Sunday, September 25, 2011

This and That from the Woods, Part TWO

I love the fact that you never know what you will find
when you go out for a trip in the woods
to take photographs.

I like to think of it as one gigantic nature treasure hunt.


Like these awesome seed pods after the blooms were all gone:







Scanning the plants with my macro lens, I literally JUMPED back when it caught THIS in the lens!:
(I have NO idea what kind of spider he was...and I didn't hang around to investigate!!)






And a little while later?  I saw THIS GUY!:
(It must have been "bug surfing day" on the pond with the lily pads!)




We came upon a pond.
As usual, my hubby stops the truck a little ways up from the pond and I get out and quietly walk up to the ponds with my camera in hand...
just in case there is wildlife in the pond.

Sure enough!
A duck!!!
But he spooked right away and took off flying:























These little white wild cala lilies
only stay in bloom for about a week...
We specifically went out to see if they were in bloom that day, and luckily they were:







A thimbleberry blossom:
By now, all the berries have formed and already are over.....






I also love sneaking up on turtles for photos.
They are particularly hard to capture as they detect vibration, noise and movement very easily
and will often jump in the water before I even get my lens up.

But that day, and he didn't hear me:

So, I considered it a lucky day to see all of this in one trip.

Besides...
we packed a picnic lunch and sat in the sun, out in nature, just enjoying life....
feeling very fortunate to be retired, feeling great, enjoying each other's company
and blessed to live in such a gorgeous area of serenity.

I  would have been happy even if we couldn't find the above subjects to photograph.
(But, somehow, I don't believe that I wouldn't have found SOMETHING to photograph! You know ME!)

12 comments:

  1. there is always always something to capture with our lens. the sweet little umbrellas in the first shot, like something blew the skins off. beautiful macro. the turtle reflection is awesome and perfect. that first spider looks like it might be one of those that JUMP, yikes and the one on the lily pad I have seen them floating on ponds on top of the water and sometimes we have spiders in our pool, YIKES again. i yell for hubby to come kill the ones in the pool since i don't want to get close. but i do have to say both spider shots are super

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  2. I can't imagine you not being able to find something to photograph! ;)
    Love the shots of the duck taking off and the basking turtle. You even make seed pods interesting. :)

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  3. I think the spider has lovely eyes. Glad you had such a nice day and then shared it with us.

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  4. The ducks and flowers are lovely, but the spiders, not so much!

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  5. Sounds like a perfect day. These photos are all so beautiful!

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  6. love the peacefulness in your photos. and i have a post scheduled for tomorrow morning with a beautiful spider on a leaf too! :)

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  7. WOW!! What you describe is a perfect day,together with the one you love.Oh how I miss those days. Thanks for sharing all this beauty.

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  8. we use to run from spiders, now we photograph them!!

    my husband told me today that i have to wear a blindfold in the car...so we can get where we are going!!

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  9. Awesome photos ! Your photography always amazes me !

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  10. The cala lily is most unusual in it's style. I can understand you jumping back when you saw that spider... I think I would have run a mile. Beautiful pictures, all of them.

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  11. Such beauty and you know how to capture it so well. BRAVO on the skimming duck photo, perfect timing.

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  12. Love your shots of the duck lifting off, those are cool. Great macros of the spiders. I have done that too, been looking through the lens and suddenly realize the spider looked really BIG!

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