photography – Page 24 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Lib Slope Hickory

the largest and brightest yellow canopy on Libe Slope.

October 19, 2023October 18, 2023 MichaelStephenWills14 Comments

Libe Slope

Cornell University is on a west-facing hill above Cayuga lake. Libe Slope is between the West Campus and Quadrangle / Libraries.

Besides the exercise of walking the 18 degree incline several times each day, Cornell students and alumni remember The Slope for autumn color.

Built in 1868, McGraw Hall has the honor of having the first of Cornell’s towers. The building is built of Ithaca stone and is home to the American Studies Program, Department of History, Department of Anthropology, and Archaeology Intercollege Program. The first floor of McGraw Hall houses the McGraw Hall Museum, a collection of roughly 20,000 objects from around the globe used for teaching by the Anthropology Department.

Hickory

This is a Pignut Hickory (Carya glabra), the largest tree according to a 2009 Campus Tree Inventory (see link, below).

click pic for my OnLine Gallery — Seen from the north on a cloudy October day, this Pignut Hickory (Carya glabra) is the largest tree on the Cornell Campus, at 79 inches in diameter.

This hickory grows south of the Johnson Museum and among the autumn glories, it is the largest and brightest yellow canopy on Libe Slope.

Contrast

I remember this hickory for the contrast between the canopy and trunk, the way the clumps of yellow hang from dark boughs. An overcast day is the best to capture this spectacle. October 20, 2012 provided both bright sun and dark, rolling autumn clouds. I waited on the north side, sheltered from the glare of the sky, for these perfect moments.

Leaves and Nuts

The pignut hickory is native to these Eastern United States. It is known to favor moist slopes and this specimen has thrived on The Slope. The ground beneath it is thick with nuts.

One week later as Hurricane Sandy approached the east coast

Just one week later, late afternoon on a sunny Friday as hurricane Sandy approached the east coast the hickory has fewer, tawny golden leaves.

Wonderful Flow of Limbs among Gold

References

A Photo Tour of Key Buildings at Cornell University by Allen Grove

Websites

Cornell Tree Inventory

History and Ghosts of the Triangle T Ranch

1975 University of Arizona alumnus recounts annual homecoming trips and an encounter with a haunted ranch.

October 17, 2023October 16, 2023 MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

In my Homecoming Parade 2003, I described my initial reconnection with the University of Arizona (U of A) as a 1975 graduate and alumnus. This personal project of involvement with U of A and Arizona continued through 2011 with annual autumn trips to coincide with Homecoming. The travel was as a CALS (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) Alumni Board of Directors member, a primary responsibility was raising funds for scholarships.

I met, Linda Kelly, the owner of the Triangle T Guest Ranch, while camping in the Chiricahua Mountains. I arrived a week before homecoming to photograph the landscape, nature and rock formations of the Chiricahua National Monument. Click this link for my Arizona Online gallery, including some work from that time. Linda and a friend were visiting that day and we struck up a conversation about the area and her Triangle T Guest ranch. The next day I was scheduled to guest lecture a class at the U of A, as an alumnus of CALS. The ranch was on the way and I needed a place to stay, so Linda gave me directions and I checked in.

She gave me a tour of the incredible weather granite rock formations of Texas Canyon and, meanwhile, shared stories of the history of Texas Canyon. It is appropriate for the Amerind Foundation to be here (see first photograph), the winter camp of an Apache tribe for generations.

Weathered granite boulders greet visitors to the Triangle T Ranch.

That night, my request was for a room storied to be haunted by a spirit they call “Grandma,” as in when her footsteps wake you from a sound sleep you say, “It’s all right, Grandmother.” She woke me that night, footsteps in the dark, hollow on the wood floor, the room filled with a hard cold. I talked to her, without a response, while swinging my legs out of bed to reach the gas heater in the wall. I turned on the heat and the sound of expanding metal heat fins lulled me to sleep.

It made a good story for the students. They were surprised I could fall back asleep, but after all I had to be there the following morning.

I gave Linda a few of my photographs from that day and we made arrangements for the Triangle T to supply a two night package for the CALS “Dean’s Almost World Famous Burrito Breakfast” silent auction during 2008 homecoming.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Treman Early Autumn Walk XIV

The post discusses the Hepatica acutiloba plant, highlighting its characteristics, growth, historical medicinal use, and its natural habitat in central eastern North America. It also includes an observation made in Robert H. Treman Park.

October 6, 2023October 4, 2023 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

These characteristic leaves are Hepatica plants growing on the sun dappled southern rim of Robert H. Treman Park captured on a bright late September morning.

“Hepatica acutiloba, the sharp-lobed hepatica, is a herbaceous flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It is sometimes considered part of the genus Anemone, as Anemone acutiloba, A. hepatica, or A. nobilis. Also generally known as Liverleaf and Liverwort.”

“The word hepatica derives from the Greek ἡπατικός hēpatikós, from ἧπαρ hêpar ‘liver’, because its three-lobed leaf was thought to resemble the human liver.”

“Each clump-forming plant grows 5 to 19 cm (2.0 to 7.5 in) tall, flowering in the early to mid spring. The flowers are greenish-white, white, purple or pinkish in color, with a rounded shape. After flowering the fruits are produced in small, rounded columned heads, on pedicels 1 to 4 mm long. When the fruits, called achenes, are ripe they are ovoid in shape, 3.5–4.7 mm long and 1.3–1.9 mm wide, slightly winged and tend to lack a beak.”

Hepatica Flowers in early spring on the Rim Trail

“Hepatica acutiloba is native to central eastern North America where it can be found growing in deciduous open woods, most often in calcareous soils. Butterflies, moths, bees, flies and beetles are known pollinators. The leaves are basal, leathery, and usually three-lobed, remaining over winter.”

“Hepatica was once used as a medicinal herb. Owing to the doctrine of signatures, the plant was once thought to be an effective treatment for liver disorders. Although poisonous in large doses, the leaves and flowers may be used as an astringent, as a demulcent for slow-healing injuries, and as a diuretic.”

Ferns and Mosses growing beneath Red Pines

View of the lower falls and swimming hole from the Rim Trail

Click Me another post featuring Hepatica flowers

References

–text in italics and quotes is from Wikipedia, “Hepatica” and “Hepatica acutiloba.”

–“The Botanical Garden Vol II Perennials and Annuals,” Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, Firefly Books, 2002.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Treman Early Autumn Walk XIII

The Red Pine, Minnesota’s state tree, is a tall, conical, long-lived evergreen with distinctive orange-red bark.

October 5, 2023October 4, 2023 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Returning from a Rim Trail walk one April my boots were yellow from a prolific release of pollen from flowers of these tall trees that develop into the woody cones.

Pinus, the pine, is the largest genus in the family Pinaceae, with around 100 species throughout the northern hemisphere.

Red Pine (Pinus resinosa) is Minnesota’s state tree, known there as the Norway Pine. The use of the name “Norway” may stem from early Scandinavian immigrants who likened the American red pines to the Scots pines back home.

“Red pine is a coniferous evergreen tree characterized by tall, straight growth. It usually ranges from 20–35 meters (66–115 feet) in height and 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in trunk diameter, exceptionally reaching 43.77 m (143+1⁄2 ft) tall. The crown is conical, becoming a narrow, rounded dome with age. The bark is thick and gray brown at the base of the tree, but thin, flaky and bright orange red in the upper crown; the tree’s name derives from this distinctive character. Some red color may be seen in the fissures of the bark. The species is self-pruning; there tend not to be dead branches on the trees, and older trees may have very long lengths of branchless trunk below the canopy.”

“It is a long-lived tree, reaching a maximum age of about 500 years. Another member of Pinus, Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey, the intermountain bristlecone pine, is the longest-lived tree in the world; one in the White Mountains of Nevada is estimated to be 5,000 years old, and by matching rhe rings with even older dead trees, a sequence going back 8,500 years has been established.”

“Red pine is notable for its very constant morphology and low genetic variation throughout its range, suggesting it has been through a near extinction in its recent evolutionary history. A genetic study of nuclear microsatellite polymorphisms among populations distributed throughout its natural range found that red pine populations from Newfoundland are genetically distinct from most mainland populations, consistent with dispersal from different glacial refugia in this highly self-pollinating species.”

Click Me for the first post in this series.

References

–text in italics and quotes is from Wikipedia, “Pinus resinosa.”

–“The Botanical Garden Vol I Trees and Shrubs,” Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, Firefly Books, 2002.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Treman Early Autumn Walk XII

Assistance sought for identification of a plant discovered in Robert H. Treman park, Enfield Gorge.

October 4, 2023October 4, 2023 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Can anyone identify this plant found growing on the south rim of Enfield Gorge within the Robert H. Treman park?

Click Me for the first post in this series.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Still Blooming

Though it is sometimes referred to as a night-blooming cereus, it is not closely related to any of the species in the tribe Cereeae

September 22, 2023September 18, 2023 MichaelStephenWills1 Comment

It was a quiet day, upping shutter speed via an increased ISO and both exposures are equally sharp.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 L IS USM lens at f / 45, 1/5 second exposure at 300 mm focal length, ISO 400

These were captured with the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr on a Manfrotto tripod.

“The flowers are nocturnal. They grow on flattened stems and are up to 30 cm (12 in) long and 17 cm (7 in) wide, and very fragrant. The principal odor components in the aroma are benzyl salicylate and methyl linoleate.[5] Pericarpels are nude, slightly angled, and green. Bracteoles are short and narrow up through ca. 10 millimetres (0.39 in) long. Receptacles are up through 20 cm long, 1 cm thick, brownish, and arching. The outer tepals are linear, acute, 8–10 cm long, and reddish through amber. The inner tepals are whitish, oblanceolate or oblong, acuminate, up through 8–10 cm long and 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) wide. The stamens are greenish white or white, slender and weak. The styles are greenish white, pale yellow, or white, 4 mm thick, as long as inner tepals, and with many lobes.”

“The fruits are oblong, up through 12 x 8 cm, purplish red, and angled.”

“It is known to have medicinal properties in many Asian cultures, including India, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The plant is widely used in traditional medicine to treat respiratory ailments, bleeding conditions, and is also believed to have the property of reducing pain and inflammation.”

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 L IS USM lens at f / 45, 1/20 second exposure at 300 mm focal length, ISO 1600

Click me for another “Cereus” Post.

Night bloomer

Though it is sometimes referred to as a night-blooming cereus, it is not closely related to any of the species in the tribe Cereeae

September 20, 2023September 18, 2023 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

This set compares a deep focus exposure to a shallow focus with bokeh.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 L IS USM lens at f / 36 (the deepest focus), 1/5 second exposure at 108 mm focal length, ISO 400

These were captured with the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr on a Manfrotto tripod.

“Epiphyllum oxypetalum is an easily cultivated, fast growing Epiphyllum. Epiphyllum from Greek epi- “upon” + phullon “leaf.” Oxypetalum = with acute petals. It flowers in late spring through late summer; large specimens can produce several crops of flowers in one season. This is a widely cultivated Epiphyllum species.”

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 L IS USM lens at f / 4.5, 1/250 second exposure at 108 mm focal length, ISO 400

Click me for another “Cereus” Post.

A Day At The Airport

September 19, 2023September 20, 2023 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

Airport Day was hosted by the East Hill Flying Club, the pancake breakfast was in the hangar.

We learned why a hot air balloon cannot “pop.”

The propane burner announces the approach of every hot air baloon.

The operator kept careful watch over this landing helicopter, Sam was nervous anyway.

While we were aloft the New York State Police helicopter completed landing next to the U.S. Army Helicopter.

U.S. Army Helicopter — Sam was not a fan of the potential firepower, Rory was all in

Dryden Volunteer Fire Department Firetruck

The Airport Terminal was not part of the day’s events, I took Sam and Rory there once, to visit the bathroom, and ever since they insist on visiting the play area

Cereus not

Though it is sometimes referred to as a night-blooming cereus, it is not closely related to any of the species in the tribe Cereeae

September 18, 2023September 16, 2023 MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

“Epiphyllum oxypetalum, the Dutchman’s pipe cactus, princess of the night or queen of the night, is a species of cactus. It blooms nocturnally, and its flowers wilt before dawn. Though it is sometimes referred to as a night-blooming cereus, it is not closely related to any of the species in the tribe Cereeae, such as Selenicereus, that are more commonly known as night-blooming cereus. All Cereus species bloom at night and are terrestrial plants; Epiphyllum species are usually epiphytic.”

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with the EF 50 mm f/1.2L USM lens at f / 16, 1/13 second exposure, ISO 400

These were captured with the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr on a Manfrotto tripod.

“Epiphyllum (“upon the leaf” in Greek) is a genus of epiphytic plants in the cactus family (Cactaceae), native to Central America and South America. Common names for these species include climbing cacti, orchid cacti and leaf cacti.”