Friday, July 11, 2025

Into the Woods

We've been taking our little constitutionals earlier these days in an effort to beat the heat. Sometimes we succeed on beating it; sometimes we don’t.

One morning we drove up the the patch of woods on the northern edge of town. That's me walking the access trail beside the woods, which are off to the left and also way ahead in front of me.


There were all sorts of wildflowers in bloom along that ↑ path. I had brought my macro lens and took many photos. Macros are not easy to do without a tripod, but one does one's best. There is a choice to be made. I could open the aperture to blur the background, or I could stop down the aperture to get the subject in sharper focus but also see more of the distracting background. I went for the smooth bokeh in this photo, so most of the flower was not sharp. Pretty colour though.


There were daisies aplenty, so that is what I shot mostly, or at least made the best photos. I did a little better with the focus on this ↓ one, perhaps because the flower is flatter, with less depth.


I am happier with this ↓ photo because there is some colour in the background: Just a bit, but I think it helps.


Finally, I spied a daisy whose stem extended all of the way out of the gloomy background so that the flower could catch the sunlight. I closed the aperture a bit in order to get the stem in focus too. By George! it worked. I really like this one with the stem snaking in and out of the light.


Eventually, we got into the woodsy part. There were no flowers to speak of, but, by golly, there were insects, and by gum there was heat. So, there wasn’t much of us for long. 😄


We turned toward home, saying to ourselves that the woods will probably be lovely in autumn.




21 comments:

  1. The pests have been eating me alive as I attempt to photograph birds in the woods these days! I hate sprays but they are essential here.

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    1. They begin to abate here around the middle of August.

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  2. There is no blue quite like the blue of a chicory bloom.
    Bug jackets are mandatory here when walking the woods now.

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  3. Thanks for braving the bugs and getting the shot of the deep dark woods...as well as that fantastic one of the snaking stem and daisy...or chicory as the case may be.

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  4. You did very well without a tripod, I think. Thanks for the great shots.

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  5. Your photographs are lovely, all of them.
    I just point and shoot and hope for the best, but my husband spends ages adjusting this, that and the other. I'm no help to him, because I like all the photos he takes.

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  6. I saw your daisies at the ... other place. Lovely. I love seeing dew or raindrops on flower petals.
    I love the way you got flowers coming out of the darkness and into the light.

    There are quite few farms in our state that had sunflower fields. They have to put up no trespassing signs as so many people want to walk in them and take photos!

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    1. There have been some sunflower farms here that require an admittance fee, but I don’t know if it worked for them and if they are doing it again.

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  7. I love that your woods have nice walking paths. Makes it easier. Pity about the bugs. I'm not surprised but still, never fun!

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  8. By gosh by golly by gum those are some good photos!

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  9. The Woods would be Lovely in Autumn... well, that part made me Laugh out loud! The Photos are wonderful you captured tho' thru the Eye of your Lens. We recently had a Man from Africa and a Man from Australia tell us they were not used to how Hot Arizona is!!!!!!!!! Yowsah, if an Australian and an African think it's too Hot here, I guess it is. *Winks* To be Fair, our Unofficial Temperature gauge was reading 120 that day.

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  10. Your walk reads like a quiet summer morning in motion. The daisy progression was lovely especially that final shot with the sunlit stem! I could feel the shift from field to forest. Autumn will surely reward your return.

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  11. Is that first flower chicory?

    I will tell you a secret. Every single time I post a picture, I am embarrassed, because I have seen the work of people with actual skills.

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  12. I love that middle daisy shot. You were brave to head out in the heat & humidity.

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  13. Well, hopefully a few cool days will be dotted in before autumn. I love the snaking daisy shot!

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  14. Your photos are beautiful. The heat and humidity 😩 tends to attract the annoying insects.

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  15. Your final statement that the woods would be better n August is exactly why we have not ventured out into the nearby park. It's close enough to the mill apts but also this is bug season and it's been hot. Glad you did get some macro shots and the stem snaking from the bloom was a good one.

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  16. Not having any of those lenses your description of how you did it is foreign to me. But lovely photos obtained.

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  17. I love the woods photo--it looks so peaceful although the conditions don't sound ideal.

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  18. We have lots of chicory and daisies too and I can never capture that blue as well as you have here.

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