This month is the beginning of my fourth year posting weekly on this blog. Wow! It's still fun to do, so I look forward to everything I can't imagine yet that will show up here in the future. In honor of the occasion, I plan to post a review of a few of my all time favorite photos. I can't start that today, however. I'm too impatient to share some very recent images made last week.
The overall scene I was working in:
Busy milkweed bugs, bigger and badder than when they were younger and without markings -- doing vital work? It looks to me like the milkweed pod has finally opened up or is it being opened up by the bugs?
The reason I wonder is because this next pod has split open and the the seeds are sitting there neatly folded together before the wind blows them out and about. But no bugs.
The next picture is kind of a miracle. I was on my way to town, after all, with not much extra time to get where I was headed. This particular group of milkweeds is on the way, and there is now place to pull off of the road nearby. I had been gone five days so I stopped to check out the scene. It was 6 pm with full sun on the plants, usually not a good light for a photo. However, when I looked more closely, I saw a grasshopper on the one pod that was open -- with seeds starting on their way. After the frog and the spider visitations earlier in the milkweed evolution, I was literally disbelieving that I was now seeing still another visitation. And within the only few minutes I had. I did realize I needed to stop thinking and just make a photo in a hurry before the grasshopper moved on, the seeds blew away if a car came by, or the light changed. Hand held camera. Holding my breath.
The remaining photos are more of what I saw when I returned the next morning around 8:30, with an overcast sky. I didn't get any other good grasshoppers shots on day 1; my focus on that moving target was off. It happens.
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| next morning, 8:40 a.m., seeds dispersing |
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| from the other side, grasshopper gone, seed pods on their way, bugs still busy |
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| what is visible from a passing car -- just 3 plant clusters |
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| This shows some farm activity across the road, next to where my car is sitting. Anyone from the neighborhood will now know exactly where I was! And will be again soon. |
ONE LAST NOTE: I now have seen the actual book I wrote about last week! The cover looks even better than I could have hoped. Nice! Great job, Counterpoint Press. Bravo!
Astonishing how much you can see and capture if you keep showing up!
ReplyDeleteSo are the milkweed seeds the same color as the milkweed bugs?