Over the weekend, I hiked through the O'Grady unit of the Green River Natural Area to look for wildflowers. I was last there relatively recently, in early February, but what a difference a month and a half makes! The trails are now full of new green growth and the sounds of birdsong. I was indeed able to find some wildflowers to photograph, and I'll start the post with those. First, trillium (Trillium ovatum), just after a rain shower. F/6.3. I thought about a wider aperture to blur more of the background, but stopping down just a touch preserved more clarity in the raindrops, which was the effect I wanted.
Next, salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) in sunlight that was filtered by high clouds. Any sunnier and the highlights would have been too harsh, but I think it ended up just right, and the backlighting of the flower petals is a nice effect. F/4.5.
There weren't many bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa) out yet, but I did find a few just starting to open. Here's one such plant. I typically try to avoid including too much detail from the forest floor, as the background can get pretty busy, but I think it works here. Rain was falling while I took this picture, and the raindrops kept hitting the buds and causing them to move, so this one took a bit of patience. F/6.3.
Next, salmonberry buds. I like how they fade out of focus; that creates a good sense of depth. F/5.6.
I also used my macro lens on some scenes that weren't conventional wildflower shots. Here's a view of willow catkins, with the Green River in the background. I'm not good at identifying willows from their catkins, but I'd guess that this is Sitka willow (Salix sitchensis) based on other pictures that I've seen. F/9.
Next, new growth on a salmonberry plant, with the mossy forest in the background. F/11.
Finally, raindrops on some new growth on the forest floor; I'm not sure what plant this is. F/5.
Can you tell that I love spring?
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