Dawn Redwood cones
These pine cones are from two dawn redwood trees I have in my yard – where I also have a white pine as well. The unique shape to these cones made for a great pattern study. I actually fumbled around for awhile until finally settling on this composition. It was interesting how the single white pine cone changed some of the dynamics. I wanted to position it so it would act somewhat of a barrier to your eyes leaving the frame, and bounce them back up again. I used a soft gold diffuser to bounce some warm light into the patterns to enhance the texture.
These trees have an interesting history as well. Though they are related to the more famous genus of Sequoia redwoods, no one seemed to know they existed before the 1940s except in fossils. Then a small forest of these trees (only about 5,000 supposedly) was discovered in China, some Harvard researchers went to collect seed samples, etc – and so they started to be cultivated elsewhere. There is a preserve of these trees now in North Carolina, Crescent Ridge Dawn Redwoods Preserve, that will not open until 2035 to hopefully re-establish a native forest of them. Their site has a lot of interesting tidbits about these trees, including some photos of the fossils. I am not quite sure how they became ornamental landscape trees, but it seems I have a link between my yard, North Carolina, and ancient China.
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I have been limiting my blogging activities lately due to trying to figure out what is grabbing resources at my web host. I ‘ll post more about it when it is resolved. Until then, I’ll share a new image shot in my backyard recently. I still intend on doing my “Every 10 feet” project, but haven’t been able to dedicate some quality time to it yet. What attracted me this particular set of stamen were their alignment and their ‘standing tall’ presentation. Sunshine was also coming in from the side giving the translucent tubules an incredible glow.
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I don’t spend enough time in my own yard photographing the many critters that come to visit here. I have been pretty fortunate to catch a few rare ones, like the Coopers Hawk that was visiting for awhile. But I haven’t really spent enough time photographing the more “common” visitors, like squirrels and chipmunks. Both of them are pretty comical to watch at times, you would think I have thousands of pictures of both. But I don’t.. hardly any actually. So I am going to make an effort to change that.
I happened to really like this particular shot of this chipmunk that I just shot today. Â. Life is hard as a chipmunk – just when you get your ears pierced, some other jealous one wants to rip it away. Â. 
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I heard a fantastic story on my NPR podcast today, an interview with the authors of a new book on the songs of insects, Wil Hershberger and Lang Elliott. You can hear it here. As they mention in the story, there is an abundance of information about bird song, even frog songs, but hardly any (perhaps this is the first) on insect songs. So these guys decided to tackle that area in documenting these particular sounds of nature.
We all hear them in our backyards, or through our walks in the woods – and it is terrific that these guys have put together something that allows you to associate the song with the type of insect. Wil and Lang have also created a site and a blog in promotion of the book and this area of study, so check those out also.
Good work guys, looking forward to receiving my copy.
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So I am getting ready for work in the morning and looking out our bedroom window. The sun is just starting to come up. I notice the new leaves on a maple tree in our yard are glowing brilliant orange from being backlit by the sun. (This is a Crimson Maple, where the leaves are normally a deep burgandy color) I immediately think to myself – how cool is that! So it is decision time.. break out that camera or leave on time for work?
Of course I did the right thing. I snapped away for a short time in the yard – and end up at work about 15 minutes late. Not that I would ever get in trouble for such a thing, but it does make you think about the possible confrontation.
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