Chickory. August 1, 2011
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: chickory, corn flowers
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…Or Corn Flower, if you will:
I like both the structure and the color of this elegant wildflower.
Morning On The Deerfield. September 19, 2010
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: autumn foliage, birch log, chickory, deerfield river, Frau B, reflections, sunrise, tilt-shift photography
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Frau B. and I got up before dawn on Saturday to try for some “Sunrise on the Deerfield” photos.
Turned out that the sunrise was a good deal less spectacular than it might have been, but the location where we set up was still productive.
The river was low enough for me to ford it at a thigh-deep rapid, and with a full compliment of camera gear on my back, the swift water provided something of an adventure. I used a piece of “beaver wood” as an upstream support and crossed tripod-style to the rocky shallows on the opposite side, arriving dry and jazzed, thanks to a pair of felt-soled hip boots I’d thought to bring along.
With the sunrise fizzling, we turned our attentions to details closer at hand. I found these chickory blossoms curling inward against the cool mists of morning, and with the time pressures of an exploding sunrise removed, took the time to set up Elliot at an eight-degree tilt. I tweaked the angle to get a decent focus from about a foot on the right to the distant skyline at center left:
Mists rose from the upstream waters as Mount Todd appeared and disappeared in the clouds rising through the steeper valley upriver from us.
The trees here have begun their seasonal transformation to Technicolor, and though the shoreline foliage has a long way to go to “peak,” an occasional scarlet leaf can be found drifting down river or clinging to anything which emerges as the dam-released water drops, in this case a birch log:
I dug the reflection in that scene enough to look for more of the same, and discovered that the so-so sky looked more intense in this reflecting pool:
Things were still enough in this shot to use my 16-35mm L-series lens, one of my favorites. A long (several seconds) exposure gave me enough depth of field to capture both the reflected clouds and a very distant Frau B (opposite bank center, in a green shell jacket.)
All in all, it wasn’t a wasted trip despite the uncooperative sun.
A later post will show you this river in a much different light. 😉
A Day In The Life. July 24, 2010
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: chickory, cornflower, cows and corn, frogs, hayfield, river fog, summer heat, sunset, water lily
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It’s been hot and steamy here of late, both day and night. I’ve been getting home from work drenched and filthy with concrete dust. It’s about all I can manage through my torpor to take a shower, have some dinner and lie naked in front of a fan ’till sleep comes.
So it’s been a while since I’ve felt much like photo-hunting, much less blogging; my apologies to those of you who come here regularly.
Nonetheless I have gotten a few shots, here cobbled together to represent the best of this stretch of summer.
Hope you like them.
Morning fog on the Deerfield river:
Cattle grazing under an interesting sky:
A cornflower (chickory) blossom echoes the clean colors of a July sky:
Two little frogs waiting for their lunches to be attracted by a pond lily:
A gibbous moon rises over a cornfield in mid-afternoon:
Cumulus clouds over a hayfield at dusk:
A fiery sunset:
And finally, last light reflected in a Windsor bog:
I’m looking forward to autumn and a full resumption of shooting and blogging.
Chickory. August 1, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: chickory
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Although I gravitate to the little things in nature, I’m an easy mark for the bigger things which exhibit some less common trait. To my eye, Chickory fits that bill – although it grown chest high in this area, its individual blossoms are spectacular in their simplicity:
There’s a purity of form to this flower, a simplicity of line and clarity of color which captivates me every summer.
Here’s a crop which illustrates what I mean:
There’s something about this flower’s structure which evokes urbanity. Perhaps it’s the echo of flourescent “black light” tubes from my wilder past; perhaps it’s the rectilinearity of its stamens, exploding radially with a conviction seldom found in us “higher forms.” Perhaps it’s its color, pure to the eye but not easily described.
These were abuzz with life, sating the thirst for nectar of all manner of flying things. Honey bees abounded, but they moved on so quickly that I couldn’t get a shot of one. The little flies, however, lingered longer, and my big brother, God bless him, enticed one to sit on his knuckle while I immortalized it on e-celluloid:
This little bugger’s well dusted with chickory pollen. Thank you, little fly, for doing your part to keep the world turning.
Chickory. August 9, 2008
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: chickory
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A common roadside weed in Western Masschusetts, tall and wispy, and in summer laced with simple blue blossoms:
Easy to miss from a passing car, harder to ignore as you walk among them, irresistible if you’re a bee:
Namaste.
Little Bang Theory 