Big Picture, Little Picture

Summer has been so beautiful here.   Temperatures have been perfect, some gorgeous calm, foggy mornings and occasional storms to keep the water coming.

My days usually begin by either chasing wild flowers or dragons in the meadows, or finding that iconic summer landscape.  

A few weeks ago I found myself in a nearby gorge trying to find some sunrays in the foggy gorge.  After waiting for about an hour, I was about to call it quits, without seeing any dramatic light.  Nature rewarding my patience with a spectacular light show for the next 30 minutes.   It was fun to chase the light in the gorge and try to find some compositions for the camera. 

For the last several weeks, I've been out most mornings trying to find some beautiful dew covered dragon flies. 

Along with find the dewy dragons, I've captured some beautiful summer blooms and a dewy butterfly and praying mantis.

Insects in the Valley

Day three of my five day blog postings.   This one highlighting some insects I've photographed.

Maybe the most rewarding part of macro photography is capturing the subtle beautiful of small creates we really don't see too often in nature.    Enjoying these small creatures is always a treat - except mosquitoes!!!

Here are some non-mosquito insects I've enjoyed lately.

Very few insects fascinate me as much as dragon flies.   This images is a newly emerged common green darner.  

Here is a painted skimmer on a dewy morning in the Kendall Lake area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

A small mayfly from the same Kendall Lake area.  

These are probably my favorite dragon fly - the calico pennant.   They have such beautiful markings along with being just a fun species to watch around lakes and ponds.   This image is from the Indigo Lake area of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

 

 

One of the most ferocious hunters in the insect world - the praying mantis.   This one was very young and maybe 1 1/2" long.   When they are this young, they stay well hidden amongst the grasses of the fields they live in.    With it being as dewy as this one was, it was a bit easier to photograph. 

That concludes my insect finds over the last few weeks.  

For tomorrow and day four of the blog updates, we take a departure from nature photography and showcase the beautiful Akron Civic Theatre. 

Spring Landscapes

Continuing with my blog marathon - five blogs in five days, here is day 2 - spring landscapes.

I tried to combine some large wild flower displays with the landscapes the blooms are found in.   Let's start out with the largest display of wild flowers I know of - the beautiful Virginia bluebell display.

For almost as far as the eye can see, some areas along Furnace Run present a carpet of bluebells. 

From the Poland Woods city park in Poland Ohio, this display of sessile trillium completely surrounded this old tree.  

From Poland Woods park again, the underappreciated skunk cabbage.   This display is after the flower has bloomed and the huge elephant ear leaves help the plant absorb nutrients to last them the remainder of the year.  

A mini landscape showcasing the environment where the Ohio State wild flower (white trillium) flourish - Wordens Ledges in Cleveland Metro Parks Hinckley Reservation.

A nice wider landscape style view of an impressive number of trout lily in the Hinckley Reservation of the Cleveland Metro Parks.

Another impressive display of Virginia bluebells can be found at the Hemlock Creek Picnic area of the Cleveland Metro Parks.

Now to take you to a different type of landscape - the beautiful Brecksville Marsh in the Cleveland Metro Parks.

I'll leave you with a beautiful sunrise from Indigo Lake in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

So those are some of the landscapes I've captured over the last few moths. 

For tomorrow, day three we'll look at some of the insects that have shared some time with me over the last few months. 

Five blogs in five days

Hi again,

I'm ashamed to realize it has been 3 months since I shared a blog with you.   Please forgive me. 

As a reward for your patience, how about we get caught up with five blogs in five days?    I'll get you caught up on some of my photography adventures this spring and early summer with a blog posting each day for the next five days. 

Let's revisit the spring wild flowers from April.

One of my favorite spring wild flowers are the beautiful trout lily.    This display was captured in the Rocky River Reservation of the Cleveland Metro Parks.

Keeping with the trout lily images, here is one from Hinckley Reservation of the Cleveland Metro Parks.

Here is the state wild flower of Ohio - the white trillium.   This one from Brecksville Reservation of the Cleveland Metro Parks.

Another white blossom from the Brecksville Reservation - this one is the delicate rue anemone.

Part of the daffodil family, the fragrant jonquils are a annual spring treat both to the eyes and the nose.

One of the more exotic looking spring blossoms is blue cohosh.   These blooms are from the Furnace Run area of the Summit Metro Park.

This early bloom is the exotic looking Dutchman Breeches down in the Brandywine Gorge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

We'll conclude the blog with an under appreciated wild flower - the marsh marigold from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Tomorrow we'll examine some of the landscapes I've captured over the last few months. 

Passing the Photography Time

Well it has been a quiet month for me in photography.   I was commenting to my photography friend Jeff Gibson that this may have been my longest, and least active use of photography in many years.

With that said, Jeff and I ventured out to enjoy sharing a morning with the local Blue Heron colony along Bath Rd.    

A fun morning to be out and watch the nesting birds.    But I have to admit that I'm very anxious for the wild flowers to start popping.    Signs are very good for this weekend to start the annual chase of the ephemeral beauties. 

Cold Winter Survival

Winter is hitting us this year with ferocity.   Temperatures going down to -10 F (-23 C) have been with us on occasion. Entire weeks of temperatures well below 32F (0 C) have been common. 

This puts a strain on the wild life and creates unique photographic opportunities.  In the national park by my home, the river that runs through the heart of the park will still have open water flowing.   At these frigid temperatures, the warmer water vaporizes as it hits the much colder air and a frozen mist clings to trees, surrounding landscapes and the poor wildlife that use the river as there home. 

These are normally a very annoying bird in our area (Canadian Geese).  But during these frigid mornings, I have sympathy for there endurance and survival.   They hardly want to move and they hover around the open areas of the river as protection from predators. 

During one of these frigid mornings, I spotted one of the birds that was struggling with trying to remove a large block of ice that was literally frozen to its foot.

It struggled and given the temperatures it was unlikely this ice block was going to fall off anytime soon.   This hardship can hamper the bird from avoiding predators or moving easily.   Its chances of survival are diminished.    

It is a harsh reality check to see the conditions the wildlife endures during our cold winter.  I will not complain about being cold when I think of the animals surviving in the cold winter.

Favorite Images from 2013

A good photography friend of mine from France (Kristel Schneider) recently published a fun blog from her photography efforts in 2013 entitled:

12 Favorite Photos of 2013

 

Her photo work is very beautiful and inspirational for myself.   Well worth looking at her work and visiting her web site :

Visions and Nature - Photography by Kristel Schneider

Inspired from Kristel's beautiful images, I decided to put my favorites from 2013 for others to see.   Some of these I have posted in my blog and some you may not have seen.

So here are my favorites from 2013.

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Landscapes

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wildlife 

 

 

 

 

 

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  Macro

 

 

 

 

 

 

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For those who have been counting, that is twelve images.   Well I just couldn't stop at 12, and we just had the year 2013 come to a close, so I thought it would be appropriate to have a BONUS 13th image.   This happens to be maybe my favorite landscape that I photographed in 2013:

 

 

 

 

Wishing all of you a joyous, prosperous and loving 2014!!!!   Cheers to nature and more images to share.