Category: Macro

Wilderness Textures

Abstract Beauty of the Superstition Wilderness of Arizona

MichaelStephenWills22 Comments

These abstracts are some of my photographic output from four days and nights spent alone in the remote eastern Superstition Wilderness.  For the first three days I met not a soul, all these images were captured on a single afternoon spent in the canyon below Reavis Falls, a jumble of landslides, flood debris and boulders.  There is no trail.  The few people who enter the canyon must negotiate around boulders, crossing Reavis Creek many times.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

My backpack kit included a full sized Manfrotto studio tripod with hydrostatic ball head.  The benefits more than outweighed the effort (I was a lot younger in 2008) when the Canon EF 100mm (macro) lens is mounted on a  Kodak dSLR body, allowing me to take crisp shots.  The tripod legs can be adjusted to precise positions for stability.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

I can feel the bright afternoon desert spring sunshine in this photos.  It was after the spring floods, the flow of Reavis Creek and ample still but slow.  Gathering in pools over the rough stones of the creek bed, the water absolutely clear.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

I held the shot over many minutes, capturing ever changing diffraction patterns.

We see in all these photos, not a homogenous blend of stones from a shared geology.  Reavis Creek washes over diverse geologies: volcanic, ancient igneous extrusions, sedimentary and metamorphic are jumbled together.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

This is a series of photographs of smooth, white igneous boulders with shadows of  still leafless sycamore and cottonwood trees.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Graceful shadows

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Strong, demonstrative shadows.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A leaning cairn, not a trail marker….

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A 15 foot high jumble of stones piled at the bottom of Reavis Falls, carried over by the floods.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A metamorphic conglomerate stone….

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Another metamorphic conglomerate.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Please browse my reasonably priced stock photography. License a photograph, download and use it for your website or blog. Click this link to browse all my Getty IStock Photography offerings.

Or click this link or any photograph or this link to select a print with custom framing from my “Textures” Fine Art Gallery.

Here’s another of my Arizona wilderness adventures, “Racing the Sun.”

Cayuga Lake Bench View

Last Hike

A sllideshow

MichaelStephenWills26 Comments

Thank You for exploring the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls State Park on the last perfectly sunny autumn day of 2019.

A sunny November Walk

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • Autumn Oak Leaves, detail
  • Acorn Still Life
  • Chipmunk eating acorn
  • The Brink
  • The Why for the Bench
  • Welcome Summertime Shade
  • Left Behind or an Offering?
  • Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
    Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
  • Oak Leaves, forest floor
    Oak Leaves, forest floor
  • Understory Autumn
  • Hemlock Shadows
    Hemlock Shadows
  • Rock Elm, autumn
    Rock Elm, autumn
  • Glimpse of Cayuga Lake
    Glimpse of Cayuga Lake
  • Gorge View with Oak Leaves
    Gorge View with Oak Leaves
  • Glory on Gorge Road
    Glory on Gorge Road
  • Cayuga Lake Bench View
    Cayuga Lake Bench View
  • Taughannock Gorge, November
    Taughannock Gorge, November
  • Three Sisters, Taughannock Falls gorge wall.
    Three Sisters, Taughannock Falls gorge wall.
  • Into the Gorge
    Into the Gorge
  • Distant View with Hemlock
    Distant View with Hemlock
  • Oak and Hemlock
    Oak and Hemlock
  • Gorge Road, early November
    Gorge Road, early November
  • Upper Falls
    Upper Falls
  • South Rim Trail, early November
    South Rim Trail, early November
  • Last Flower with Moss, early November
    Last Flower with Moss, early November

Click me for the first post of this series, “Cuteness Break.”

Rock Elm, autumn

Rock Elm Autumn

MichaelStephenWills1 Comment

Taughannock Gorge south rim trail passes close to Gorge Road at one point. Rock Elm is an understory tree that comes into its own late autumn.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • Glory on Gorge Road
    Glory on Gorge Road

Rock Elm, autumn

November Star

MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

Elms thrive in the understory, turning late to catch autumn sunlight.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • Rock Elm, autumn
    Rock Elm, autumn

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Oak Leaves, forest floor

Leaf Carpet

A Natural Wonder

MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

Wednesday last I enjoyed shuffling along a forest carpet along the South Rim Trail of Taughannock Falls Park. It is a lost pleasure now the first snow is with us.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
    Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
  • Oak Leaves, forest floor
    Oak Leaves, forest floor
  • Understory Autumn

Photographs in Gallery

  • Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
    Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
  • Oak Leaves, forest floor
    Oak Leaves, forest floor
  • Understory Autumn

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Ironweed, late November

Views from the Bench I

No Pun Intended

MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Some sights from last post.

Moss on the edge of upper Taughannock Gorge cliff, with the falls in background far below.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • Moss on Cliff Edge
    Moss on Cliff Edge

The last flower of autumn, a single bloom of Ironweed.

  • Ironweed, late November
    Ironweed, late November

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

On the Edge

An Autumn Revalation

MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

After leaf fall abrupt emptiness of Taughannock Falls is visible from the south rim. Beyond, you can just make out the enormous carved limestone slabs that protect visitors from the constant infall from the gorge walls allowing them to approach the falls.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
  • The Brink

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Glowing Leaves

Holding On

MichaelStephenWills20 Comments

The oak holds tight to leaves, sometimes until spring when new growth pushes last year’s off. Here is a cluster on a bright November afternoon hanging above the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls Park of the New York State Finger Lakes Region.

  • Backlit Autumn Oak Leaves
  • Autumn Oak Leaves, detail
Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Autumn Mushroom

Moments from a September backpack

MichaelStephenWills26 Comments

A budding mushroom

Autumn Mushroom

among autumn leaf litter

along mountain shores

Peaked Mountain

Peaked Mountain and Pond, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, The Adirondacks

Click this link for my Online Gallery, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”

Copyright 2021All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Emerge II

Watch a Monarch butterfly leave the chrysalis

MichaelStephenWills12 Comments

For Father’s Day 2021 I received cages for raising Monarch butterflies. A large zippered door is a great feature, one side of the cage drops away for easier access and photography. Here are some photographs of the developing chrysalis and emergence.

In the first step of chrysalis development, the caterpillar climbs to a chosen location and weaves a silk pad from the abdomen. We are looking down on the caterpillar through the top of the woven material that forms our cage. The silk pad is a small white dot to the right.

Click photograph for a larger view and use Ctrl-+ (press down Ctrl, hold, then click plus sign repeatedly) to zoom in closer.

After the silk attachment pad is complete, the caterpillar releases itself to hang in a shape of the letter “J.”

The caterpillar sheds the outer skin as the chrysalis forms around it.

  • Four Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis.
  • Macro of the Monarch butterfly chrysalis. The black stalk attached to the silk pad is call a cremaster.

Just prior to emergence the chrysalis turns from opaque green to translucent Iappears dark). Here the wing pattern and body markings (white dots) are visible.

I used a Manfrotto tripod, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr (high resolution video capability) and Canon’s EF 100mm f/2.8 USB macro lens for the following up close coverage of a Monarch emerging followed by wing expansion.

Click me for better experience viewing the following video. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page. Note the replay icon (an arrow circling counter-clockwise.

Thank You for visiting. 

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved