Posts in Category: close up
First Day Lilies
Day Lily, The Yard, Kennebunk ME
It is one of the mysteries of our life here on Brown Street in Kennebunk is that our Day Lilies bloom a good two weeks after Day Lilies both up and down the street from us. We might live in a tidal trough…just slightly depressed enough so that the tide blows and draws the breath of our cold sea, two miles downriver, right through our yard. And it might be the shade of our big maples and oaks, that make our yard, our whole neighborhood, look like unbroken forest from the air (easily verified with Google Earth). And it might be when they were planted, or the particular variety, or something in our soil, or…
Whatever it is, I have to wait patiently to photograph my own lilies weeks after they have appeared even 10 houses away. Sigh. 🙂
But when they do bloom, one whole side of the yard are double blooms. Instead of a single, simple, swirl of petals around the anthers, there are two…the outer fairly normal, and the inner smaller and more ornate. Again…who knows why? Close in like this, it looks almost like an abstract of itself.
Sony HX90V macro at about 35mm equivalent field of view. 1/160th @ ISO 80 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Bobolink in flowers…
Bobolink in Knapweed. Kennebunkport ME
While photographing this meadow full of Knapweed, I observed several male Bobolinks competing for territory. I had, through an oversight, only my little Sony HX90V with me, and it only has 720mm equivalent field of view…only! That really shows how spoiled we are in the Point and Shoot Superzoom world. I used some Clear Image Zoom (Sony’s enhances digital zoom) to stretch out to 1440mm for this shot of the Bobolink with prey among the flowers.
Camera as above. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Halloween Pennant
Halloween Pennant, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
On my photoprowl to the Kennebunk Plains late yesterday afternoon, I was surprised to find a few Northern Blazing Star in bloom. This is going to be a year with a lot of Blazing Star, and I am expecting a bold display, but not for several more weeks…well into August. Still I was happy to see them in bloom, as often I am traveling when the Blazing Star is a its peak. Maybe early this year 🙂
I also found at least two, probably teneral, Halloween Pennants among the Blazing Star. Again, this is a Dragonfly that I have seen on the Plains when the Blazing Star is in bloom, in August. These might be early, and they were almost certainly newly emerged, as the wings were quite light in color. The one on the right is on a Blazing Star bud, far from open.
Sony HX90V at 720-1000mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Blueberry Art. Happy Sunday!
Blueberries, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine. Illustration Picture Effect.
Last Sunday I posed a very studied and classical composition of a Wood Lily, and talked about how, as an image, it drew attention to the artist behind the photo as much as to the subject…and how that made it different from most of the images I take. It was a celebration of the act of creation, as well as a celebration of creation itself…of my small part in the ongoing act of creation, and well as what the creator of all as done. Now, if you think about it, every photograph I take is both…but not so obviously, or so consciously, so.
This “photograph” of low bush Blueberries on the Kennebunk Plains takes the concept even further. Here I used an in-camera Picture Effect to intentionally render the image to look like a drawing…clearly an artifact…rather than a photograph. Though it was taken with a camera, and recorded pretty much just as appears here on the SD card…it is intentionally un-photo-like. The image is simplified to basic shapes and tones, so that the pattern becomes as important as, actually more important than, the subject…the blueberries. If it went any further it would be abstract…as it is it balances on the line between abstract and real, tipped just toward reality. It demands to be looked at as an image, an artifact, a rendering…not as blueberries in the field. And, I think it is beautiful. Striking. Arresting. It rewards your attention. It, itself, not the blueberries.
But, of course, I can not, and do not, take any more credit for this creation than I do in any of my work. Actually, my only creative decision was to play with the settings on the camera…the software in the camera…written by engineers who never saw these blueberries, and certainly never envisioned this image, did all the work. The creator of all still put the blueberries in the field, and, I have to believe, inspired the software engineers in their creative play…so that I could play with the camera. No matter what else I did, I am still only pointing and saying “look at what the loving God has created.” If anything, this image makes me smile…it is fun in way a straight photograph would not be…it is playful. And I like that about it. Because, of course, I appreciate the sense of play that infuses the work of the creator of all in everything I see, in all my experience…and that only inspires even greater love…providing evidence of the playful love of the creator of all. Play is creative love in action. Always! Happy Sunday!
Masses of Wood Lilies
Wood Lilies, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
It was three years ago that I first found Wood Lilies growing on the Kennebunk Plains. I am certain they have been growing there for as long as there have sand-plains there…but I had not seen them. This year, though, is special. There are Wood Lilies everywhere on the plains…well, not everywhere, they tend to cluster in open clusters of 5 to 25 plants…but lilies in much higher numbers than I have seen before, by a factor of 10 at least. More clusters, and more flowers in each cluster. Not only that, but a much higher percentage of the plants are making double, and even triple blooms. In the past the vast majority of the plants hand only a single bloom, with a few doubles. This year at least half have multiple heads and at least a quarter of those are triples. I have even see a plant with 4 blooms, but they were not open simultaneously…or at least were not on the day I saw them. This shot is three plants, all triples, for 9 flowers in a single group. One Wood Lily is beautiful. Nine together is breathtaking. 🙂
Sony HX90V at 92mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 80 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
Great Spangled Fritillary!
Great Spangled Fritillary, Emmon’s Preserve. Kennenbunkport Land Conservancy.
You just have to love the name! Great Spangled Fritilllary! Great Spangled! (And then, of course, there is the issue of remembering how to spell fritillary…or is it frittilary? I always have to Google it to be sure.) There were dozens of Great Spangled Fritillarys in the fields at Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport yesterday…doing their thing…which is fritting. They frit constantly, often never coming to full rest while in sight. You get the occasional bug, like this one, who is apparently nectaring, and therefore lighting on the Knapweed, at least for a few seconds. This bug turned and showed me all sides. This composite image shows both the Greatness of the wings, and the Spangles on the underside…or is great spangles on the back?
Nikon P900 at 500mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 220 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Wood Lily Glory. Happy Sunday!
Wood Lily, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
The area near Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area has not been burned for several years now so the Wood Lilies are much taller, and more of them produce a full head of 3 flowers. This plant was growing right at the edge of the forest at the west end of the pond, in partial shade much of the day. While I did find several heads of three flowers in bloom out in the full sun of the plain, these were blooming out of sequence. I suspect that today all three are open. Still, as a study of shape and texture and how the light molds the world we see, these lilies are just right. I reached out with the zoom on the camera to frame them from a distance, and isolate them against the out of focus foliage of the trees behind, which only emphasizes the basic forms more, and allows them to balance within the frame.
This is an “artistic shot”…carefully conceived, composed, and photographed for itself, as an image, rather than just as a capture of a slice of reality to share. It draws attention to itself, as an artifact, while most of my photos act simply as a window frame, through which I show you a bit of the world I see. In that sense it is more creative than most…which are more simply records of creation. There is more of me in it…my vision…my little portion of the one creative spirit. Mostly I show you bits of the world that might make you clap…in this shot you can hear me clapping. 🙂 It is a celebration of creating as much as creation.
Or that is what I am thinking as I look at it this morning, and, to be honest, what struck me first when I saw it on my monitor yesterday. I said to my wife when I showed her the photo soon after processing it, “Now that is a beautiful photograph…not just a beautiful flower.” And I guess it is okay, once in a while, to call attention to what is creative in me…since I am under no illusions as to where that creativity comes from, or who it belongs to. There is only one creator…if I am privileged to occasionally be the instrument of creation, that can make me thankful…but never proud.
And my prayer for you today is that the good and loving God will make you, in some way large or small, the instrument of creation. Happy Sunday!
Wood Lily Time!
Wood Lilies. Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
If Wood Lilies bloomed in banks like Day Lilies, they would dominate the landscape of southern Maine for a few weeks in July. As it is, blooming as single flowers widely scattered over acres of open sand-plain, just peaking up above the blueberries…or in the shady edges of forests or in groves of trees along ponds among the ferns…a plant here and a plant there…so you have to seek them out…they still have to rank among the most beautiful native flowers of our northern area. I have been looking for them for a week now…and yesterday they were in full bloom where I had seen nothing only days before. I know a few spots, in the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, that seem to be reliable for them, and all but one of those spots had flowers. They will only last a week or so…by mid-July they will be gone.
Since they grow so widely spaced, you are tempted (or at least I am) to photograph every one you find…I came back yesterday with hundreds of images. The colors are so intense…from a bright orange to a red-orange to a orange-red…and, in most blossoms, with spots that are purplish in the shade and the bright yellow base of each petal where it forms a tube that collects pollen and water that attracts bugs of all kinds. The open petal base adds to the elegance of the flower.
These two flowers are on the single largest plant I have yet seen, with the promise of a full head of flowers over the next few days. I will go back today to see if the others opened. It will be quite a display when they do. Most plants produce only a single flower, with a few yielding two.
Sony HX90V at 34mm equivalent and macro focus. 1/1250th @ ISO 80 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
If you want to be overwhelmed by Wood Lilies, visit my gallery of yesterday’s shots here.
Tree Swallow making a wing…
Tree Swallow, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
There was a newly fledged Tree Swallow (or two in a few cases) on the top of every old post along the Kennebunk Bridle Path near the new bridge on the ocean side of Route 9. There were a few adults around, tending to them. This adult was having a nice wing stretch. You can never plan for these shots…but if you have the camera to your eye at the right second, sometimes they happen 🙂 That is an impressively large wing when stretched like that in proportion to the bird!
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Grass Pink Orchid
Grass Pink Orchid, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms. ME
The little remnant bog at Laudholm Farm, smaller than a baseball diamond, seems to be particularly healthy as bogs go, and produces several interesting species of bog wildflowers. This is Grass Pink, one of Maine’s few native orchids. The name is peculiar. The single leaf may be grass-like but the flower, at least as it grows in Maine, is certainly not pink. It is obviously purple, which is only made more certain when it grows, in our bogs, next to another Maine orchid, the Rose Pogonia, which is, in fact, very pink (See my post on Rose Pogonia here). According to my little bit of research, the presence of Grass Pink is a good indicator that the bog’s surface and the ground water are healthy and pure. It is very sensitive to contamination. It is one of the few orchids to be “right side up”…having its fringed lip at the top when the flower is mature. All orchids start out with the lip at the top, but the stem holding the flower twists as the flower matures so that the lip is presented at the bottom. Very strange.
Grass Pink is also one the few orchids that can be grown from seed…and you can buy plants for wet sunny corners of your yard…or for inside cultivation. I far prefer to find them growing in the healthy little bog at Laudholm Farm. 🙂
Sony HX90V at 44mm equivalent. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f4.5. Processed in Lightroom.