 

 

Back to the harebell before catching some back lit leaves on what I think was a pink Yellowwood tree.

 

 

 

I didn't enjoy the bugs or ridiculous humidity, but I'm pleased with the images I captured in about an hour and a half. Hope you had a good summer day.

 

 



 





 











Finally....

A few years ago I noticed a blue flag iris like this growing at the edge of a pond in summer. I never took any photos, but really liked how it looked.

At the time I didn't even know what kind of flower it was.

Over the next couple of years I noticed the flower growing near different ponds and lakes I visited.

Every time I found them, either the flowers were past their prime and not looking the best or I didn't have my camera with me.

This past weekend everything changed.

I went looking to photograph elk near Clam Lake Wisconsin and only saw two elk after sunset. Needless to say, I didn't get any elk photos, but I did find a great looking blue flag iris growing at the edge of a small pond.

 

The first evening I found the flower I only had a couple of minutes to take pictures before the sun went behind the trees and I lost my light.

So I was there the next morning by 6:30 to get another shot at it. In my head I had an idea of the image that I wanted to create. 

I'm glad I went back because I was able to get the photo that I had imagined and a bunch more as well.