I made this photo just a few hours ago in our backyard and started working on it this morning. We have a healthy population of Ostrich Ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris), a native woodland fern here in Michigan. They’ve been the subject of many photos over the years....
Notes from the Woods
seeing · environment · exploration · photographyShowing Results for: macro photography
Visitor that freaked out Darwin and inspired Alien
My wife and I usually exchange ongoing critter sightings around our little suburban "preserve." Earlier this month, she called me out to see a rather unique one. Some kind of very large wasp was just hanging out on the trunk of one of our trees. "Very large" meaning...
A Leaf’s Journey
It feels like 27°F (- 2 °C). That's what I woke up to this morning, looking at the weather on my phone. As meteorological autumn wraps up its final days, the record warmth we've been experiencing in Michigan is over as we prepare for another seasonal transition. While...
Royal Sahara Jasper
While doing some image organization in Lightroom, I came across a batch of photographs I had previously published to my site but somehow got "lost in the shuffle" when I migrated all of my image galleries many years ago. They've been omitted from my Stonescapes series...
Twenty Twenty-three
This past year saw a continuation of a trend that has persisted since the Covid shutdowns - staying very close to home, if not in my backyard for most of my photography. To title this year's Yearly Favorites a series of "Visions of a Hermit" would not be too far off....
Blue Spruce
I've been finding pieces of blue spruce trees around my backyard a lot lately. I am not sure what animal is responsible for breaking off these healthy portions of the tree, but I wish they would knock it off. Blue Spruce trees here in Michigan have enough pressure on...
Leaf Creatures – Season 2
As a recap of "Season 1," I started a project photographing leaf creatures in my yard last year. It was an attempt not only to see the individual character of each of these leaves but to let your imagination run wild to see them as something else. I really wasn't sure...
Amethyst Sage Agate with dendrites
Sometimes I wish I had a more systematic way of mining my archives. The logical assumption would be to simply go through month by month looking for photos that I haven't developed yet or forgotten about. But the reality is I usually do it much more serendipitously,...
Leaf Creatures, part five
With our first snow arriving yesterday, I am sensing my subjects for this project will soon be retreating into the soil for the season (with or without the help of our electric mulching mower.) 🙂 I have basically completed them over 4 different sessions outside,...








