Blooming flowers are one of the most common visual signs that Spring is returning to the US Mainland. Audio clues come from many animal sources, including the Green Frog – Rana clamitans melanota – seen and heard in the weeds of a backyard pond.
While governmental agencies in the State of Hawaii have declared many frogs, including specifically the little but loud Coqui – Eleutherodactylus coqui – to be an invasive pest and have been responsible for a variety of experimental eradication programs, other states are now attempting to save frogs from extinction. Three Governors from the adjoining Southern states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina have issued proclamations extolling the virtues of frogs.
This photograph selected for Save the Frogs Day was created in a natural setting using a Nikon D60 camera equipped with a Nikkor AF VR Zoom 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED lens set to the maximum focal length. The hand-held exposure was made under a partly obscured sun at 1/250th of a second with a lens aperture of f/9 and a film speed of 400 ISO. Regarding composition, subject placement was critical in an image that is more weeds than frog.
My mother loves growing things. As Winter melts into Spring on the East Coast of the United States, her garden brings forth a variety of wild and hybrid flowers. Some of her favorites include the wide varieties and colors of her Iris collection.
Last year, she shared a rhizome of a Bearded Iris Iris germanica. One year later, the member of the Iridaceae family has bloomed for the first time in my garden.
Now an Iris may be one of my mom’s favorite flowers, but I have never felt that it has been one of the best photo subjects. Maybe it has something to do with how that particular flower does not fit my compositional eye and the resulting photographic failures. Yet when it flowered, as a dutiful son, I felt compelled to share the emerging bloom – it would make my mom happy to see it growing.
After a few traditional still life images of the full flower, I began to explore other angles and compositions. Thanks to Surrealist influences and a Nikkor AF 60mm f/2.8D Micro lens on my Nikon D3 camera the resulting photo was satisfying, even though it may not be immediately recognizable as an Iris.
The exposure was made with a lens aperture of f/14 and a shutter speed at 1/250th of a second. A film speed of 1000 ISO was needed to hand-hold the camera with the available light through the overcast sky.
As warmer weather embraces the US Mainland, trees, shrubs, weeds, and bulbs are beginning to signal the arrival of Spring. One of the first to bloom, the White Dogwood has been tied to the Easter season and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ through legend and folklore. However, the state flower of the Commonwealth of Virginia is not exactly as it seems.
At the University of Virginia in a local flora class, I learned that the Flowering Dogwood is a member of the Cornaceae family. Cornus florida has a small, perfect, greenish-yellow flower with four large white (or pink) obovate, involucral, subtending bracts. These bracts are commonly mistaken as the flower. (I hope Dr. Rex Baird, the course instructor, appreciates the fact that I was paying attention in class when this discussion took place and still recall some significant elements of that study.)
From the time I began playing with cameras in the 1970s, flowers have been a great and constant diversion. Lighting, depth of field, and composition have been the primary challenges to the success or failure of my flower photography. This photograph was made using a Nikon D60 camera body fitted with a Nikkor AF VR Zoom 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED set to the maximum focal length. The exposure data included an aperture of f/9 for adequate depth of field, a shutter speed of 1/2500th of a second to avoid blur of the wind-shaken Dogwood, and a film speed of 400 ISO in the bright sunlight.
For those interested in the identification of the bug on the bract in this photograph, remember that my class and studies were limited to the local flora, not fauna. As such, it would be inappropriate for me to even hazard a guess.
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