Woody Peony and Honeybees, 50 mm

The bees happily rolled around among the stamens, notice their full pollen sacs.

Like the previous year, spring 2022, though cold, is early. As I write this the peony blooms presented here, photographed May, 2021 are seeding. Every year, Pam and I marvel at the color. 2019 this peony was in full bloom only by the end of May, around Memorial Day.

These photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr, and the Canon EF 50 mm f/1.2L USM lens stabilized with the Manfrotto BeFree Carbon Fiber tripod with ball head. Color results from the Canon dslr are impressive. In prior years I favored shooting late evening in the shade with a slight underexposure. This year I experimented with full sunlight. I found a slight under exposure captured the plum – fine burgundy wine nature of this Japanese cultivar, “Shimadaijin,” planted in the 1970’s or 1980’s.

This set brings out the petal’s fiery nature. In the wild, woody (also called tree) peonies favored cliffs and scrub of western and central China, eastern Himalayas (southeastern Tibet).

By a happy accident our neighbor’s honeybees foraged the nectar and pollen of these newly opened blooms. The woody stems hold the profusion of large flowers each one erect. “Tree” is a misnomer as this plant is a shrub growing mid-thigh high. One of the classic ornamental genera of China, known there as moutan or hua wang “King of Flowers.”

Cultivation in China began in Chekiang in the early 4th century AD. By the early Tang period (circa 700 AD) hundreds of varieties were grown.

The bees happily rolled around among the stamens, notice their full pollen sacs.

ISO 1600 f16 1/250 sec

References
Roger Philips and Martyn Rix, “The Botanical Garden, Vol 1, Trees and Shrubs” p 133
Wikipedia “Magenta” color

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Spring Outing V

Wildflower Groupings

Red Trillium are early bloomers, along with Hepatica. I often photograph them together. Click me for a 2019 Red Trillium post of photographs from 2007 taken in Fillmore Glen Park.

Here we have two photographs from the end of the April 20, 2020 session. I finished a series of macro Hepatica and, tired (emotionally, not physically) and not wanting to step up the slope, captured the following grouping of a single Red Trillium, lit by a bolt of sunlight, White Hepatica, fern and the budding White Trillim from yesterday’s post. Not the same trillium, a continuation of all the individuals in bud.

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These were 15 feet or so up the slope above the South Rim Trail. I used the 100 mm macro lens, with the spring breezes ISO set to 2500, f/5.6 for a 1/200 exposure.

Not far away, also upslope, was this flower grouping against a moss covered log. Park forestry leaves fallen trees in place to return to the soil. Camera settings are the same.

Both photographs were handheld.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

On Torr Road

Facing Views and History

A grand view presents itself throughout the roll down Torcorr into Coolranny townland. Loughan is a shallow bay along the North Channel of the Irish Sea, a rocky sand beach is accessible via a slope shallower than the cliffs on either side. This access is a reason for the tiny rural community on the slope above, now a site of ruined cottages, abandoned during the emigration from Ireland, a flight continuing into the Twentieth Century.

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See this post for a description of wildflowers flowering here in the month of June.

This photograph from the bottom of the Torr Road hill takes in Coolranny Townland. a slice of land running from the ridge to Loughan Bay. We see a number of hawthorne trees in flower, yellow flowering Whin Bush, houses and the Roman Catholic church Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea.

Tor in Irish is a steep rocky height. Likewise, Corr means odd, uneven, rounder, convex, curved, peaked, projecting, smooth. Combined Torcorr is the townland where we stopped on the Torr Road, halted by our wonder at this sight. In the distance, Torr Head projects into North Channel, the closest land to Scotland. Following the coast, the cliffs in front of Torr Head is home to numerous sea birds. The curved bay is named Loughan, the rocky sand beach are ruins of cottages emptied by Irish emigration. The white building is Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church. County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

The photograph of the header, taken by Pam, is from either Coolranny or Loughan Townland, looking across a sheep pasture, the North Channel of the Irish Sea toward the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland just twelve miles distant.

Here is a slideshow of this post’s images. To visit from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Long Island Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

Clouds of Blossoms

A Japanese flowering cherry tree in bloom on an early May day. Called a Shirofugen (Secientific name: Prunue serrulata, of the Rosaceae family this is the species planted around National Tidal Basin, Washington D.C. and around which the National Cherry Blossom Festival is celebrated commemorating the 1912 gift of Prunus serrulata Japanese cherry trees from Tokyo to the city of Washington.

The tree over Pam is called a Shirofugen (Scientific name: Prunus serrulata, of the Rosaceae family) and is one species planted around National Tidal Basin, Washington D.C. Shirofugen blossoms are described “Flowers double, deep pink at first, fading to pale pink.”

 

Click any photograph for my Getty portfolio.Pam with a Shirofugen Flowering Cherry in bloom – CLICK ME for my Getty Portfolio.

In Japan, since the 8th century, “Hanami” is the centuries-old practice of picnicking under a blooming sakura or ume tree. Here in the United States, the National Cherry Blossom Festival is celebrated commemorating the 1912 gift of Prunus serrulata Japanese cherry trees from Tokyo to the city of Washington.

Traditionally cherry blossoms remind the Japanese of clouds, the blooms come out en mass, the tree changes shape with the breeze.  Viewing sakura brings to mind thoughts of the transience of existence, the fragility and transience of the exquisite blooms leads one to appreciate the moment.  The following photograph of Pam was taken a month before my Mother’s sudden decline and passing in 2013.  We’d travel to Long Island several times a year to visit her, then take in familiar sights.

Growing up, our family visited the Planting Fields, a state park, several times in the spring and summer. As an adult with a growing family in Glen Cove, right around the corner, the Planting Fields were a welcome outing and visited several time times a year. The following photograph, taken that same May 2013 day, was a favorite park scene.

The two flowering cherry trees in the foreground are a type of Japanese sakura called Yoshino, one the most popular flowering cherries in temperate climates worldwide. All Yoshinos are clones from a single grafting and propagated throughout the world. The scientific name outlines the cross breeding of this variety, Prunus X Yeaoensis. Behind the cherries is an Oak tree, new leaves a bright green, and a pink child’s playhouse cottage.

A changing scene of the park is the now frequent visits by wedding parties and photographers, groups of Asian people, the bride and groom posing under the clouds of blossoms. By frequent I mean a steady stream, one after the other, when the blossoms are full.

Click any photograph for my Getty portfolio.Playhouse with Flowering Cherry and Oak trees – CLICK ME for my Getty Portfolio.

In 2007 I spent hours framing and capturing the following photograph on a Saturday, the day before Mother’s Day, during a visit to my Mother, who was widowed December, 1995. I used an inexpensive tripod, a Kodak DCS Pro slr/c camera body with the Canon 50mm f 1.4 USM lens, a UV filter and lots of time. There were no interruptions that day, at 5:30 pm I had the area to myself.

This child’s garden playhouse, framed by an ancient oak, pink Japanese cherry blossoms and gracious lawn was awarded a Photographic Society of American, Pictorial Print Division, Print of the Month award, published in the society magazine for that month.

Click any photograph for my Getty portfolio.Playhouse – CLICK ME for my Getty Portfolio.

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 to purchase a print of “Playhouse” with optional custom framing from my Fine Art Gallery.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Homecoming Remembered

In town for a University of Arizona event I gazed from the Marriott before dawn to remember painting “A” mountain with the Sophos service club a half century ago. The tradition continues.

The view to the southwest includes University Neighborhood, downtown Tucson skyscrapers, “A” Mountain (painted red, white and blue November 2010), Tucson Mountains.

Click me for an Arizona Gallery of Fine Art prints by Michael Stephen Wills

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Anniversary Wildflower, aconite

Our Winter Aconite started blooming around Valentines Day, February 14, 2023.

The following photograph is from the Apple IPhone 14 ProMax, raw format and perfected on the phone. The rest are from the Canon 5D Mark IV with the lens EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USB.

Click Me for more photographic art from my OnLine Gallery, “Finger Lakes Memories.”

As a spring ehemeral plant, its life cycle exploits the deciduous woodland canopy, flowering at the time of maximum sunlight reaching the forest floor, then completely dying back to its underground tuber after flowering.

All parts of the plant are poisonous when consumed by humans and other mammals because it contains cardiac glycosides.

The species name Eranthis hyemalis proclaims the early nature of its flowering both in the genus, “Eranthis” – “spring flower”, and species, “hyemalis” – winter flowering. The genus encompasses eight species, all early flowering winter aconite.

Reference: Wikipedia “Eranthis hyemalis” and “Eranthis.”

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Round Tower of the Cliff Place

Imagine

Overviews

Looking over my photographs from Mesa Verde National Park I find the Cliff Palace Round Tower to be a unique structure. You can see it in this shot taken from the Cliff Palace Loop overlook…..

The Round Tower is on the upper left, between two kivas (appearing to be two round pits). The round shape of the tower is not readily apparent from this angle.

It is easier to see here from this photograph taken from the Cliff Palace footpath from the mesa top.

The Round Tower is on the left.

Here is a closer view, with surrounding structures for context.

Click me for more Mesa Verde works in my Fine Art Gallery

Inspiration and Influence

In 1941 the National Park Service commissioned noted photographer Ansel Adams to create a photo mural for the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, DC. The theme was to be nature as exemplified and protected in the U.S. National Parks. The project was halted because of World War II and never resumed.

The holdings of the National Archives Still Picture Branch include 226 photographs taken for this project, most of them signed and captioned by Adams (the following photograph had neither title or caption). Almost all are in the public domain, as is the following image. Adams was allowed free access to the ruins and had the luxury of time to stage perfect lighting.

The creator compiled or maintained the parent series, Ansel Adams Photographs of National Parks and Monuments, between 1941–1942. Ansel Adams provided no caption to this photograph; this information was compiled by Michael Stephen Wills from the United States National Archives Catalog “Series: Ansel Adams Photographs of National Parks and Monuments”.

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter’s Desert View Watchtower (1932), on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, was inspired in part by this round tower. She traveled throughout the southwest to find inspiration and authenticity for her buildings. The architecture of the ancestral Puebloan people of the Colorado Plateau served as her model. This particular tower was patterned after those found at Hovenweep and the Round Tower of Mesa Verde. Colter indicated that it was not a copy of any that she had seen, but rather modeled from several cliff dwellings.

The following photographs are my closest approximation to Ansel Adams composition. Taken during a public Ranger guided tour of Cliff Palace, I was standing next to the Square Tower (see my post “Square Tower as Viewed from the Kiva.”

The same image produced as Black and White.

Extension

The Round Tower is more compelling when viewed from below, in the following photographs.

Looking through these images I challange you, the reader, to compare the Round Tower with the right angles, straight walls of the other above ground structures and, then, the round Kivas in the grounds, essentially the Round Tower is an extension of the round kiva and sipapu toward the heavens.

Click Me for more background on the discovery and excavation of the Cliff Palace

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Parts of the Scorpion

Twenty million years ago a then nonexistent earth-bound human civilization could recognize none of the prominent stars of the constellation Scorpius (The Scorpion) as these, compared to our 4.6 billion year old star, lit up less than 12 million years ago. The brightest star, Alpha Scorpii AKA Antares, is a red giant destined to burst into a supernova bright as the full moon within two million years. Will the human race be around to witness it?

Such as it is, The Scorpion was traced out by the Babylonian astronomers around 8 BCE following even more ancient Sumerian traditions naming Alpha Scorpii “The Heart of the Scorpion.”

I first became aware of Antares March 2009 during a stay on Cocoa Beach. Setting the room clock to a 5 am alarm to view the sunrise. As I sat listening to the surf, Antares glowed dark red in the south. It is the reddish tint star in the following illustration.

Till Credner, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Here is a photograph of Antares, the reddish dot in center, along with the 6 of the 18 Scorpius bright stars. For this shot a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dlsr had mounted a Canon lens EF 70-300 f4-5.6L IS USM set to 70 mm focal length, 1600 ISO. Exposure was “bulb,” meaning when the shutter button is pressed and held the shutter remains open: for this exposure this was for approximately 10 seconds. The equipment was held steady on a Manfrotto BeFree Carbon Fiber tripod. As the Earth continued to turn, the resulting star images are smeared a bit.

Bracketing Antares, the Scorpion Heart are “The Arteries” Theta and Tau. About those Greek letters, these designate relative brightness of each star respective of the others in the constellation. “Alpha” the first letter of the Greek alphabet is the brightest. Here are the other letters listed, with the alphabetic order in brackets Beta(2), Delta(4), Pi(16), Sigma(18), Tau(19). Ancient Greek built on the traditions of the Mesopotamians (Babylonian and Sumerian) and were in turn used for modern stellar nomenclature, including the tracings of sky images, the constellations.

The position of a relatively minor star, Tau, near Antares elevates it to the important function of an artery. The stars themselves run against their brightness hierarchy placement: The star Delta Scorpii, after having been a stable 2.3 magnitude star, flared in July 2000 to 1.9 in a matter of weeks. It has since become a variable star fluctuating between 2.0 and 1.6. This means that at its brightest it is the second brightest star in Scorpius.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Devil’s Kitchen

A small difference

Can you see the small difference between yesterday and today’s take on Devil’s Kitchen? Is the change and improvement, degradation or no difference? User Response Requested: respond in comments.

Aptly named Devil’s Kitchen is where Enfield Creek passes over these 20 foot falls before the Lucifer Falls 115 foot rock face cascade. Captured on a Memorial Day morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York.

Here they are side by side.

It is 9:00am on a Memorial Daty morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Newlywed View IV

Under the Spell of Treman Gorge

View shared by generations of newlyweds standing on a stone bridge across Enfield Creek. This is another version, taken a few years later and earlier in the season, Memorial Day morning.

Here is an image having me rethinking my conclusions. Here, I combined two images and worked hours to make many adjustments. The resulting Tiff is four times the filesize of the Raw file from yesterday.

Here they are side by side. In this case IMHO the extra disk space and time are worth it.

It is 8:30 am on a Memorial Daty morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

P.S. I mistakenly published this post with a repetition of III in the title. Today, I changed it to “IV.”

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills