My plan is to pack a bag with cheese, some lovely fresh berries, challah bread, a good-sized grubby blanket, a book, a large container of bubble mix, and a bubble wand and head to somewhere that I can feel the sun on my face.
Who knows what’ll happen next.
What’s your plan?
Russell is a plant geek that works for the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and while not technically a total stranger to me, I couldn’t resist this photo of him in his element.
This photo is #5 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at Flickr 100 Strangers or www.100Strangers.com
The swift and secretive fence lizard is said to be very common in the Pines, but this is the first one I’ve ever managed to see…
Of all the crazy places I’ve been birding… sewerage treatment facilities, nuclear power plants, landfills… this takes the cake, I think.
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And mostly we were looking for wildflowers.
(And not ever in the target range, at least I don’t think so!)
Photo from the Warren Grove Gunnery Range in the heart of the pygmy pine forest of the NJ Pine Barrens.
The really nice breezes blow through my body and into my soul. ~Astrid Alauda
There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind. ~Annie Dillard
Forget not that the earth likes to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~Kahlil Gibran
I listen to the wind, the wind of my soul. ~Cat Stevens
The sky and the strong wind have moved the spirit inside me till I am carried away trembling with joy. ~ Uvavnuk
More from the flower show in Philly:
I do a lot of playing with my camera and I make a lot of mistakes… probably those two necessarily go together. Once in a while though, something cool happens, as if by magic.
I know… the key to making that magic happen all the time is understanding and actually applying the science behind photography.
I’m only just learning to use the camera outside the comfort of automatic mode… I like portrait mode best, for its shallow depth of field, but the challenges of working outside of automatic, with aperture priority, sometimes feel too much like a math test that I forgot to study for and I just want to make a pretty picture, you know?
😉
Add to the equation the vagaries of ISO and shutter speeds and trying to take pictures of things with wings and BLECH!! Any sense of creativity and fun is lost for me. I guess I’m mostly interested in the magic, when it happens… the mystery of the process makes photography very compelling (and intimidating!) for me.
So anyway, a little at a time I’m forcing myself to use what I understand about f-stops and all that crap… and I’m deleting dozens and dozens of photos as I learn, but celebrating the magic when it happens.
About the flower display, called Global Terrain, the artist’s statement reads: “The way land and sea are represented and form the texture of maps — inspired this unique display. Multiple vases and arrangements of thistle, delphinium, baby’s breath, trachilium and other plant varieties are used to replicate the look and feel of these three-dimensional depictions of the world.“
I’ve only focused on a couple small parts of the display here… but Steve has a pic of the overall effect… it was really breathtaking, yet sadly difficult to photograph well, I think.
The Philadelphia Flower Show opened today for the winter-weary among us. Flower shows probably aren’t my thing, but it’ll be at least 6 weeks before anything is blooming in the woods here and I was desperate!
Longish bills, pale bellies, dark wings, chunky birds… um… um… dowitchers?
I really have no clue and know better what they’re not, which doesn’t help much.
St Marks NWR held a fair number of shorebirds which I mostly ignored in favor of the ducks – no surprise there! Shorebirds are just baffling and I’m almost at the point that I’m ready to tackle them, but don’t know where to begin. I have probably all the books, but wonder if someone can recommend which of them is best.
