May Showers, May Flowers
May 16, 2021
It felt like the rain was never going to let up. But it did, and we’ve had several sunny days lately. I made a few brief forays with the camera and one nice longish one, all in my neighborhood.
1 I found the sun and clouds in Heiser Pond the evening before a string of sunny days.
2 Last year people pulled out all the cattails they possibly could from Heiser Pond lest they totally fill the pond. This year, you’d hardly know it.
3 Hard to believe I’ve lived this long and never noticed red cones on a conifer before this spring. My resident botanist says this is a female spruce cone. the smaller brown cones are male. The red cones turn brown as they mature.
4 I didn’t have my camera with me when I saw these lady’s mantle leaves with beaded water. But I had my phone!
5 Evening light made me pay attention to this yucca plant and rock, which I pass almost daily without noticing.
6 A close crop reveals an interesting feature.
7 Our Wildflower Hill is adorned with dame’s rocket just now.
8 Solomon’s seal is blooming in my friend’s garden. That’s ajuga in the background.
9 More ajuga flanks some bedstraw.
10 I’d been trying for two weeks to get a half-decent photograph of forget-me-nots. The background was never right. Found these yesterday.
11 Same with this yellow rocket: never in the right place. Until yesterday.
12 Light hit this grass in just the right way yesterday morning.
13 This was the morning view across Island Pond. Later in the day I walked past the pond again and couldn’t pick out the no-longer-spotlit tree from all the surrounding ones.
14 Those of you who know I don’t photograph flowers may know I don’t photograph animals either.
Romancing Reality 
Fine set again, Linda!
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May 17, 2021 at 1:48 AM
Thanks again, Harrie.
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May 18, 2021 at 10:34 AM
Particularly like 4 and 14, Linda. 🙂
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May 17, 2021 at 3:12 AM
Good to know, Adrian. Thanks. The iPhones do a remarkably good job; It’s hard to imagine that the Z7 ii could have done a better job with the lady’s mantle. But I never would have gotten the rabbit without my new camera and its telephoto lens. Number 14 is a small crop. I am enjoying learning about this camera. Thank you for your enthusiasm about it, and thank you for prodding me to get out there more with it. It worked!
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May 18, 2021 at 10:35 AM
This is a fine collection and there are so many to like, Linda. You may not photograph flowers or animals but I think we are all glad you did this time. The bunny looking out from the grasses is captivating as is the Solomon’s Seal and Ajuga combination. For me, the star is the water-beaded Lady’s Mantle. Just an absolutely lovely composition and capture.
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May 17, 2021 at 3:47 AM
Thank you, Steve. Isn’t it amazing that two out of five (so far) followers pick the iPhone photo as a favorite? Still (see my reply to Adrian), the Z7 ii is very good to have.
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May 18, 2021 at 10:36 AM
I don’t expect to see rays of sun in a pond, so the first picture gave me pause.
It’s not clear to me which interesting feature you were referring to in 6.
In 12 and 13 ephemeral (back?)lighting made your subjects special.
So you don’t photograph flowers or animals—except sometimes you do. What accounts for your usual aversion?
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May 17, 2021 at 7:22 AM
In #6 I was referring to the curly fibers. Yes, I call it backlighting in #s 12 and 13. I’m not familiar with the term “ephemeral light,” though I can imagine its meaning. It’s not exactly an aversion to photographing flowers and animals. Ken Bello (oneowner) has written, “Flowers are great subjects because of their natural beauty, but the challenge for any photographer is to present that beauty in an interesting image, one that transcends its own beauty.” I would hold that the same applies to photographs of animals. Usually I don’t see a way to accomplish what Ken calls for. This time I thought I might have approached that ideal.
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May 18, 2021 at 10:37 AM
I didn’t mean ephemeral in any special photographic way, just in the sense of not lasting long. I understand why the curly hairs caught your attention in #6.
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May 18, 2021 at 10:55 AM
These are beautiful Linda. It is so nice to follow you as you follow the seasons!
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May 17, 2021 at 12:25 PM
Thank you, Clare. The seasons—maybe especially spring—change so fast! One week something is there; the next it’s gone and something new appears.
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May 18, 2021 at 10:38 AM
What a strong and beautiful set of images. I like them all and I love your careful compositions drawing out the best in each subject. That sounds almost like an obvious thing to say but I sense something very deliberate and careful in these. I started smiling at the first and kept going to the last. I’m tempted to comment on each individually but I’ll spare you from that. Rest assured these photographs made me very happy. Looks like you are getting to grips already with your new camera. Great stuff… 🙂
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May 19, 2021 at 5:29 AM
Thank you, Mr. C. I’m so pleased to have made you smile. Your comments are great incentive to keep going.
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May 19, 2021 at 9:38 AM
Ahh, this is so much fun for me to see, first because I appreciate your take on the world, second because it’s good to see you getting out and clearly enjoying the new camera, and third, because I enjoy the familiar sights of spring in the northeast – and midwest. 😉 The opening image has beautiful pewter tones; subtle and strong at the same time. The red cone is striking – I don’t remember those. It’s only recently that I paid enough attention to evergreens to notice male and female cones, too. The lime green tips of evergreens are so beautiful in spring, aren’t they?
I’m glad you included the Lady’s mantle photo – that’s the kind of thing that phones do really well. It’s another plant that’s grown very often in the eastern half of the country and grows well here, but I don’t see it very often. People in this area seem to focus on native plants, which is good for the environment but leaves many great plants out.
Great yucca closeup, nice to see both photos together. I have Dame’s Rocket in a vase now – I picked it on a roadside and just found out that it’s invasive. Too bad! Nice to see the other garden flowers, even the Bedstraw, so sweet. And yes, it’s really hard to photograph Forget-me-nots because the background is always too busy! You did it!
What you call Yellow rocket, I call mustard, and it’s all over the place here. 😉 I learned something – didn’t realize it was called Yellow rocket. The light spotlighting the grass and tree are a good pair of images and I love the text for the final photo! I’ll remember that! 😉
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June 4, 2021 at 12:14 PM
Although I was definitely noticing them, I didn’t say anything about the lime-green new evergreen tips. I’m glad they stood out to you, too. I almost didn’t include the lady’s mantle photo because the greens were so different from the others in this collection. I thought it might throw off the sequencing. I always struggle with what to include in a blog post and what not to include. It’s difficult to determine what fits and what could try the patience of viewers. I struggled again with the post I’m about to put up, wondering if I will be including too many photographs of, essentially, the same thing. (I’m going to go ahead and do it and see what, if any, reaction I get to them.) I’m so sorry to know that dame’s rocket is invasive; I didn’t check on it. I have two photos of that flower poised to go up on the next post. I’ll be sure to include that information. Ah, so you’ve had the forget-me-not experience, too. Thanks as always for your thoughtful comments, Lynn.
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June 5, 2021 at 12:02 PM
What to include, what no to include, how does everything work together? Yes, that’s always a puzzler and your posts don’t seem to suffer from images not working together. I don’t worry that much about patience because I suspect the attention spans are really varied – some people enjoy spending a lot of time with a post, others don’t. You can’t get it right for everyone. And too many of one thing? Sometimes having a few of one subject helps. Maybe Dame’s rocket isn’t invasive everywhere. 🙂 It certainly isn’t invasive in my kitchen where the bouquet is. 😉
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June 5, 2021 at 9:33 PM
Thanks, Lynn, for reminding me that you can’t please everyone all the time! Glad to know you don’t think my posts suffer from images not working together. I trust we can be forgiven for enjoying our dame’s rockets.
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June 7, 2021 at 8:55 PM
Magisch licht in je foto’s, een dikke Woow !
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June 12, 2021 at 5:54 PM
Hoe meer foto’s ik maak, hoe meer ik de kwaliteit van het licht waardeer. Bedankt voor je reactie, Dirk.
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June 15, 2021 at 9:21 PM