Seeds at Sunrise

Yes, these are the same seeds from earlier this week, but at sunrise instead of sunset 🙂

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Nikon D5100 f/8 ISO 400 1/250 s Nikkor 55-300@300mm – Summer 2012

This time, the rising sun was so bright behind them! I thought they might come out in silhouette, but I wanted the sunlight glowing through them, the way I saw it. I think I got my settings right, so I am very pleased with this photo!

(Mind) Wandering in the Green Grass

This is one of the first images I captured with my new camera, a Nikon D5100, and new (longer!) lens, a Nikkor 55-300mm telephoto lens.

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Nikon D5100 f/8.0 ISO 5000 1/250sec 55-300@195mm – Spring 2012

It feels like I have wandered off the trail and entered an enchanted land of green grass and mist. In a way, that is what my camera helps me to do. I escape from my everyday world and mindset (not that there is anything at all wrong with my everyday life), and those thoughts and feelings fade away while I am totally caught in the here and now through my lens. Funny that my alternate world is actually the here and now! It is a mystical, magical experience. The glowing bright light of sunrise or sunset is what most often draws me out into my alternate world, but on this day it was a soft mist that formed the portal.

The misty look is partly an effect of depth of field, but it really was one of those days when mist rises from the ground and softens the world and its noises.

Grass & Wee Bug

Zooming in on the gold, sunset-lit filaments of this grass seed head, I saw an anomaly.

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Wee, Small Fellow Hiding in the Seeds - Summer 2011

A fat filament? No, it moved. Although it was well camouflaged, it definitely had legs and eyes. I don’t know what it is, but several of the same variety of grass sported similar denizens. Do you know what it is?

Standing Alone

In early February our pasture is a wasteland. The drought, severe heat, and hungry horses reduced a formerly lush, green meadow to dry dirt. There is hope, however. A lone survivor stands amidst the brown dust.

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Survivor Photographed February 2012

It may be short – stunted even – but it has produced seeds!  May it reproduce wildly all over the pasture!

Meanwhile, I admire the sunlight glinting off its seed fluffs.