Lo How A Plum E'er Blooming

Spring has sprung in Discovery Park! The Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) shrubs are budding, and a few bushes now have coming some flowerets bright. These plants are great; green leaves and white flowers light up the drab forests every February. They are like an alarm clock for the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Native plants wake up and get going right away, even if the local weather, as we all know, hits the snooze button and waits a couple months to get spring going on its end.

Here is my best. The red in the background in the lower third of the picture is from least year's dead leaves and twigs; I knew it would give an interesting color contrast. What I didn't anticipate was how dark the conifer foliage in the upper two thirds of the background would appear. I think that characteristic, though, makes the picture more interesting. I stopped down as far as I could (f/3.8) to minimize any distracting shapes in the background. It might look like I used flash, but I did not.

Here are some buds on another Indian Plum bush. I was so close that I was able to stop down to f/8 while maintaining a mostly solid background; I really needed more definition in the foreground than I would have gotten with a wider aperture; the area in focus would have been to small to form pleasing spots for the eye to lock on to when viewing the picture.

There is also a willow showing some signs of life. Frankly, I'll have to wait until later in the year to identify it. One picture I took turned out; it needs its contrast increased and the colors enhanced (maybe...if the contrast doesn't do the trick). I stopped down to f/10 because I wanted to place these budding branches within the context of the wintry field and branches behind them.

Finally, an experimental shot I took of some Indian Plum flowers. I wanted to juxtapose the new flowers against the bare branches of the surrounding trees. To do so, I stopped down to f/20 so that the branches' shapes would be at least somewhat discernible. It turned out better than I expected, although white flowers and a white cloudy sky aren't the best combination; the green draws all the attention in this photograph. I'll be trying a similar composition next month, hopefully, when the salmonberry bushes begin to bloom.

Before I go, I'll mention that I took a trip to Deception Pass State Park a couple weeks ago. Other than being lost for about 20 minutes of the hike, it was fairly uneventful. I jumped the gun on any interesting plant scenery. Only one picture is worth posting. This is looking west across Lottie Bay from the Canoe Pass Vista Trail; the little headland that I was on isn't named on my map. Anyway, to get all the depth of field that I wanted (f/25), I had to use an exposure speed of five seconds. This turned out to be a blessing because it blurred the water's motion and made it look glassy. Thankfully the air was still enough that the leaves didn't blur. The tree in the foreground is a Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii).

Ta ta!