Robert H. Treman Park – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Like a Dandelion

and a shifting of crops to (human) wheat from (cow) corn

June 24, 2022June 20, 2022 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

Wednesday, June 15th, we were on a turn to heat and humidity with this day of light breeze, temperature in the 70s making hiking around Tremen Park a joy.

These snapshots, taken on the fly with an IPhone 7, are the high points.

The first is a dandelion look alike with yellow flowers, petals shaped like teeth, though on a long hard stem and multiple flowers on a stalk. Known as meadow hawkweed, yellow hawkweed, field hawkweed, king devil, yellow paintbrush, devil’s paintbrush, yellow devil, yellow fox-and-cubs, and yellow king-devil with two scientific names: Pilosella caespitosa and Hieracium caespitosum.

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Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Spring Outing X

Please give your opinions of this experiment, via comments. Thank You

May 20, 2020May 9, 2020 MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

Seconds after taking this shot, at f/4, I changed the f-stop to 29 and captured these blossoms with the environment in focus (yesterday’s posting). At f/4 focus is a challenge and I was not happy with the detail of the foreground blossom.

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I am in the experimentation phase of learning the new camera, so in spite of the 100% file size increase I turned on the Dual Pixel Raw feature. The two photos are from the same file. My impression is the adjustment improved the foreground flower details. Is it my imagination?

Click me for another Hepatica wildflower posting.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Spring Outing IX

Land snail

May 19, 2020May 9, 2020 MichaelStephenWills

Hepatica blossoms are the focal point here. Two land snail shells rested fortuitously below, a white and dark brown. The white shell (Scientific Name: Neohelix albolabris) is seen here. In life, the shell aperture reflective lip gives the species name, from Latin root words “albo” (white) and “labris” (lip), and the popular name, “Whitelip.” Look closely to see a series of ridges, an identifying feature apparent in this specimen. There was a live specimen in our yard, just yesterday. Busy with chores, no camera at hand.

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Click me for another Hepatica wildflower posting.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Spring Outing VIII

Sun catchers

May 18, 2020May 9, 2020 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

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Click me for another Hepatica wildflower posting.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Spring Outing VII

Groupings, 1 flora and 1 dangerous

May 17, 2020May 17, 2020 MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

Hepatica positioned perfectly above the trail, sprouting from moss, a grouping of the plant and flowers.

Scientific Name: Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa. I found the two land snail shells this session, I identified it as Neohelix albolabris, and positioned it in this shot to lend interest. In a future posting you will see the shell where it was found.

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Six unrelated young adults, all female and without masks, not following social distancing guidelines, passed as a group just before I set up for this shot. I heard them coming and made plenty of space between them and me. COVID-19 testing in Tompkins continues to find several positive cases each week.

Finding an appropriate combination of settings for this grouping was a puzzle. My goal was to bring the flowers and surrounding into focus with intermittent breezes. The f-stop needed to be high to accommodate the depth with minimal exposure duration as the flowers moved in the slightest breeze. The solution was a high ISO (2500) and f-stop (32), yielding a 1/3 second exposure (Not fast). The compromise was patiently waiting for a break in the breezes.