Posts in Category: flowers
Grasspink Orchid
Grasspink Orchid (or Tuberous Grasspink): Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine, USA, July 2025 — I rode my trike down to Laudholm Farms yesterday to see if the Grasspinks were in bloom in the remnant bog on the lower trail. The bog is quickly being overtaken by sapling maples, ferns, and other brush, but there are still a few grasspinks. They are always a challenge to photograph since they are so 3 dimensional…there is no single plane of focus that shows them in all their glory. These were growing within inches of the boardwalk, but so low I had to sit down cross legged. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 108mm equivalent. Aperture program at f11 for depth of field. Processed in Photomator.
Lily
Lily: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — We have a few of these Lilies in the yard. This is the first to bloom. We call them “oriental lilies” to differentiate them from the Day Lilies we also have. The flowers are very similar but the plants are considerably different. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 75mm equivalent. Aperture preferred (my macro modifications) at f5.6 and 1/30th. Processed in Photomator.
Sheep Laurel in the shade
Sheep Laurel: Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — I had to look it up this morning (and I really wish I hadn’t). Sheep Laurel gets its name because it is poisonous to sheep and other grazers. And it is otherwise such a pretty plant! Without a hint of malice…but then that is probably what makes it dangerous. I will never look at it quite the same way though. Here seen deep in the shade of the forest, back 20 yard from the edge of the marsh. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 105mm. Aperture preferred for depth of field. f13 which gave me 1/30th (I really should have had my tripod.) Processed in Photomator.
Iris
Blue Flag Iris (wild Iris): Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — This is, of course, a digital composition…or, as I like to call them, digital confection. The close up Iris is added, to simulate (or perhaps stimulate) the way our attention works when we encounter this in nature. We see the clump of Iris in all its glory next to the old birch trunk…a riot to color and texture and form, but that does not take our full attention…because we also, in our mind’s eye, see the intricate detail off the Iris flower. Much ado about nothing maybe, but maybe not. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 75mm with my marco modifications to Aperture mode (f22 for maximum depth of field) and 600mm at f6.3 for the close up. Processed in Photomator and assembled (confected) in Pixomatic.
Wild Iris
Blue Flag Iris: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — There is a little pond formed where the road crosses one of the meandering streams that runs down through the marshes behind the dunes to the sea, where a clump of wild iris has been blooming every June for as long as I can remember. I photograph it every year. Sony a5100. Sony 10-18 f4 at 15mm equivalent. Intelligent Auto with Landscape Mode. Processed in Photomator.
Wild Lady Slipper
Lady Slipper Orchid: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine. June 2025. — It is getting late for Lady Slippers but, what with the weather and a late start on my triking season, I have not gotten out to Kennebunk Plains before yesterday. There are still some Lady Slippers in the woods upstream from the pond, though their numbers don’t seem to be what they have been the past few years. It has certainly been a cool damp spring. This shot was taken with the Sony a6700 and Tamron 50-400 using its macro capabilities at 102mm, and mounted on my little travel tripod that goes down to ground level. I used my macro settings: Aperture Preferred at f14 (1/40th @ ISO 200, -1EV for the highlights). Processed in Photomator.
Bluebead Lily, Painted Trillium
Bluebead Lily, Painted Trillium: Rachel Carson NWR Headland Trail, Wells, Maine, May 2025 — Two more wildflowers from Rachel Carson. Bluebead Lily is still abundant and common in the Maine woods, and seems to be spreading at Rachel Carson, but, at least in my experience, Trillium is becoming hard to find. It was never, while I have lived here, abundant, but I can only find two individual plants where there used to 20 or more, and one patch along the Headland Trail that I used to enjoy seeing every year, has completely disappeared. Maybe there are places in Southern Maine where they are still common, but if so I don’t know about them. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 172mm equivalent (lily) and 202mm (trillium). Tripod mounted. Aperture Preferred Program with my macro modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Canada Mayflower
Canada Mayflower: Wonderbrook Preserve (Kennebunk Land Trust), Kennebunk, Maine, May 2025 — The forest at Wonderbrook Preserve is carpeted with Canada Mayflower…as thick and as lush as I have ever seen. Mayflower is not as flashy as Pink Lady Slipper, which is also in boom right now, but in its own quiet way it celebrates the coming of the warmth, the bursting out of life. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 127mm (insert) and 75mm. Aperture Preferred Program with my macro modifications. Processed in Photomator. Assembled in Pixomatic.
A bunch of Lady Slippers
Lady Slipper Orchids: Rachel Carson NWR Headquarter’s trail, Wells, Maine, May 2025 — A bunch or a cluster of Lady Slippers from Rachel Carson. Several of the historical patches of Lady Slippers along the headland trail have disappeared over the years, but this stand seems to still be doing well. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 102mm equivalent. Aperture mode with my macro modifications. f16 @ 1/30th. Processed in Photomator.
Lady Slipper
Lady Slipper Orchid: Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters trail, Wells, Maine, May 2025 — It is Lady Slipper time again. I took advantage of the sunny day yesterday to trike out to the Rachel Carson NWR headquarters trail to see if they are in bloom. Since I hoped to be working low, I strapped my little travel tripod that folds down to ground level to the trike rack and carried into the woods with me. I don’t often use a tripod, but there are times when one just makes photographic life that much easier. Lady Slippers have a symbiotic relationship with a species of fungus that grows only on the roots of certain trees, so they are limited to patches where the conditions are exactly right. (Which is why they cannot successfully transplanted to your yard, and why you should not try. Enjoy them where they grow.) Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 126mm equivalent. Program mode with my macro modifications. f16 @ 1/40th to get the whole flower in focus. (Tripod 🙂 Processed in Photomator.