simplicity

I only had a few hours to shoot today, but the weather was agreeable enough… wonderful overcast skies with an intermittent breeze.  The delicate nature of these flowers might fool most people.  They belong to Colocasia esculenta and are attached to giant elephant ear shaped leaves spanning 2-3 feet across.  Even the slightest breeze today made the entire ensemble move.  So I patiently waited and took many frames over the course of about 30 minutes with this one composition.  I took others, but I’m attracted to the simplicity of this cluster hiding the white spadix visible from the other side.

I converted the image to black and white to further accentuate the forms as the flower color transitions from green to white.  But I thought you might like to see the color version for your own comparison.

summer is here

Since we’ve had exceptionally high daytime and soil temperatures in SE Pennsylvania this late spring, many perennials are sending out flowers earlier than I expected.  I found this Penstemon pinifolius (pineneedle beartongue) blooming on the hillside at Chanticleer Garden last weekend backed by Stipa tennuissima, or Mexican feather grass.  I intentionally blurred the grass out of focus to hightlight the form of the penstemon.  I first explored the symmetry of the individual flowers along the inflorescence.  But soon I became more fascinated by the leading lines of the flower parts and created this off-center image.

I am excited to see these blooming along with Clematis texensis and other nectar food sources for hummingbirds in local gardens. But I have not seen any hummingbirds yet in the garden this year.  Sure hope they arrive soon to feast upon these wonderful plants.

salt crystals

Winter has definitely had her grip on eastern Pennsylvania this month.  It’s been in the 20s every night and cloudy and below freezing every day with a howling wind.  And then last night we had our first snowfall… just enough to dust the ground and cause traffic nightmares, but too late for any chance of an evening shoot after work.  So I’m inside editing tonight and it’s a good thing since it has been almost two weeks since my last post.  This dusting has definitely excited me about getting some good snowfall, frost or ice for photography.  But I may have to wait until January or February at this point as the weather is forecast to be above freezing during the day for the next week or so.  Christmas lights just might have to do for the next week while the sun fully sets before I’m off from my day job.

So I came across the image above while editing… it’s from Death Valley this fall, near the salt flats after the sun came over the horizon and side-lit the salt crystals.  Not frost or snow… but another wonder of nature.

behind the lens

After photographing the amazing sunrise yesterday morning across Cunningham Field, all to myself and without the scurrying feet of hundreds of soccer campers, I visited one of my favorite gardens at the Scott Arboretum, the John W. Nason Garden.  At this time of year, the grasses are in full swing highlighted by many members of the Asteraceae:  Silphium perfoliatum, Rudbeckia maxima, Ratibida pinnata and assorted Echinacea selections.  I was deep into the photographic process by the time I made my way to the Entrance Garden at the Scott Arboretum Office almost 3 hours later.  So much so that I didn’t even notice several of our volunteers out for their early morning walk.  Being behind the lens brings me close to the rhythms of nature not much differently than meditation does and allows me to see her more clearly.

Noise

While I was out photographing for an on-line class I’m taking with William Neill, I visited nearby Smedly Park.  Now Smedly Park is not your typical park… it’s more like a forgotten area of the Crum Woods that dog walkers frequent and little care is given to its maintenance.  My kind of place to find wonderful aged and weathered trees!  But the parking lot sits directly underneath I-476 in Delaware County.  And the noise can be overwhelming.  When I first parked, I couldn’t get far enough away from the noise.  But upon my return to my car just after sunset, I noticed a crack of light coming between the northbound and southbound lanes.  And then I forgot about the noise as I composed this image of the underbelly of I-476, 50 feet or so above me.  I know it’s not my typical beauty of nature kind of image.  But the composition and way the light between the lanes happened only when I was dead center below was kind of cool.

Winter is here

This past week I visited Harriman State Park in NY for some photography during some really chilly weather.  The week prior the east coast had a really great snowstorm and I was looking forward to some snow pictures in this area.  But most of the snow was gone and what remained what lots and lots of ice.  Ice on the seven lakes there, ice on plants and ice on outcrops. The plants seemed happy to have their protective coating of ice on this 19F day… glistening forms of spring hopeful.

During this time of year there are very few people in the park; I ran into four people hiking the entire day.  But during the warmer months it’s obvious this park is trampled by crowds from nearby New York City, day visitors and group campgrounds filled to capacity.   This day I found solace in the sounds of wind and cracking ice shifting on the lakes.  Stalactites of ice forming from a shelf ice balanced between two rocks on the edge of one of the lakes brought me back to childhood wonder and amazement… how?

Ground level

I just have enough time today to post another image from my trip to Virginia.  This lovely rock was part of the amazing array of formations at Great Falls National Park.  Evidence of years of wear from past geologic events and current day micro-level communities in the nooks and crannies mesmerized me for a good hour.

Be open to mystery

Last weekend I was lucky to be given a trip to Virginia for my birthday.  The weather was not very cooperative for the shooting I was hoping to do of the falls in Great Falls National Park.  So we spent the remainder of the morning exploring along the Potomac River after disappointing morning light at the falls.  But we found Scott’s Run Nature Preserve later in the day and decided to take a walk in the middle of the afternoon.  Sometimes the best photographs are made when you don’t have preconceived concepts or images in your head and instead find them as I did here at the creek running through the preserve.  The rocks beckoned me from the path to explore them and after only 2 other images and visual exploration and examination of the geometry they played, I found this angle looking upstream into the beech forest.  I could sense a good photograph from the path along the creek; a sense pulling me more than normal.  I need to follow those instincts more often.  As Jay Maisel told me at the Photography at the Summit workshop last October, “If you’re not open to mystery, why should it find you?”