Apples, Jiggles, and More

 

Almost all the photos in this post were shot in HDR Art Bold mode. I wanted to do two things: (1) catch the last sunlight coming over the hill from the west and also (2) see if I could intentionally produce the jiggle that everyone liked so much in my Queen Anne's-lace photograph. The apples are on these two trees:

I had a happy accidental discovery. It wasn't easy to jiggle intentionally and get exactly the effect I wanted (either I jiggled the camera too much or not enough), but Tuesday was a very windy evening, so patiently waiting for a strong gust of wind to do the jiggling work paid off, in my opinion, though the effect is subtle. Look to leaf edges.... Okay, I need to keep experimenting with this.

I decided to try letting the wind blow my little grey-headed coneflowers for the camera. First (below), are the flowers in their full height, without the wind. After that are a couple windy shots taken closer in. 

(Not HDR)

Below is garden phlox --

There are no jiggles in. my photographs of the orange chair. The wind wasn't strong enough, and my attempts at intentional jiggling did not come off. But the color in HDR mode still pops, especially in that low, early evening light.

And I'm throwing in this photo of Sunny Juliet just because ... she's so cute!

It isn't always easy to get a desired camera effect, but I will keep working with these ideas and see if I can make progress.

A Late Season Wander Close to Home

 

Pale touch-me-not in early morning light

one jewel

I posted on my Books in Northport blog about the "wilderness" that surrounds me at home. This is an expansion of that theme, with some closeups. The flowers above are also called jewelweed, and this large colony is at home in an old silo base I use as a compost pile. It is surrounded by staghorn sumac, which is also multiplying gloriously.

Milkweed forest at sunrise

Because of a meadow filled with milkweed, I am greeted upon each August afternoon return home with fluttering monarchs in the driveway. Earlier in the season, milkweed flowers (so unobtrusive in appearance) perfumed the air; now some of the leaves give testimony that September is near. 

Fall color, milkweed

Although I say the meadow is a milkweed forest, Queen Anne's-lace in great number is a companion to milkweed in the open stretches. Camera jiggle while I was shooting on HDR setting kept the three exposures from lining up exactly in the photo below, but I liked the effect. The second milkweed image shows more drying flowers curling up into their late-season birds' nest look.

Queen Anne's-lace with camera jiggle

 

"birds' nest" look of late-season Queen Anne's-lace

The northwest corner of the meadow is where I seeded native grasses and wildflowers years ago, and both have been doing well ever since, with no further attention from me. In a week or two, purple coneflowers will be blooming along with these. Later still, myriad asters.

Tall grass prairie grasses and wildflowers

I am happy to see the tall prairie grasses spread ...

... along with the little grey-headed coneflowers.

Can anyone identify this volunteer?

Very welcome Joe Pye-weed volunteer

Over on the very south edge of the meadow, just before the cherry orchard begins, an enormous patch -- more than a patch, more like a forest -- of blackberries has grown up. I don't harvest these because of the proximity to orchard spraying. If one small section of three rows of cherry trees were to be removed, the rest would be far enough away that I wouldn't worry as much -- but oh, well!

Wild blackberry forest

Ripening berries, turning leaves

This is a part of my beloved home ground as we near the end of August.

But oh, no! I almost forgot -- 

the modest little soapwort!

Color Popping!

 

Are We "Dynamic" Yet?

 

This scene, Grand Traverse Bay on a rainy morning, wasn't loaded with color, but I tried the HDR shooting mode, anyway, to see what it would capture, and I liked the result. HDR stands for "high dynamic range." The camera takes three consecutive shots, with different exposures, in quick succession and combines them. You can read more about HDR here. 

I had shot my meadow the day before in HDR, and this was the result:

What do you think?