Reconnecting with nature through hiking, camping, and paddling
I had some other ideas for this week’s photo challenge but I was walking through the woods and the reflection of the trees in this stream caught my attention. Perhaps too literal a treatment of this week’s theme but I liked the color and the stillness of the water at this spot.
I saw this fly walking along a palm leaf and decided to try out some macro shots. I wasn’t happy with any of the more traditional photos I took but liked this one, taken from the underside of the leaf.
This pine stands alone near the top of a hill, in a meadow at Shenandoah National Park.
This spider spun its web across the leaves of some aquatic vegetation and then sat, waiting behind a leaf for its breakfast to arrive.
This tree stood along a trail I was hiking one morning. I thought the vivid, rusty bark contrasting with the greens of the moss and pines made this an interesting study of color and texture. The early morning shade provided the perfect soft, even light to produce the deeply saturated colors just as I remember seeing them.
Colorful damselflies roam the shoreline of the Rappahannock River in Virginia. I photographed this one during a summer canoe trip.
As hot mineral water seeps out of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park it leaves tiny layers of minerals. The heat of the water provides an ideal environment for bacteria, which grow in colorful mats over the wavy mineral deposits. The end result is an amazing display of color and texture.
The boulders you can see in the this photograph were most likely deposited by glaciers quite some time ago. Boulders like these are pretty common throughout the glacially carved valleys and meadows in Yellowstone National Park.
Hiking past a large patch of Arrowleaf Balsamroot, I noticed a Zebra Swallowtail drifting from flower to flower collecting nectar and unwittingly spreading pollen in the process.