Friday, April 06, 2012

Friday Ramble - First Blooming

 Sharp-Lobed Hepatica
(Hepatica acutiloba)
Seek and ye shall find wild sylvan riches in springtime... Although it is still quite cold here, yesterday, we discovered the first hepatica of the season, a single tiny cluster of buds swaying to and fro in a sunny protected nook on the granite wall in the gorge. Within a week, the entire forest floor will be carpeted with these tiny delicate flowers in shades ranging from snowy white to deep violet blue.

Tucked in behind the hepatica was a minute striped specimen of its favorite woodland companion, Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), and soon there will be millions of these in the woods too.

As always, there is a measure of wisdom to be gleaned in these springtime rambles.  Even the finest macro lens is no match for a puckish north wind dancing through wildflowers no larger than a pea, and one has to learn how to make the April wind part of the image.  I  have a long long way to go...

1 comment:

Loren said...

My problem is that I don't have enough strength to carry all the lenses and cameras that I need to capture the beauty I find in the woods.

It's really tough taking pictures of small flowers with a 560mm lens, but even harder to take bird pictures with a 55mm lens.

Needless to say, I love these images/