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.

















Coneflower colors....

 

My son and I spent a little time at the UW Arboretum in Madison Wisconsin and found this purple coneflower.

 

 

 

 

 

It was an overcast day which made it easy to shoot flowers and get nice saturated colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really like the oranges, greens, and pinks.

 

 

 

I found these raindrops suspended on a spider's web just a couple of inches above the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every time I go out with a macro lens and a little time I'm surprised by just how many beautiful photos I can come back with.

 

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.









It's All a Matter of Perspective

Trying to see familiar things in a different and pleasing way, that's what I've been after lately.

In the past I looked for green grass and foliage to provide an out of focus background for colorful flower images. So it was a leap for me to point my camera towards the nearby gravel road in order to create these images of Indian Paintbrush flowers(Castilleja coccinea).

The flowers were in prime condition and I'm really pleased that I didn't shoot it in my usual way and then leave. By spending the time and trying to imagine a different view I ended up with some beautiful images.

By way of comparrison, here are some Indian Paintbrush flowers I had shot a little earlier.

Though I don't think these images are bad, I much prefer the almost painting like quality of the earlier ones.

Whatever your preference, you really can't go wrong when photographing Indian Paintbrush. The colors are amazing.











You Never Know..

what you'll find when you head outside.

I spent two cool and sometimes wet days at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area last week and saw these

diamond like raindrops on the leaves of a flower I haven't identified yet. (If you know what it is please let me know.)

A rain drop on a bird's-foot violet. (Viola pedata)

A trumpeter swan taking a break from feeding on underwater plants.

Although it was cold, I was able to find two northern prairie skinks by turning over a few logs. It may not look like it, but this skink is fine. When prairie skinks are captured by predators (or people) they wriggle their bodies until whatever is attempting to catch them is left holding only their tail. The skinks tail detaches from its body and continues to twitch and move, keeping the attackers attention while the actual skink makes its escape. Over time the skink will grow back its tail.

With the day as cool and damp as it was, I felt really lucky to find a 4-5 foot bullsnake crossing one of the dirt roads. I made a few images and watched it move off into a nearby woods.

It was as if I was actually watching spring unfold as these new leaves grew on a scrub oak.

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.