Posts in Category: flowers
Jack-in-the-pulpit: Wild Gardens of Acadia
The Wild Gardens of Acadia at Sieur de Monts Springs is a project of The Wild Gardens of Acadia committee of The Friends of Acadia. It was actually started by a looser group of volunteers before coming under the auspices of the Friends. It has won awards as example of its kind. Within a very small area at the edge of the forest, with a small stream flowing through, volunteers have collected and cultivated most of the native plants of Mt Desert Island and Acadia National Park. The garden is divided by habitat, from stream-side and a mini bog to a mountain top simulation, and covering just about everything in between. From early spring to late fall there is generally something in bloom, and it well enough labeled so that it is certainly a good place to visit if you are interested in being able to identify these plants in the wild.
This is Jack-in-the-pulpit. From the single plants I saw there a few years ago, there is now an impressive stand of these unique and very interesting plants.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. 39mm macro plus 1.5x digital tel-converter. f4 @ 1/50th @ ISO 160. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
This is one of those shots that is only possible because of the flip out lcd on the Canon SX series. I had to get right down under the plant 🙂
White Lady Slipper: Acadia National Park
You might remember that, when I posted my Pink Lady Slipper shots from Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge last week, I mentioned that I hoped to see a White Lady Slipper when I visited the Wild Gardens of Acadia at Sieur de Mont Springs in Acadia National Park. I remembered seeing one in bloom there previous years, along with the Yellow Lady Slipper. It was not to be…the caged Yellows were no where near to bloom, and there was no White.
Imagine my surprise then, when hiking the Ship’s Harbor Trail, over on the other (southern or eastern, depending on how you look at it) half of the “mitt” that makes up Mt Desert Island, to come on this specimen growing all alone in a bed of trailing juniper and moss. There was no easy access without trampling plants, so the best I could do was a tel-macro shot.
I had always assumed that the White Lady Slipper was its own species, but a little research when I got home showed that it is just a rare form of the Pink Lady Slipper. Same plant. Different color. That makes it, of course, no less unique or beautiful.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1251mm and 1200mm.
Rhodora and the Bee: Acadia NP
Rhodoa, a New England relative of the rhododendron family, was in bloom all over Mt Desert Island…in any damp spot with sun, from hollows in the tops of the mountains, to the edges of marshes in the valleys. I caught this bee making the most of it along the shore of Jordan Pond.
Tel-macro. Canon SX50HS. 1200mm equivalent from 5 feet. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 640. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Ascitou Azalea Gardens. Happy Sunday!
The Ascitou Azalea Gardens in Northeast Harbor on Mt Desert Island, just outside Acadia National Park, can, if you hit it just right when the Azaleas bloom, be all but overwhelming. It is a gentle place, well manicured, with a hint of Japan in the stone and water and Azalea plantings. Very designed. Very beautiful.
Click any of the thumbs to open the image full sized.
Canon SX50HS. A mix to tel-macros at 1200mm equivalent, and wide-macros at 24mm plus 1.5x digital tel-converter. Processed, as always, in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And for the Sunday Thought. Man might have had a hand in all the shades and colors of the Azalea, and man certainly had a hand in arranging them in Ascitou Gardens…but the fact is, you can not tame the Azalea. It is a wild plant, full of irresistible vigor and something very close to a will to be. The colors can be bold or delicate, but the live is always vibrant. The spirit in the Azalea will out! And it is, at least for me, the tension between that riot of life, the pure spirit, and our attempts to design and improve upon nature that adds to the wonder of the Azalea. I am always thankful to those patient folks who think they can cage the wonder…because it is so much fun to see the wonder break out!
Lady Slipper Light
Sometimes it is just about light, no matter what your subject is. This Lady Slipper, along the tail at Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters, is as lovely as any of its kind, and particularly symmetrical, but it is the light in the background that makes the shot, along with the translucency of the bracts at the top, and the light caught in the tiny hairs that coat the bloom along the edges.
I used my favorite macro combination. Full wide angle (24mm equivalent) for the 0 cm focus, and 1.5x digital tel-converter for image scale and working distance. The combination managed to give me effective bokeh in the bright background. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. f4 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
It is that Lady Slipper time of year…
Spring in Maine may be catching up with itself. We were running 4 to 5 weeks later than last year, and a week or two behind a normal year. The Lady Slippers were in full bloom on May 23rd in 2009, the 20th in 2010, the 21st in 2011, and the 19th in 2012 (no, I do not keep a journal. It is as easy as looking at the exif data on my images from previous years :). This year close to full boom was yesterday, on the 27th. That is a week difference yet, but we are catching up.
I am, of course, obliged to photograph the Lady Slippers along the loop trail at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters every year. I should say, I am privileged to photograph the Lady Slippers every year. This year there are fewer than in past few years, with one prominent clump missing altogether, and the blooms are not as bright as they are most years. Still, it is magnificent plant! I would certainly miss photographing them. (I will be in Acadia National Park this weekend, and I hope to find the Yellow (Canadian) Lady-Slipper in boom there as well.)
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm macro with 1.5x digital tel-converter (my preferred macro setting). Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Trillium: Rachel Carson NWR
I included a Trillium in my set of “yard” flowers last week, not because it grows in my yard, but as a true touch of wildness in an otherwise pretty tame set of wildflowers. Still, the Trillium deserves a post all its own. The Trillium of the Maine woods is the Painted Trillium, with it’s delicate purple veining. This is a telephoto macro, taken at 1800mm equivalent from the safety of the path. The lighting on this flower is, I think, particularly effective.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Wildflowers in the Yard: Spring at Last!
I still have lots of birds to share from my trip to The Biggest Week in American Birding, but I feel compelled to celebrate the late but inevitable arrival of spring in Southern Maine. My wife has been working in the yard, planting and transplanting flowers, but I was mostly interested in the volunteers…the wildflowers of my mossy yard. Spring Beauty is always there, but the clumps this year seem bigger. And I caught a bonus Hoverfly at work in this clump.
The Dog-tooth Violets are blooming in every woodlot, and are even more lush in our sunny yard.
Then you have the Wild Strawberry, another widely abundant plant in Southern Maine, that has made a home in the margin of our lawn.
And finally Cinquefoil, which might be new this year, creeping in from the woods across the road. Both this, and the Strawberry image are littered with fallen petals from our Ornamental Plum.
So, pretty tame by true wild-land standards, but not bad for a yard at the edge of town. And, just so you don’t feel deprived of wild, I will finish with a true wildflower, a Painted Trillium from a lunch-time walk around the trail loop at Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters yesterday noon.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. A mix of tel-macros at 1200mm and wide-macros at 24mm plus 1.5x digital tel-converter. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Fallen Glory
I still have a lot of images from my trip to Arcata California and the Godwit Days Spring Migration Festival that I could share. This is one of my deep HDR experiments at Founder’s Grove in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I like the way the Richardson’s Geraniums and a variety of ferns are growing on this fallen Redwood trunk. My guess, given the legendary durability of Redwood, is that this trunk has been down for well over 1000 years, to reach the stage of decomposition where it now supports it’s own micro-habitat. And I suspect it will be another 1000 years (or more) before all trace of the tree is gone. That is a long time!
It takes at least a 3 exposure HDR, with the highlight (dark) shot at least at -3EV, and the exposures well separated, to capture the range of light on the floor of Founder’s Grove. Canon SX50HS. 24mm equivalent field of view. From a tripod. Exposures blended and the HDR file tone mapped in Dynamic Photo HDR. Final processing for my usual intensity, clarity, and sharpness in Lightroom. Auto Color Balance to correct a yellow bias introduce in the HDR process.
Trout Lily
Last spring I was amazed at the big patches of Trout Lily leaves (aka Dogtooth Violet or Adder’s Tongue) that I found at Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport and along the trails at the Wonderbrook Preserve in Kennebunk in early April. Though I went back several times I missed the bloom at both locations. Last year was a particularly early spring, a full 4 weeks ahead of this year’s late spring, and I now have to wonder if I had already missed the bloom the very first time I saw adder’s tongue on April 9th. Yesterday, my Sunday Photo-prowl took me back to Emmon’s Preserve (to try some deep HDR’s of the falls) and I was delighted to find large patches of Trout Lily in bloom! It is such a beautiful plant.Â
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3 and -2/3 EV exposure compensation. Various macros from 1200mm tel, to 34mm wide. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.