Nature
Today I will serve up some iris from a garden we visited in Japan. I call this the promise because now that the snow is melting, I can see bare earth in my wife's flower garden. It won't be long before we see our own iris.
After a week of "warm," but rainy and depressingly cloudy weather, I can see grass along the edges of our driveway. But the grass is brown, not verdant ("green with growth"). On the way to the mailbox, however, I saw the top of a Rainbird sprinkler head, which made me smile. In a matter of weeks (6?) I will be hearing the "chk, chk, chk" sound of the impulse sprinkler head watering my lush, green lawn. . . .
Enough of this fantasy - there are still piles of dirty snow covering almost everything. But for sustenance I offer red crab apples drenched in a warm September rain. If you really crave ice and cold, check out an alternate view of the same tree by clicking here.
The only wildlife I seem to photograph is captive, such as the butterflies I've posted. And now a lumbering brown bear, on display at a zoo a few miles south of Sitka, Alaska, named "The Fortress of the Bear." This young bear is one of two at the compound. They were orphaned after their mother had to be be destroyed. The crime the mom had committed was that she had made her way into the kitchen of a resort. Once a bear has tasted peanut butter and jelly, she is less inclined to eat berries and salmon. And before you know it, they'll be back in your kitchen. Here's another view. (click)
I saw these berries at a sidewalk market in Florence (Italy), though they could have been for sale at our HyVee. The blackberries take me back to my childhood because when we would go to Washington to visit my aunt, we would go blackberry hunting. I loved the blackberries but didn't like the thorns on the canes. Why is there a phone named after the berry? I don't know.
This isn't the only shot of this tree that I've posted in this blog. But when I was looking through my collection, this one jumped out at me. The brilliance of the back-lit red leaves of this Japanese maple gets your attention. But what I like about this tree is the snake-like curves of the tree branches.
I have been "dusting off" some old photos and this is one I took a few years ago at the Butterfly House in Sioux Falls, SD. I'm not sure you can see it here, but there is blue speckling this butterfly's wings which is anything but random. Part of the disguise? Part of the reproductive game? I don't know much about butterflies but the more I look, the more I marvel.
Here's another one from the same day.
Incidentally, did you know that if you click on the picture displayed when you first go to a page in my blog, you get a bigger view of the same photo? In fact, most of these photos are uploaded at a resolution of 1680x1050, which is pretty big. I hope you have a good connection?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
There were many things about our brief visit to Alaska that are memorable. But oddly, the profusion of these tasty, orange berries stands out. No doubt there is a name for them but all I know is that I didn't eat enough.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
This is a quintessential South Dakota sunrise: a single tree and an expanse of prairie pasture. The tree and the sunrise are commonplace; but the clouds aren't. On this particular morning, I was struck by texture of the clouds and how there was a single band of sunlight along the horizon. Light like this is short lived. Usually, you can't say, "That's pretty - I'll go get my camera." By the time you have your camera, even if it is only minutes later, the moment has passed.
Canon 1D 1/60s f/2.8 ISO400 200mm
I was within a few miles of the Missouri River (and Lake Oahe) when I saw the low sun lighting up this wheat field. One of the reasons you don't let the sun hit your lens is "lens flair," which is apparent in this photo. Lens flare is caused by the sun reflecting and refracting off of interior lens elements. But sometimes it can enhance a photo.
I don't know if the flare helps this picture. But for me the picture is enough: an expansive field of golden wheat on a sunny summer day.
Canon 1D 1/125s f/18.0 ISO200 20mm
I have discovered that pale yellow flowers are hard to photograph and this is probably the best I can do. I hope you have a well-adjusted monitor!
Can you see the light in this photo? Look at the softly highlighted stems of these flowers and you will. I don't think I saw this when I took the photo. As I've said before, there are often things I see on the computer that aren't really all that visible through the view finder.
Canon 5D 1/320s f/2.8 ISO160 150mm
You could just see this another wall with ivy growing on it. Or you could see it as a deeply symbolic photo representing the conflict of "man vs. Nature," and our attempt to impose structure and pattern on a universe that is as random as the ivy's vine creeping across a red brick wall.
What was I thinking when I took the photo? Frankly, I was probably thinking that I liked the yellow tint that seems to edge all of the leaves. More likely, I wasn't thinking at all. . . .
This is an early morning shot of a back lit tree in the Borghese Gardens in Rome. There is something prehistoric-looking in these leaves. I don't know what kind of tree this is but it could be a relative of the locust, which grows in some places in South Dakota.
