White Pine

Later this afternoon I made the rounds by car around the lake. The sun was fiercely bright and the wind steady and crisp. There is a bit of shore melting going on, but with more seasonable temperatures returning that will all freeze up again.

I'm breaking in a new wide angle lens and will drop in a shot every once in a while with a regular specimen post--just a bit of creative experimentation going on here...










Cute, isn't it? Hard to believe this little one can become a towering White Pine.


















Often times the pines will have many dead branches holding on below the live growth in the tree tops. If you're ever in need of dry firewood to get your fire started, the very best material is these dead branches. They stay quite dry right down to the little twigs and make great kindling.








Notice the deeply furrowed bark that indicates that this is an old timer. The pines seem to group in bunches around the lake. When the weather warms and I can make the longer trek around the lake on foot, I promise to illustrate the grouping nature.






Although not that easy to pick out, needles always form in groups of five. The set at five o'clock is somewhat easy to count. (Click on the photo for a larger image.)















Here is the smooth bark of a young pine. Notice the whorled nature of the branching.

Out for a Stroll

The weather's improving. Temperatures into the 40's F yesterday and possible 50's today. In other words, great weather to get out and photograph specimens. Yesterday's stroll with camera in hand was so pleasurable that I thought I'd try to share a bit of that here by drawing from new photos of mostly previously identified specimens. There are a couple of new entries as well, but only as traces from the past.

Here are the Wisteria vines working their way up and around an Eastern Pine. It's curious how the vines are numerous and delicate.



















Here's another Wisteria of a differing habit--with a real stranglehold on an unknown tree.



















A little hemlock is nestled under some larger trees, waiting for an opportunity to shoot up if and when a surrounding tree dies off.



















An old Baltimore Oriole nest. The Orioles migrate up each spring and always build a nest close by to this location. That is, except for the year that a blackbird tormented the poor nest builder. That blackbird would tear apart the Oriole's nest as fast as it could be built. After three days, the Oriole gave up and relocated for that year.



















An lastly, here are the tracks of a Cottontail Rabbit. The bunnies will come up into the yard this spring once the lawn and weeds green in.

Macro Testing

Here's a closeup of a white pine bud shot with my new macro lens. Holding up the actual bud against my monitor screen, this shot comes out about five times actual size.

I used to shoot macro back in the seventies and all this new digital technology sure eases the process. But, nothing come without cost. It's been an evening of learning how to use CF card readers and installing drivers until finally finding a level of compatibility for RAW files with Photoshop Elements 5.0 and the Canon 50d.

Now I can spend more time on efficient workflows and smoothing out my macro techniques. But for tonight, I'll quit while I'm ahead!

Eastern White Pine

It's time for a spot of color!

Here is the Eastern White Pine, Pinus strobus, the tallest tree in Eastern North America, with records of this creature reaching heights of 180 feet.

What we have here is a terminal bud on the lowest reaching branch of a nearby youngster. What's to be expected when collecting in the dark? With the weekend coming and weather permitting, I hope to stock up on specimens for later photos and research.