during New York PAUSE for COVID-19
I spotted this sign May 5, 2020 on the way to Fillmore Glen New York State Park.
Stopped on the way home to document this message.
Click photograph for larger image. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Happy Mother’s Day
Here is a project completed for a “Fundamentals of Photography” refresher course. The task is to use a variety of lenses of my choice to document scene from my surroundings. These photographs document a family heirloom, mouse figurines collected by my wife, Pam’s, mother, Patricia Crist, assembled by Pam into two display cases with assorted figures created by Pam’s daughter, Denna.
Eranthis hyemalis
A fellow blogger, Audrey Driscoll’s Blog, provided the correct and exact species name for the post “Wildflowers Late Winter / Early Spring.” The posts are updated. Thank You, Audrey.
Unexpected Beauty
Coronavirus is raging this March 20th (I schedule posts several weeks ahead now), on this day of our anniversary, easy for me to remember falling close to or on the Spring equinox. Earliest spring flowers were up for a week when I spied this group of crocus blooms on a hill. We do not remember them being there, so I called Pam to enjoy them.
These are extra special, Pam’s parents planted them years ago. The above images are the same photograph. On the left, white balance is set to “cloudy.” At the time, late afternoon, the sun was behind low clouds, providing back light. Perfect lighting for flowers, which is why I interrupted springtime yard cleanup to run inside for the camera.
My intent was to increase the f-stop to over 20 for the following photograph. Metadata on the photograph shows I was only successful in increasing it from 5 to 5.7. ISO was increased from 100 to 400. There was an intermittent breeze and my intent was to avoid blur.
In retrospect, I neglected to change to Aperture mode so any change to F-stop I made was reset. This is a beginners mistake, so photograph turned out well. The colors are richer in the f/5.7 shot.
An abrupt emptiness
Here is the east side of the inner enclosure wall of Dun Aonghasa (Dun Aengus) where it ends at a cliff edge over the Atlantic ocean.
Visible are the last 60 feet or so of the limestone strata supporting the inner ring.
When first constructed, the inner ring was complete, the western side 1,000 feet from the cliff.. Today’s form of a semi-circle was created by nature when the force of Atlantic Ocean waves eroded the cliff, undercutting the strata.
Look close to see a fracture where the next block of limestone will fall into the waves.
Wishing a blessed All Saints Day (November 1st) for all my readers.
Reference: wikipedia Dún Aonghasa, Sea Campion
from Asia by way of Germany
Thank you to the readers whose thoughtful responses appeared these past two days. Pam and I were caring for two grandchildren and, last evening after their Mom picked them up, I sat down with “The Botanical Garden” by Phillips and Rix, Volume I (2002, Firefly Books, Buffalo, New York and Willowdale, Ontario) and a sprig of the leaves and flowers and narrowed the choices to the genus Weigela of the family Caprifoliaceae.
Native to Asia (China, Korea, northeastern Siberia, and Japan), it was cultivated in France in the late 19th Century and is popular in cold climates, where it does well. These plants have been outside the kitchen window of our home for as long a Pam can remember (back to the 1960s).
I don’t know the exact species, it may be a hybrid of several. What identifies it is the overall growth pattern (tall, though we prune it down so the kitchen window view is not obstructed), the leaves (shape, come in pairs on opposite sides of the branch, tip is pointed and edges have teeth), the flower (tubular, 5 petals, 5 stamen shorter than the petals, 1 simple style with a capitate stigma). “Capitate” means it is round and on top of the style like a head. “Style” is an extension of the ovary though which fertilization by pollen happens. Ours is not fragrant, though some are.
Weigela is the family name of a early professor of Botany (and Chemistry, Pharmacy, Mineralogy) for the university town of Greifswald on the Baltic Sea. There is a botanic garden and arboretum associated with the university and, I suppose, a specimen of the plant was collected for the garden where it is scientifically characterized by the professor.
Second element of the same object from last week, see “The Fang?”
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 