From the intro:
LIVE from the Nature Blog Network Pavilion deep in the heart of the internets, it’s the NBN Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence! Featuring all your favorite bird themed blogs, tonight, on one stage, performing together for the first time since...
Sometimes I struggle, parsing through hundreds of photos, to find the right pictures and story that I want to present. Assembling this post somehow came very easily, perhaps because its subject is one of my favorite trees.
Buttonwood is such an absolutely beautiful being that there's no way I can't feel inspired. A while back I found one of last year's fruits on the sidewalk under the tree. I'd been looking for one of those for months. Now I'm graced with a more complete picture.
Here are a few fully flowered buttons. The clump of trees in the area is quite loaded with these.
And here's a close shot of one of the buttons.
Here's a button where the flowering is going by. Each of those little brown tube-like things appears to be a seed at the end of a tube that would catch the wind. I still really need to research this whole flower, seed, button apparatus, but the picture is slowly becoming clearer.
And lastly, here's a shot of the lone Buttonwood at the far end of the lake. Isn't this just the most incredibly beautiful tree?
BRAVO! Congratulations on your NBN award! Well deserved too, I might add!
ReplyDeleteThe buttonwood tree is new to me- I've heard of it, but never have seen one to my knowledge. I went searching through my reference books and sure enough, it is rare in these parts; if it is to be found at all, it will be along the Connecticut River or have had been planted.
I agree- its bark is amazing!
The ethereal look that you get in your photos is quite stunning. Do you do a lot of post processing? You have a real eye for getting it all "just right".
~gretchen
Oh dear, it wasn't really an award. I just submitted a post to be included in the carnival. I probably didn't explain it all very well. It's the first time I join in. But thank you, Gretchen, anyways for the very kind words! :-)
ReplyDeleteI try to handle subjects with depth of field (dof) and cropping. Then it's a matter of exposure settings, tonal levels, saturation, and sharpening. Other than the dof, it's all handled within Adobe products--Adobe Camera Raw, Bridge, and Photoshop.
I'm experimenting with some techniques that push the subjects more towards a hopefully artistic viewpoint, kind of interpretive rather than illustrative. (I'll send an example off to you later this evening.) I'm hoping to be able to present some of this stuff soon--outside of the blog format, that is. Right now I need better skills/experience, more material, and a decent hosting environment. It's all mostly in my head...but I'm heading into a three day weekend and I know what I'll be doing!
Thanks for the compliments! So nice. :-)
Oh my, I see now that I really did win an award! :-) Forgive me, it's been a terribly long day at the office...
ReplyDelete"For the Most Urbane Bird award goes undoubtedly to Killdeer from Nuncketest for a wrenching portrayal of a bird that always looks exceptionally nervous despite it’s big-city, parking lot, lifestyle."
What a riot! :-)