Posts Tagged ‘wildflowers’
I always find it difficult to narrow down a years worth of photographs into one list of the “best”. It is a good exercise, however, to really sit down and go through your work and determine what images best fit your current vision for your photography. I did this back in 2010 and 2011 as a part of Jim Goldstein’s project and I am please to enter my images again for this years version.
All of these photographs are available as Fine Art Prints.
So in no particular order these are the “top” (probably better termed as favourite) photos I have made in 2012.
Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park Spring Panorama
(Coldstream, British Columbia)
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Tags: bald eagle, balsamroot, bellingham, birds, birds of prey, bridges, british columbia, broadleaf arnica, broadleaf lupine, bubo scandiacus, Canon EF 1.4x Extender II, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, common paintbrush, cosens bay, delta, district of kent, fall color, fall colours, first narrows bridge, flowers, fraser valley, fraser valley bald eagle festival, haliaeetus leucocephalus, harrison, huntoon point, japanese maple, kalamalka lake, kulshan ridge, lakes, larrabee state park, lions gate bridge, lupines, magnolia, mount baker wilderness, mount baker-snoqualmie national forest, mount rainier national park, mount shuksan, mountains, night photography, okanagan, owls, queen elizabeth park, reflections, silver lake, silver lake provincial park, snowy owls, spring, stanley park, sunset, suspension bridge, thompson okanagan, tipsoo lake, top 10, trees, usa, vancouver, vernon, washington state, wells peak, western anenome, wildflowers, wildlife
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Wildflowers at Rainier
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Broadleaf Lupines (Lupinus latifolus), Western Anenome seedheads (Anenome occidentalis) and Common Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata) in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State, USA.
Earlier I made a few posts showing various wildflower scenes from Mount Rainier National Park. Having edited most of my wildflower images from that trip at this point, I have to say that so far this image is my favourite. It doesn’t show a field filled with wildflowers, but more of an up close perspective. The Broadleaf Lupines (Lupinus latifolus) are certainly the highlight but I like the single Common Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata) flower and the Western Anenome seedheads (Anenome occidentalis) on the side. The yellow flowers which are most likely Broadloeaf Arnica (Arnica latifolia, while not in focus – do help add some color to the scene overall.
Perhaps another reason I like this image is that it was rather difficult to actually make happen. It was windy at Tipsoo Lake that day, and the stems of these flowers aren’t rigid enough to resist swaying in the breeze. So I required a lot of patience to make this particular photograph, but I liked the composition a lot so I stuck with it!
Tags: anenome occidentalis, arnica latifolia, broadleaf arnica, broadleaf lupine, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, castilleja miniata, common paintbrush, lupines, lupinus latifolius, mount rainier national park, paintbrush, tipsoo lake, washington state, western anenome, wildflowers
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Tipsoo Lake Wildflowers
-click to enlarge-
Almost 2 months ago I went down to Mount Rainier National Park to view the wildflowers. Last week I posted some photos I made at Tipsoo Lake. Even on a weekday a National Park will be a busy place, so there were a lot of people hiking the trails and taking photos. For some compositions I waited for the people to be clear of my frame, but for others I tried to photograph what the people were doing on the trails. There was a lot of pointing and photographing this great display of wildflowers.
Tags: alpine aster, anenome occidentalis, arnica latifolia, aster alpinus, broadleaf arnica, broadleaf lupine, castilleja miniata, cell phone photography, hiking, lupines, lupinus latifolius, mount rainier national park, paintbrush, pasque flowers, people, photographers, photography, recreation, tipsoo lake, trails, upper tipsoo lake, washington state, western anenome, wildflowers
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Western Anenome
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In mid August I went to Mount Rainier National Park to view what was promising to be an impressive display of wildflowers. As the weather at the Paradise area generally did not allow for viewing of the mountain itself, I headed to Tipsoo Lake to see the display there. I was not disappointed! While I have not seen a full display at Paradise, which is rumored to be a bit better, I was quite impressed with what I saw at Tipsoo Lake. The first photograph here is of some Pasque Flowers or Western Anemone (Anemone occidentalis) seed heads that were nicely backlit by the setting sun near Upper Tipsoo Lake. There are also a few Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata), Broadleaf Lupines (Lupinus latifolius), Alpine Aster (Aster alpigenus), and Broadleaf Arnica (Arnica latifolia) in that photo.
Here are a few more wildflower photographs made around Tipsoo and Upper Tipsoo Lakes:
Tags: alpine aster, anenome occidentalis, arnica latifolia, aster alpinus, broadleaf arnica, broadleaf lupine, castilleja miniata, lupines, lupinus latifolius, mount rainier national park, paintbrush, pasque flowers, tipsoo lake, upper tipsoo lake, washington state, western anenome, wildflowers
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Cosens Bay from Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park
-click to enlarge-
During my recent trip to the North Okanagan region of British Columbia I spent some time in Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park. Of all the parks and areas I visited, I think this is my favourite view of Kalamalka Lake – a view looking down on Cosens Bay. The flowers in the foreground are Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) and I found them in full bloom which was fortuitous timing to say the least.
What was perhaps not as lucky timing was what happened next. I walked a bit further up Cosens Bay Road and then jumped on a few rocks out into the grassy meadow for a better vantage point on some Balsamroot plants that looked promising. I try not to walk on vegetation if at all possible so rock hopping is a good opportunity to avoid this. I was about 10 feet into the field, standing on a rock, finishing up a photograph when I heard a distinctive rattling sound – but only twice. This made me uncomfortable to say the least – there are Western Rattlesnakes in the park and I’d just read a sign on the way in about them. They say on the sign that when you hear this sound you should identify where the snake is, then walk far around it. Great advice IF you can find its location! I could not – and it wasn’t rattling anymore so determining the source was not exactly going to be easy. Unable to find it I extended the legs of my tripod to their fullest extent and swept the grass as far ahead of me like I was looking for mines – and made my way back to the road. This was uneventful. I’ve read that people find unexploded WWII ordinates in the park too, so mine sweeping might not have been that far from the truth. The Cosens Bay area was a WWII mortar practice range. Every 10 years or so someone finds an unexploded mortar which has to be disposed of!
Tags: arrowleaf balsamroot, balsamorhiza sagittata, british columbia, coldstream, cosens bay, kalamalka lake, okanagan, panorama, panoramic, rattlesnakes, thompson okanagan, vernon, wildflowers
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Arrowleaf Balsamroot
(Balsamorhiza sagittata)
at Kalamalka Lake
-click to enlarge-
This Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata) is growing in the fields of Kekuli Bay Provincial Park right on the shores of Kalamalka Lake near Vernon, British Columbia. In the few days I was staying in Vernon I visited this park four times. It was on my last day, on the drive home that I made this photo – and it was fairly close to the images I had imagined at that location. My first day I was there looking for sunset only to realize the sunset was not in the right direction for what I wanted. The next day the light was great for a while but when I returned to Kekuli Bay a storm brought some wind and horizontal rain – so nice wildflower/lake photos were not going to be easy. This did present another opportunity I had not anticipated though – and I’ll write about that later. Luckily the conditions were just what I wanted on my way back home, and I knew exactly what I wanted to shoot having been there numerous times already.
Tags: arrowleaf balsamroot, balsamorhiza sagittata, british columbia, coldstream valley, kalamalka lake, kekuli bay provincial park, lakes, okanagan, thompson okanagan, vernon, wildflowers
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Otter Bay Beach at
Ellison Provincial Park
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Last week I went on a photography trip to Vernon, British Columbia. I headed up the Crowsnest Highway 3 through Manning Provincial Park, through Princeton, and then on to Keremeos, Penticton, Kelowna and then Vernon. On a previous trip to the area I stayed in Lake Country which is between Kelowna and Vernon but found that most of the areas that attracted me, namely Kalamalka Lake, were near Vernon and not Kelowna.
Staying in Vernon put me within easy reach of 4 places I wanted to photograph on this trip – Kekuli Bay Provincial Park, Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park, the Coldstream Valley, and Ellison Provincial Park.
Ponderosa Pine on
Okanagan Lake
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On the second day of my trip I visited Ellison Provincial Park. I didn’t really know anything about Ellison except it was close to Vernon and is on the shores of Okanagan Lake, not Kalamalka Lake. I parked in the day use area parking and walked down the short trail to Otter Bay beach. The first photograph here is of Otter Bay beach – the shallow water warm enough to exhibit some of the green minerals in the water. I made a few photographs of this area and then moved onto the adjacent rocky hill and photographed this Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) along the shoreline. If you look closely at this second photograph from Ellison you can see the small, purple wildflowers of the Shrubby Penstemon (Penstemon fruticosus). These flowers were everywhere between the rocks, as well as some sporadic Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata). Photos of those will be coming soon!
Columbian Black-tailed Deer
(Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)
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Later in the day I had waited through a brief but interesting storm in the parking lot at Kekuli Bay, but since the storm had somewhat cleared I was searching for a place to view a potential sunset. The night before there was a good sunset – but I was too unfamiliar with the area to find a good place to photograph it. I was stuck on the wrong side of some hills and ran out of light before finding a way around them. Earlier in the day at Ellison I had figured this would be a good place to go for sunset, if I didn’t find anything else better in the rest of the days exploration. The sunset light never really materialized, but in preparation for it I had found myself back near at Ellison just in case. I didn’t go down to the water as the light just wasn’t there but just as I was leaving I had the opportunity to photograph some Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and in an adjacent field, a larger group of Columbian Black-tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus). While making the photographs of the Black-tailed Deer, I tried to not just get “closeups” of the animals with my 70-200mm lens (plus a 1.4x TC for good measure!) but also zoom out a bit to get the animals in context with their environment. Sometimes a photograph showing the animal in their habitat can be stronger than one showing just the animal. I’ve started to do this with wildflowers as well.
Many more photographs of this trip are to come. I think my favourites are from Kalamalka Provincial Park – a place that will definitely be on my list to visit when I travel back here in the Fall!
Tags: beaches, black tailed deer, british columbia, columbian black tailed deer, deer, ellison provincial park, lakes, odocoileus hemionus columbianus, okanagan, okanagan lake, otter bay, penstemon, penstemon fruticosus, pines, pinus ponderosa, ponderosa pine, shoreline, shrubby penstemon, trees, vernon, wildflowers, wildlife
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Vine Maple and Pacific Bleeding
Heart in Campbell Valley Park
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Today I have two photos from Campbell Valley Regional Park in Langley, British Columbia. One of the things I have been working on with my photography is to improve the photos I make of scenes inside the forest. There can often be so many competing elements all heading in different directions that a pleasing, non cluttered composition can be difficult. So I decided to work on that, and am getting results that I think are an improvement and more compelling than previous efforts. This photo (left) of a Vine Maple (Acer circinatum) with a bed of Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa) growing below it is one example.
Walking path in Campbell
Valley Park
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I’ve recently been editing and keywording all the photos I’ve made in Campbell Valley Park over the last few years. Many were already processed, but there was still a lot of work to be done. I’ll place them all in their own gallery on my website soon – right now they are scattered over a few different categories. Campbell Valley Park is only about a 15 minute drive for me, so I will likely be spending even more time there as a lot of the park I have yet to explore.
Tags: acer circinatum, bleeding heart, british columbia, campbell valley park, campbell valley regional park, canada, dicentra formosa, forests, langley, maples, pacific bleeding heart, trees, vine maples, wildflowers
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Pacific Bleeding Heart
(
Dicentra formosa)
-click to enlarge-
This is a Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa) flower I found in Campbell Valley Park. It doesn’t break any new compositional ground being a simple macro shot, but it did require a fair bit of patience to shoot. While in the middle of the forest, low to the ground, the breeze was still throwing these flowers around quite a bit so getting this shot required about 30 minutes. I managed to get a few shots that were sharp, luckily.
One thing that has helped me greatly in getting sharp macro shots is the live view mode on my new Canon 7D – a feature my old camera did not have. I find that especially with the macro shots zooming in using the screen not only allows me to focus better (using manual focus) but determine when the subject has stopped twitching in the wind. It also means I do not have to lie down on the trail to look through the viewfinder to compose the shot like my old camera.
Tags: bleeding heart, british columbia, campbell valley park, dicentra formosa, langley, macro, pacific bleeding heart, wildflowers
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About Michael Russell Photography
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