What happens to the time?

Spring has sprung in Ohio and it's time to start some fieldwork after a busy semester. I'll be starting my work in the southeastern states this year. I've neglected the penstemons east of the Mississippi for far too long. Here are a few glimpses of wildflowers in bloom this week in Ohio (plus a moss sporocarp portrait).  All of these photos were made at Clear Creeks Metro Park.

Fire pink (Silene virginica) - a beautiful red flower that catches one's eye in the forest.

Conopholis americana (squawroot) - a holoparasitic plant in the family Orobanchaceae. This is related to Hyobanche - the holoparrasite I study in South Africa. Conopholis is a root parasite that obtains all of its food, water, and minerals from its host plant - oak.

Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida)

Polytrichum ohioense - sporocarps.

Puddles can be lovely

As I was leaving Mudhen Marsh last Sunday, I saw these tufts of grass in a puddle. I'm a sucker for symmetrical reflection imagery, so I made this photo to remind me of the lovely morning spent birding and chatting with friends.

Early morning serenity in monochrome

Hoover Reservoir this past Sunday morning. The beginning of a lovely spring day. Usually I like to post color photos, but the geometry of this image was very suitable for black and white processing. I use Adobe Lightroom with Silver Efex Pro 2 for my monochrome processing.

Shale Hollow Preserve - a nice park in Delaware County

A few weeks ago, Steve and I had a chance to visit a park we've not been to before. It's called Shale Hollow Preserve and it's just a little north of Highbanks Metro Park. There is some lovely scenery and a nice trail to walk. It's open to pets, so we'll like return there to walk the dogs sometime in the near future. Here's a photo of some shale in the creek.

Nature studies series: Winter beech leaves

Shale Hollow Preserve in Delaware County. Steve and I visited this park for the first time last weekend. The forest has a lot of young beech trees, which hang onto their leaves through the winter.  The landscape this past weekend was a study in grays and browns, but I like the contrasts for these gentle winter shades.

Pickerington Ponds

Pickerington Ponds, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Snow + teasel = a lovely study for winter. We continue with our very cold snap with snow and ice making walking a bit of a hazard. The roads, at least the main ones, are clear, but sidewalks are neglected.

Time to harvest Jesse's fruits

Time to harvest Jesse's fruits, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

We've come full circle on the life cycle of our second Titan Arum to bloom at the Ohio State University Biological Sciences greenhouses. Jesse bloomed May 25, 2012. We pollinated with pollen from two different titan arums, and it worked beautifully well. The fruits are ripening, and the uppermost ones are ready for harvesting.


I documented the growth of the inflorescence and the bloom with this time-lapse video:

Maple leaf study

Maple leaf study, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Autumn is here with the low light angle, fallen leaves, cool temps, and all the things I love about the season. It's a good time to do nature studies.

Teasel

Teasel, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Another sure sign that summer is over and autumn is upon us. During the summer these were lovely thistles in shades of blue and purple. Now they look as if someone has come along and twisted the bracts into elaborate sculptures.

Seeds in a pod

Seeds in a pod, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Spotted at Glacier Ridge Metro Park last Sunday evening. Legumes have dry fruits that dehisce along their length in order to disperse their seeds. This is as classic an example as I've seen in a long time.

Worm tracks

Worm tracks, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Worm is really not the correct term, but it sounds better than beetle larvae tracks.... Spotted at Inniswood ....

Alpine flower

Alpine flower, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

aka a DYC (damned yellow composite) from the alpine zone of Mount Kocsiuzko in Australia. It reminds me of an everlasting, but I've no idea what the genus is.

Lake Cootapatamba

Lake Cootapatamba, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This small alpine lake is at the base of Mount Kosciuszko, and has the distinction of being the highest lake on the continent of Australia. The color of the water changes by the minute with the different reflections of a volatile sky in the alpine zone of the Snowy Mountains. I want to go back there.....

Euphrasia

Euphrasia, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

This lovely plant is a parasitic one - part of the Orobanchaceae I've studied for so many years. The alpine zone of eastern Australia is a hotspot for this group, and I was thrilled to see three different species while Steve and I hiked up to Mount Kosciuszko last March.

Tomorrow's Promises

Tomorrow's Promises, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Another evening prairie picture. This sunflower inflorescence was close to opening. I really liked the detail of the young bracts and ray flowers.

Portrait of a thistle

Portrait of a thistle, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

I hope you're not tired of my photography by now. I've not had time to be in the shop much since the AAW symposium. I've actually turned a small bowl and a lidded vessel, but I've not done the follow-up work on surface enhancement. I probably won't get time for that until after the Dublin Irish Festival (first weekend of August).

So, this is a recent photo of a thistle that I processed in black and white using Silver Efex Pro. The color version is lovely, but the black and white portrait brings out detail that would be lost in color. I really like the dramatic presentation of the flower in this setting.

What do you think?

Pokeweed

Pokeweed, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Photographed in Whetstone Park of Roses prairie. I don't usually see the flowers on this plant. We have plenty of these humongous weeds growing in our weed bed in the back yard. That's the price one pays for feeding the birds, I suppose.

Summer time in the prairie

Gray-headed coneflower, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

Since I've not had time to be in the shop and have no new pics of work in progress, I'll continue posting some of my recent photos. This is Ratibida pinnata, or, Gray-headed coneflower. It's one of the dominant plants at most of the prairie remnants scattered throughout Ohio. This one was photographed at a restored prairie plot at Whetstone Park of Roses.

I love the bokeh and I specifically framed the flower to be surrounded by the yellow flowers in the background. I used f/5.6 and made sure the flower was well isolated from the background to bring out the soft bokeh that reminds me of a painting.

Beauty in simplicity

Clover, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

The common clover is usually overlooked unless you happen to be walking through a lawn while barefoot and you step on a bee. The last time that happened to me was when I was in third grade. The resultant reaction led to me being tested for a bee sting allergy. Seven years of allergy shots later, I now only have a mild reaction, but I still carry an Epi-pen.

My mother was pretty shocked years ago when she found out that I regularly go nose-to-nose with bees while doing fieldwork. I figure they won't bother me if I'm not interfering with their foraging activities. That holds for most species of bees, but not all. I've been pretty fortunate thus far.

Salmonberry

Salmonberry, originally uploaded by andiwolfe.

This was one of my favorite photos from last week's west coast trip. The early morning sun caught little flowers or fruits in these amazing pockets of light. This salmonberry was one such capture.