Well I finally found the name of the pretty blue flower I took pictures of yesterday. Somehow Lee figured out that they are called "Lesser Glory of the Snow". Unfortunately I don't think they are native to Michigan, which wouldn't make them valid entries into the contest, but at least I have a name for them now.
Luckily the weather cooperated with me again today and I went back to the park I've already visited twice to get some pictures of that creepy red plant I found once before which turns out to be a wildflower called skunk cabbage... Apparently all the wildflowers were hiding out at this park because I found four different kinds.
Yet again I would like you to help me pick some favorites:
Broadleef Toothwort (Lovely name right?):
[1]
[2]
Skunk Cabbage(even lovelier name...):
[3]
[4]
[5]
Grape Hyacinth:
[6]
[7]
Trout Lily:
[8]
[9]
I updated my Flickr wildflower set to include these images as well. I also took out all the uncropped versions of the pictures I took yesterday. They were just taking up room and I probably wasn't going to pick any of them anyway.
So here is a link again to this set of images:
Comment here or on Flickr to help me pick my favorites!
My favorites so far are the first blue flower in my last post; six and eight on this post. But that's just me.
I recently decided to enter a photography contest created by my local state park. The contest is to photograph native Michigan wildflowers, with a limit of two entries. The top three prizes are gift certificates to a local camera shop. I figured how hard could it be to take pictures of a few flowers? Right? Much harder than you would think actually. This time last year I believe I was wearing shorts and flip-flops, but this year I'm wearing jeans, tennis shoes and a combination of sweatshirts and jackets to combat the 40 degree weather. I actually had to drive to work in the snow last week. I just feel like this April is much colder than last year, and needless to say not much is growing, especially wildflowers.
I have known about the contest for almost a month now and I've just had to bide my time waiting for flower-growing weather. It finally got warm enough two weekends ago for things to think about starting to grow, and then it quickly got back down to freezing temperatures when Mother Nature said "Haha! Fooled you." Last weekend I went out to look for flowers, found absolutely nothing. Then during the week it was all rain, cooler or just nasty, not good for photography, weather. With the deadline drawing close I headed back out today with my dad to look for some flowers. By some miracle we managed to find two patches of flowers. The first was some measly group of about six small blue and white flowers. Honestly I am not even sure if they are wildflowers, but they were flowers. Then I also managed to spot a patch of small purple flowers, which I think are called common blue violets. I snapped a bunch of photos and now I need to pick two for my entries in case I can't get out to find more wildflowers.
First I'll show the little blue and white flower. Please let me know if this is a real wildflower and what the name is! I will post my top two picks of this flower first, then some more shots I have. I will only post the cropped versions, but the uncropped ones are on flickr if you would like to look at them all. I will also number them, feel free to comment and list your top two favorites.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
Next I will post the images of the common blue violet flower. Again I will post my top two picks first followed by all the cropped versions of the rest of my images.
Comment and pick favorites to help me make my decision. Also help me figure out what the first flower is. I need the names of the flower when I turn in my entries.
Finally spring is upon us. Today was in the high 60's, sunny and all around a fabulous day. I would have rather spent my time after work playing disc golf, but no one was around, and I don't exactly enjoy playing a round all by myself... so I headed back to Johnson Park to take some more pictures. I am very glad that I ended up doing that because I got some excellent shots.
There is a scenic drive that goes through the forest section of the park and that is where I was headed today. I went to that park one other time, but I had taken pictures along the riverbank, so I knew I had to go somewhere else. I was starting to get slightly tired of taking pictures in parks, I felt like I was running out of ideas. Today I got all kinds of lucky and took lots of shots that I'm very excited about.
I started out in aperture mode, but when looking at my first few images on the camera they seemed to be over-exposed so I went manual. This is only the second time I've done much playing around in manual. I understand all the settings well, but I'm slightly lazy and would rather just change shutter speed or aperture, instead of both... But it was a good experience today and I'm happy with the results.
I have little else to talk about, I just want to show off today's work.
Picture time:
[This is most certainly my favorite shot of the day. The color is just stunning. The imagery is pretty excellent as well. This is a flower or something I found growing right through the edge of this fallen and rotting log. Life from death I guess I could describe it if I wanted to get artsy.]
[Close up of the same plant. Below is it in black and white]
[This was odd plant I found along a small stream of water through the area. I've got a few more shots of this type of plant, along with one I found inside the stream]
[the stream]
[Cool downed log. I really liked the pattern of the bark, along with that little leaf that had landed on it. The third image is just the first one in black and white]
[Moss.]
[While walking the trail I saw some green in the woods, which is about the first time I've seen any new life while out taking pictures, so I had to get some shots. When I got up closer I found this plant along with the stem and head of a long dead flower. I just loved how it looked like it was part of the same plant, but it's really not. Just cool.]
As always the rest of my images from the day are on my Flickr account: Johnson Park Set
Generally I like to include funny things at the end of my blog, but today I will break away from the habit. Lately I have been listening to string quartets playing basically epic rock versions of compositions. I'm not exactly sure what to call the type of music, but I love it. Normally I would say that I dislike orchastra instruments because I find most orchestra music boring, but this stuff is, well, epic.
So enjoy these two songs: (second one is my favorite)
The fact that it is still cold out has really put a damper on my creativity. Since I like to take pictures outdoors and there aren't any flowers, leaves or anything green growing yet I'm left with trees and stumps basically. I don't quite feel comfortable enough to just wander around in downtown GR with my camera, or anywhere else where there would be lots of people. I would like to give light painting or night photography a try, but again it's pretty cold and I'd rather not be out late at night freezing my fingers off.
So in light of all that I went to yet another park on Sunday night. This park is actually a series of nature trials right next to a summer camp. I decided to go later at night in hopes that I could try sunset images again. Since I failed to scout out the park beforehand I quickly discovered that the park was next to a large valley which was taller on the other side and didn't make for the most impressive landscape. Also since it was a nature trail park there were many trees and it was difficult to get to the edge of the valley to get a picture or to get a shot that wasn't 99.9% trees.
While walking along the trails I did find one little tree/plant that's leaves had managed to hang on all winter. I had to get some pictures of this trooper.
The top two are my favorite, actually the middle one is because there is more contrast... But I also edited these two to make them black and white, also pretty excellent.
Now here is the sunset through the extremely large amount of trees in the park. Again, not the most impresive images but since I went out with the intent of getting sunset pictures I might as well include what I have, regardless of the level of not awesomeness that they are. The two silhouette ones are kind of cool, I like how you can notice the color changes in the sky... or at least what little bit of sky you can see through all those trees. The third image isn't the best, but the sunbeams are alright.
Lee was kind enough to tag along with me on Sunday to take these pictures. I'm glad he's willing to go, I feel less awkward taking pictures when I have someone with me. Maybe it's just because I like having someone to talk to. While we were walking along the trails we found a really big tree that had fallen over and while I was attempting to get some pictures of the unearthed roots (none of which turned out, bummer) Lee climbed onto the base of the tree. I told him he could stay up there and I'd take some pictures of him. We quickly found out one thing: I would never cut it as a model photographer. I've never really done portraits before so I didn't know how he should stand. When he asked me what to do, I just told him to do whatever he wants and I'll just take pictures. He then asked me if I should be saying things like "work it". I did say it, although I was laughing and I highly doubt that it was convincing. Needless to say I apparently need some work doing portraits and learning how to interact with the people I photograph. (If you want to be a victim of my attempted portraits let me know, I need the practice)
