Sunday, May 2, 2010

Rainy but fun flower hunting

Well, the weekend at Flora-Quest was a BLAST!!! Many thanks to Cheryl Harner (aka The Weedpicker) for organizing this great event, and also thanks to the volunteer staff who help Cheryl carry out her vision.  My group saw lots of great flowers, including some rarities for the state, in addition to some great birds.  The weather was a little sloppy, but not enough to spoil the fun.

Rainy weather does make it challenging when it comes to photography, though.  One common problem that occurs is condensation on the lens.  On one hand it makes it hard to focus, but on the other hand it makes for some cool effects that don't require any kind of special equipment, making for some very soft, and sometimes surreal, photos, like this one of Foamflower:


The only modification I made was to bump up the contrast a little, but the glowing look is all thanks to condensation on my lens.

I was delighted to meet a number of people at the event who hail from the Athens area. What a small world it is! If one of you is reading this, remember that my email address is accessible if you click on my profile link at the top of the page if you'd like to keep in touch. Otherwise, I hope I'll run into you in town!

More pictures to follow in a few days. Tomorrow I'll be prepping for my first volunteer naturalist's class!

9 comments:

Richard King said...

Great photo, very Lord of the Rings style.

Jain said...

Very pretty glow!
Anxious to hear about the naturalist's class. . .

Nellie from Beyond My Garden said...

I want to go next year to this event. AND I love your foam flower.

Shelley said...

I love how that flower glows - great shot!

KaHolly said...

Oh, Heather, what a great picture! So ethereal and sweet. Glad you had such fun. Good luck with your naturalist class. Lookk forward to hearing all about it. ~karen

Erica Houskeeper said...

Hi Heather.

Wow! What a cool photo! That's amazing that the condensation on your lens created this glow. Looking forward to hearing about your naturalists class.

Carol Mattingly said...

Fantastic Heather. You caught the essence beautifully. Carol

Judy said...

I bet they pay a lot of money fro special effects like that on TV! This looks like the kindly ghost of foamflowers!

Heather said...

Richard - Ha, thanks! I imagine this flower would be right at home with the talking trees.

Jain - Thank you. I'll try to post something about the naturalist's classes soon!

BTG - Flora-Quest is an excellent event, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. I'm sure you would love it.

Shelley - Thank you!

Karen - The weekend was SO much fun. Lots of great flowers and people. I hope to post soon about my classes.

Erica - Thanks. Sometimes nature creates all the effects for us, right?

Carol - Thank you so much.

Judy - I bet you're right! The Casper of foamflowers, if you will.