Flowers
Slippers for the Lady
These are yellow Lady Slipper Orchids found growing wild at Potawatomi State Park in Door County, Wisconsin.
According to Wikepedia… Lady’s slipper orchids (also known as lady slipper orchids or slipper orchids) are the orchids in the subfamily Cypripedioidea. They are characterised by the slipper-shaped pouches (modified labellums) of the flowers – the pouch traps insects so they are forced to climb up past the staminode, behind which they collect or deposit pollinia, thus fertilizing the flower.
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Poppy’s Purple Passion
This time of year you’ll see me post a lot of flowers. After the long winter, they are hard to resist.
This is a close -up of the very first Poppy to pop in Sara’s flower bed. I took the photo two days ago and it’s already gone – the victim of a strong breeze. However, there are several others that have taken it’s place.
Poppies are some of our favorites. I suspect I’ll post more before the blooming is done.
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Dandy Among Daisies
I greatly enjoy Macro photography. I love looking at small things up close because you see so much that usually goes unnoticed. This flower is a perfect example.
Who knew the humble dandelion was so intricate and delicate and, dare I say, beautiful? I found this common dandelion in our yard by a clump of emerging daisies. (That white spot to the right of the dandelion is a daisy bud about to burst open.) I was surprised at what I saw when I brought the image up on the computer screen.
Get an even better look by clicking on the image.
Simple Pleasure
Here’s another wildflower from the forest floor. Delicate…simple…natural beauty.
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Behind the Scenes
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Often times, we “behold” obvious beauty and neglect to look further. I try to see beyond the obvious and look at subjects from different angles. I can spend a lot of time photographing a small flower like this – shooting above it, below it, one side or the other, and in this case, behind it – just trying to catch just the right angle.
Out of half a dozen or so images of this particular bloom, the shot from behind turned out to be the most appealing to me. From behind, the sunlight falling on the front of the flower gives it an iridescent quality from the back. From this angle you also pick up the very fine strands of spider web that would go unnoticed from the front.
Unrequited Love
This was a quirky combination. Start with new sprouts on this very young tree. Add it’s location; growing next to the one remaining strand of old barbed-wire fence. Top it off with some unusual light.
It was enough to make me stop, stare and snap. I thought it would work best as a high-contrast, monochrome image.
This is another image gathered while tromping through the woodlands not far from out home.
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Wild Yellows
As we tromped through the woodlands in search of morel mushrooms, these yellow flowers caught my eye. I found a couple pockets of them in a marshy area.
The late afternoon light was hitting them at the right angle to make them stand out.
Get a closer view by clicking on the image.
The Daffodil
Is there any flower so bright and perky as the Daffodil? One of the first to bloom…and whither in spring.
My good friend, Tood Lohenry, recently asked me why he couldn’t find any daffodils within my photo galleries. That was a good question. Last Saturday, I spotted some nice daffodils on someone’s lawn in Algoma, WI and snapped a few – photographically speaking.
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Love’s Vortex
“It is at the edge of the petal that love waits.” ~ William Carlos Williams
There is no other flower that so vividly conveys love, beauty and passion as a red rose. I can easily be mesmerized by the delicate symmetry of a well-formed rose. The swirl of this one’s petals seem to lure you, helplessly, into its center. I spent quite a while gazing upon it…and photographing it from every angle. This is the view I like most.
This is dedicated to the one I love…a woman most worthy of such beauty… my wife, Sara. We are celebrating 18 years of wonderful marriage. (No exaggeration. Ours is a match made in heaven. You will never encounter a more perfect marriage or solid love. I am greatly blessed!)
To see a larger version of the rose, just click on it.
Future Bleeding Hearts
New life is springing up all around our place…finally. I had stepped outside to snap a view of the sunset and, as I often do, just walked around our yard with my camera. The vibrant color of this new growth on the bleeding heart plants in our flower bed caught my eye.
Eventually the buds you see in the large photo above will produce flowers like the ones shown on the right.
For a larger view of the photo above, simply click on the image.