August 31, 2021

Macro Photography Practice (6 and 7)

August 31, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing my practice sessions…

The big difference in the 6th and 7th practice sessions was location; instead of my yard, I was at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant. The 6th session was in and around the Honors Garden before a volunteer training class. There were late season flowers that made good subjects. There are two bugs; for one the light was wrong…and the other I didn’t notice while I was in the field (accidently in the picture)!

The 7th session was in the meadow. There were plenty of late flowers and seed pods. I’d taken a collapsible stool with me. It worked well but the backpack I was using for my gear didn’t. Next time I’ll use my many-pocket vest. Backpacks are great for the hiking part but terrible when doing the actual photography. I found it easier to already have my camera on a sling strap. The macro lens and diffuser can be in the many pocket vest along with a water bottle. The stool can clip onto the vest too. My favorite images are the two chicory flowers. The blue-purple color is wonderful, the shapes in the central part of the flower look like stylized palm trees and the pollen looks like sugar crystals!

It was a very hot, humid morning in the meadow, and we didn’t stay long.

Making the bests of the time my husband was grumbling (and then heading back to the car), I used my position on the stool to take some zoomed images. The thistles had small insects in them…and the occasional skipper and butterfly. There was a milkweed pod that had split open, but the seeds were not spilling out yet.

The 7 macro photography practices session have been successful in acclimating me to the camera gear/configuration. Going forward – I’m adding a macro photography monthly post to my blog plan (keeping the zoom one too). The macro post will feature images that would be impossible to get via zoom!

Previous macro photography practice posts: 1 and 2 (includes gear); 3 and 4 (includes some indoor images); 5 (included Monarch chrysalis and increased magnification)

August 04, 2021

Vicarious Macro Photography

August 04, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

While I was on my road trip to Springfield, MO and Carrollton, TX – my husband started a macro photography project: handheld and in the field. I asked him to email me some of his initial results and was impressed with the collection he sent. I selected 4 to include in this post.

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His project started with a webinar and some new gear (some of which will fit on my camera too with the appropriate adapter). The blue-purple flower in the pictures is chicory. I expect we’re both going to enjoy macro photography forays well into the fall!

July 19, 2020

Scenic Drive 1

July 19, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I haven’t been driving much since February and everywhere I go is relatively close to home. I plugged my Prius Prime in after every trip and drove exclusively as an EV in the early months of the year. Then I stopped driving completely for almost 3 months. Here we are in July and I haven’t bought gas since January. I am realizing that I need to use up the gas before it goes bad. My solution is to take some scenic drives over the next few weeks. I found a map of scenic roads in the county where I live (here) to help me pick routes. My plan is to pick routes that will take an hour or so.

For my first drive – I picked addresses that were already in the navigation system of my car. I’d done several field trips to the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area.

That got me to the scenic Trotter Road. I stopped to get a picture of the entrance to the South Wind Trail. The milkweed was in full bloom. Its sweet smell wafted through the air. There was a tiger swallowtail on one of the plants. There were several cars parked near the trailhead and, in the nearby neighborhood, there were people out for morning walks and one person roller blading!

I set the next destination for Howard County Conservancy and picked the alternative route my navigation system presented that would take me via two other scenic roads: Sheppard Lane and Folly Quarter Road. I’d not driven that route before, and it was indeed scenic - a 2-lane road that followed the contours of the land. Chicory and Queen Anne’s Lace were blooming along the roadsides except where a huge house had been built and the wild plants had been replaced with mowed turf (not something I prefer any more). I also noticed a field of corn that had a stand of wild plants at a corner of the field that included milkweed! Hurray for a farmer than didn’t use herbicide!

When I turned into Howard County Conservancy, there was a family walking out along the road and more cars than I expected. I took a picture of the entrance sign as I drove out…thinking that I would start my scenic drive at HCC some future morning (and wear hiking clothes so I would have a longer stop).

Overall, it was a good first drive. The car gets excellent mileage to I didn’t use very much gasoline; there are a lot of scenic drives left on this tank of gas. They’re a low risk mood brightener as much as spending time outdoors on my deck/in my yard….part of the new normal in this COVID-19 pandemic time.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Corn-on-the cob. Last summer we grilled corn-on-the-cob with the shucks on our gas grill. That is not an option this year since we’ve used up the gas and haven’t figured out a low risk way to buy more. So – I decided to try it in the oven. I cut the ends of the silk and the wayward leaves off with kitchen scissors and put them in the 350-degree oven (no pan…just on the oven rack) for 30 minutes. I turned them at 15 minutes but that was probably not necessary. They were excellent! I cut the ends off and took the shucks/silks from the cobs. Both come off more easily after cooking! The corn was excellent eating. It didn’t have the char marks that it gets on the grill, but the flavor was the same. Now we have no pressure to buy more gas for the grill.

Zucchini bread. I made the zucchini bread with yellow squash - used chunky apple sauce for half the oil in the recipe - used up the brown sugar I had on hand rather than white sugar. Usually I make muffins, but my refrigerator is so full right now that I opted to use glass baking dishes that have lids that allow easy stacking. It won’t last long with my husband and I both enjoying it for our breakfasts.

January 23, 2019

Smartphone Nature Photography – part 1

January 23, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

We almost always have our smartphones with us….ready for those natural events that just happen and for planned photoshoots. I pulled together a presentation of a Maryland Master Naturalist retreat on the topic and am using it as a basis for the blog posts for today and tomorrow.

Gear

Learn about the camera in your phone. Two critical aspects: 1) Usually the autofocus is reasonably good but tapping on the screen where you want the focus to be can sometimes improve results. Do some experiments to see how close you can be and maintain the focus on your subject. 2) Realize that the zoom is digital – not optical. You are better off getting close to your subject rather than zooming. This is difficult if your subject is an animal that will move if you get close. Birds are notoriously difficult to photograph with a phone.

Consider a lanyard. I like to carry my phone on a lanyard (one that is structured to not obstruct the camera) so that I can be ‘hands free’ while I am hiking or rolling over logs…just doing regular naturalist things. I want my phone to be easy to access – easier than getting it out of a pocket or pack.

I enjoy using **macro lenses**. I have 3 different kinds (8x, 15x, and 60x) and tend to use the 15x clip the most. Sometimes I just have it on my phone so that I can move it over the camera as needed. The depth of field is very shallow with the magnification and the phone must be close to the subject. Practice the best stance to steady your hands. I find that tucking my elbows into my body helps….and using one had to hold the phone and the other to take the picture.

Examples of Smartphone nature photography

BioBlitz. Almost all the BioBlitz pictures are taken with smartphones or tablets. Sometimes we use hands for scale – and sometimes the macro lens gives a new perspective! These are pictures taken during BiobBlitz: spotted salamander, wooly bear caterpillar, milkweed.

Landscapes. The joy of being outdoors! Try to get something of high interest in the landscape: the trail as a leading line, clouds over the trees, an early winter scene with bare trees/large rock/pines.

Macro. The macro lens offers to many opportunities to observe more closely than you can observe with just your eye: clams filter feeding, the center of sunflower.

A chicory flower, a newly hatched Monarch butterfly caterpillar turning to eat its egg covering, and damselfly larvae.

A few minutes observing. I play a game with myself looking closely at one thing and taking photos as fast as I can over a short period of time. In this case it was a sweet bay magnolia. There were seed pods at several stages of development and some eggs under a leaf (maybe a leaf footed bug…if I was patient enough I could see what hatched but that was outside my time box).

(To be continued tomorrow…)

August 10, 2018

Morning Walk at Mt. Pleasant (part 2)

August 10, 2018/ Gwen Morrison

Today I’m focusing on the plants I photographed during my morning walk earlier this week at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant. The seed pods on the sweet bay magnolia are in all stages of development: from green to

Seeds bursting from the pod (I always think they look like red M&Ms) and then pods that are mostly empty and dry.

There are always chicory flowers after each rain. I liked the blurs of yellow and green behind this macro image.

Goldenrod is beginning to bloom. Goldenrod is one of the nectar plants for butterflies into the fall. People thought it caused their terrible fall allergies but now ragweed is said to be the primary culprit.

There was Queen Ann’s Lace in the meadow as well. It’s always interesting to me how different a plant appears in the macro view.

As I hiked along the narrow path near the stream there was a young sycamore that had leaves that were beginning to lose their chlorophyll for fall. The leaves were backlit so I took some macro images to show the changes.

There are still new leaves being unfurled on the tree too; this one was about the size of a dime.

Thistles are not very friendly looking! Too many prickles.

Bind weed is an occasional plant in the meadow. The flowers always look like they have little pleats.

This mint flower – taken from above with the macro lens – was coated with morning dew.

Dandelions are always attention getters. They look a bit like bursts of fireworks…or yellow streamers.

Even the clovers that are usually not noticed have a unique beauty seen through the macro lens.

Do you recognize mile-a-minute? It’s an invasive plant that grows very quickly and has wicked thorns.

And now for the Pokeweed. The ones I photographed were still blooming and the fruits that were formed were still green. They’ll turn purple later…and the stem will be bright pink. I’ll remember to photograph the plants through the fall to track their development.