There I was, bleary-eyed from the dog waking me up early to announce the arrival of the neighbors cows on our 40 acres, a fact which bears no relevance to today’s post. After filling the horses’ water trough, I decided to water my baby fruit trees. They have had rather a rough summer, and they were definitely thirsty this morning. So I stood with the hose, raining down water on the hay mulch around each little tree, watching the water soak in and musing about what lives in the little holes I saw there. As the sun rose and the sky turned pink, I started playing with the camera’s settings, appreciating the rosy glow on the leaves – and the apple blossoms!?
Nikon D5100 f/6.7 ISO 1600 1/250sec 300mm – Summer 2012
We are in Oklahoma, so perhaps any apples resulting from these blossoms might have a chance of reaching maturity. The frost date may be late enough… I hope some bees find them! I have 4 little apple trees, a Yellow Transparent, a Lodi (also a yellow apple), an Enterprise, I think… Hmm, I have forgotten the fourth variety. Tonight I will check to see which of these varieties it is that thinks August is an appropriate time to bloom.
Back Forty 
Reblogged this on steve2002 and commented:
beautiful
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Great picture! With so much room left in your settings, lowering your ISO to something like 400 if you’re without a tripod or 200 will give your images little or no grain in your images. You’ll be pleased with the outcome of your lower ISO images, more than you know.
Again, it is a beautiful picture; and perhaps this is exactly your intended shooting style.
How can you look up apple types? My parents have this giant apple tree I picked apples off of everyday when I was growing up and would love to know what kind it was! They were yellow, a bit bitter, and reminded me some of Granny’s.
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Elise,
Thanks for the tips. I really need to carry my tripod because without it anything less than 1/250sec gives me motion blur with this long lens (55-300mm). But sometimes I like the graininess/noise in the background.
Try looking at Miller Nurseries website (Canandaigua, NY). They have descriptions and photos of many older apples, and you may be able to figure out which one your parents had/have. We had an old orchard (the remnants of one) growing up, and were able to identify several apples, like the Yellow Transparent, McIntosh, Poundsweet, and Northern Spy, but we had a couple I still have not figured out. Have fun trying to figure out your mystery apple!
Kyle
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