Friday, June 18, 2010

Stepping Where I Shouldn't


Driving home from work one afternoon I was marveling at the stormy sky and brooding clouds hanging across the western sky. If I hurried I might have a chance to get outside of town to more open countryside and get some good shots. Instead, by the time I was in the truck and heading out of town, the clouds were breaking up and leaving a sky that leaned way too much to normal. I could have turned around and headed home with the idea of finding some cool images at a later time, but since I was already out, it seemed foolish to not look for something worthwhile.

About 10 miles outside of town, on one of the gravel back roads, I found this spot with flowers, dragonflies, bumblebees and a really cool seed pod about the size of a tennis ball known as goatsbeard, or Western Salsify.

I must have spent an hour and a half stomping around through the grass in the roadside ditch, panning with the bees, zeroing in on the dragonflies and exploring just how close I could get to the goatsbeard and make all of its parts look even more interesting.

Hopefully some of these images are worth what I'm going through now. After years of living in Northern Minnesota and not having to deal with poison ivy, I have now become painfully, frustratingly reaquainted with what happens when I come into contact with the stuff.

This shot of the Shasta Daisy with the firefly posing so nicely was done by my house later in the week as the first stages of rash were spreading up my legs. The price we sometimes pay for our passions and pursuits.

2 comments:

pls said...

Mark - there are fabulous photos - especially the family shots - and extraordinary good writing in this blog. I'll be stalking this blog often -Paul Swearingen

Amy Dunn said...

*gasp* These are gorgeous! And the writing rocks, too. The one of the (goatsbeard?) is my absolute favorite.