Nature Diary

Ice crystals by a stream

tomwhelan — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:50:18 +0000

I’ve had to hunt for ice subjects in this mild winter. I’ve seen a few nice frosts, but none of the fern-like crystals I like best on the few days it’s been cold enough. These crystals grew at the icy edge of a stream near a small cascade:

Stream ice

tomwhelan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:25:21 +0000

My first stream ice opportunity this season was a couple of weeks ago:

The cross patterns were a welcome find. It’s finally gotten cold enough for ice photography since the beginning of the year – but there’s still been a lot of mild weather.

Another ice castle

tomwhelan — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:59:29 +0000

Not long ago I posted a pair of frozen drops with crystals – here’s a single one at higher magnification:

I used the nearly the maximum magnification I can get with the MP-E lens, around 4x or 5x, and blended together 10 images to get more depth of field. The etched lines on the surface were what attracted me to this drop.

Frost spiral

tomwhelan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:14:27 +0000

Frost on a vine encircling an aster stem. This was the last subject on a pretty frosty morning, taken just as the sun was begging to strike the area and melt it all:

Twelve from 2011

tomwhelan — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:35:42 +0000

Good images often come in bunches. In January, I saw wonderful stream ice for ice abstracts. In spring, beautiful wildflowers, including a view of bloodroot I’ve tried to capture many times. In summer, the hairstreaks (butterflies) were cooperative, for once. In fall, I had good light and nice (if not great) foliage color on a waterfall trip to New Hampshire.

With lists such as this, I’m forced to be selective, so there are waterfalls, butterflies, and other pretty things on the cutting room floor. Some of the omitted ice abstracts are in the Winter gallery. This gallery shows what I’ve been up to in the last year.

Best wishes for the new year to everyone!

Holiday snowflake

tomwhelan — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:34:27 +0000

It’s snowed this morning, just few flakes, not even a flurry. I hope more falls soon – bring on the cold weather!

I was busy with other stuff and couldn’t get outside, so here’s a snowflake from last winter:

Best wishes to everyone, but especially to everyone who takes the time to stop in here.

Winter gallery

tomwhelan — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:08:54 +0000

Here’s a selection of wintery images I have on exhibit locally. The theme is streams in winter – the exhibit begins and ends with brook scenes, with closeups of stream ice in between. Click an image to view a larger size and use the arrows to navigate through the series.

The exhibit won’t be up long, so I thought I’d share it here so more people can see it. Some of the images have been posted here, others haven’t. Happy holidays!

Dogbane: beetle and flower

tomwhelan — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:25:44 +0000

This year I found this colorful beetle on flowering dogbane:

More catch-up blogging from the summer. This beetle is a tough subject in the same way as cardinal flower. The bright colors overexpose in anything but soft light. I found these in a conservation area not far from my house, I have a community garden plot there. Once I found dogbane there, I went on a beetle watch when I went there to water and weed. By July I was rewarded with a few beetles.

Cardinal flower

tomwhelan — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:26:45 +0000

A flower from late summer:

These are a difficult subject unless you have good, soft light. The passing clouds were just what I needed. I shot through foliage to add the bit of green fog at the bottom.

There were also three ruby-throated hummingbirds hanging around, attracted to the cardinal flowers just as I was. They weren’t cooperative subjects, unfortunately…

Frost castles

tomwhelan — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 04:37:01 +0000

I’ve seen many different frost formations, but this was a new one for me. Rain drops froze overnight and frost grew on the drops, making tiny castles on this grass blade:

Taken at high magnification (4x) with a Canon MP-E65 lens, I blended together several takes to get more depth of field and crystal detail.