Tuliptree Blossom with Guest
Another Day at Work
Apis Workers' Party
Predator
Some of Your Beeswax
Sedum Bumbler
Look of Defiance
Chicory Bee
Bumbling Bees
Garden Cafe
Buzz By Here - To Infinity and Beyond
Pick Your Poison
Blind Side Attack
On a Mission
Honey Bee on Sedum
Covering the Cosmos
Center of the Cosmos
Three's a Crowd
Popular Spot
On A Pedestal
Big Harry Fireworks Display
To Impress the Girl
Different Perspective
Sweet Ride
Perfect Little Piggies B&W
Flipping the Light Fantastic
Festival of Flights
To the Crowd's Delight
Amish Go Round
Wondersome One
The Stars In Her Eyes
Tuesday's Child
Sleeper Hold
Considering the Next Move
Sugar and Spice
Front Porch Portrait
Caged Competitor
Early Adoration
Child In the Ligtht
Stroll Through the Weeds
Attention Grabbing
Eye Contact
On the Line
Eyes of Wonder
Rounding the Curve
Troubadours of Basin Spring Park
Down by the Creek
Sun Day
Catching Some Light
EAA Fireworks
Hear Me Roar
Forest
Mushrooms On Wood
On a hike through the autumn woods, I thought it was odd to find these mushrooms growing out of a fallen tree. (Or are they toad stools?) In any case, they intrigued me.
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Inclined to Fall
This fall scene was spotted in the waning days of a Wisconsin autumn…the days when more leaves were on the ground than on the trees.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Ending On A High Note
When this photo was made, most of the leaves in the forest had fallen. These red leaves were some of the last hold outs. Even though their days were numbered, they were making the most of their time…going out in dramatic fashion…in a blaze of red.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Mayapples In the Rain
We call these plants Mayapples. (Also known by many other names, as you can see below.) I snapped this view on a hike thought the woods, during a very light rain.
In early spring, these lush green umbrella-like plants can fill patches of the forest floor.
Here’s some information available on Wikipedia…
Podophyllum peltatum, commonly called Mayapple, or May Apple, (or hogapple, Indian apple, mayflower, umbrella plant, wild lemon (flavor of the fruit), wild mandrake, American mandrake (shape of rhizomes) or “devil’s apple” (used for Solanum linnaeanum elsewhere)), is a herbaceous perennial plant in the Family Berberidaceae, native todeciduous forests in of eastern North America. Like many other spring ephemerals, it emerges from below ground before the canopy of the forest opens, and then slowly withers later in the summer; the foliage is, however, somewhat more long-lived than other spring emphemerals such as Trillium.
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Meeting of the Ferns
This is an interesting study in natural design and form. These are bracken ferns in the early stages of their season. I found these on a recent springtime walk through the woods.
Like a flower blooming, these ferns uncurl upward and spread their fronds. In a couple of weeks, they will cover the forest floor with lush, green foliage.
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Emerging from the Darkness
Soon, the snow will fade from the forest floor and the trees will wake from their winter slumber and begin to sprout new life. These are early spring sprouts from a couple of years ago. I photographed them in a wooded area late in the afternoon, when a combination of light and shadow created a wonderfully dramatic effect.
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Crooked Spine Pine – 2013
FINALLY – We found it!! As you can see, this is a very unique tree. This tree has eluded me for years. Let me explain…
In 2006, while hiking on a trail through the woods, we came across this tree. It was in the middle of the trail, so we weren’t the only ones who’ve seen it. But I’m guessing most people didn’t look at it from the angle I photographed it, so they wouldn’t realize the cool curve of its growth.
I took a few photos of it. Sometime after that, I posted my best photo of the “Crooked Spine Pine” on Flickr. (That was before I had this blog.) It turned out to be one of the most popular photos I’ve ever posted. A number of people questioned its authenticity – accusing me of “photoshopping” it.
Back when I took the original photo, in 2006, I had a simple 5-megapixel camera. The photo of this tree was unique, but it really wasn’t a great image, technically speaking. Since then I’ve upgraded considerably.
For the last several years, I’ve been trying to find this tree again – to get better photos. However, I wasn’t sure exactly where it was. I thought it was at Potawatomi State Park, near Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. We spent a number of visits, hiking the trails looking for the tree. After having no success, I began to think maybe it was on a trail at Peninsula State Park, farther up Door County, near Sister Bay, WI. We had hiked trails and took photos at both parks. We also had to consider the possibility that the tree was no longer there – blown over in a storm or claimed by disease or insects.
We began to keep better track of what trails we had hiked on and in the process, we’ve hiked a lot of trails and even enlisted the help of friends, in search of this one tree. Recently, my wife and I spent a day hiking the trails at Peninsula State Park totaling about seven-and-a-half hours. No luck. So, maybe it wasn’t at Peninsula, but at Potawatomi.
Last Friday, Sara (my wife) and I decided to spend the day together. It was a nice day so we decided to hike the trails at Potawatomi State Park. We hiked the Hemlock Trail – about a two mile loop. While hiking, I noticed a spur off the trail and thought we should check that out some time. Hemlock turned back and we came along another spur that I thought might be the other end of the spur we passed earlier. We decided to head up that little stretch to see what was there and, low and behold, there was the tree.
In our search over the years, no doubt we had hiked the Hemlock Trail before, but never took that little detour. We were joyful to have finally located it, took photos, marked it on a trail map, took GPS coordinates. We will not have any problems finding it in the future. If you’d like to see it for yourself, hike the Hemlock Trail and take the bike trail in the northern part of the loop.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Earth Mover
This tiny mushroom shows extraordinary determination and strength, pushing up a comparatively large chunk of the forest floor to make it’s debut.
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Moss & Flames
On a hike through the woods, my eyes were drawn to this scene. Sunlight streaming through the trees illuminated a patch of moss growing on a decaying log.
What caught my eye was the little, bright red, hair-like plants growing from the green moss bed. The way the light hit it, it reminded me of little flames.
I wish you could have been there because I don’t think the photo does it justice. If you like to view a larger version (maybe that would help), just click on the photo.