While I loved the largest of the trees and never tired of seeing them, I suppose some of my favorite redwood scenes were of the mixed-age forests. Old veterans scarred black with fire, hollowed out even but still standing, damaged by winter storms through the centuries. Beside them healthy young trees or spindly saplings, some from the logs of fallen trees, a variety of shapes and colors and textures between them.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell.
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Oberon in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
An unexpected delight from my visit to the redwoods was finding trillium all across the park, little jewels blooming beneath the giants. Our western trillium blooms white early in the spring and turns purple as it ages, like the flower in the bard’s tale.
Everywhere I go, animals are overjoyed to see me. I can’t believe it’s been a year since I was in the redwoods, can’t wait to get down there again.
Of all the soft pictures on this trip to Mississippi, this portrait of a chipping sparrow perched in the center of a tree hurts the most, as it is my favorite bird picture from the trip. I missed the focus on the little bird, leaving little detail in its feathers. We have chipping sparrows here in Oregon, but I don’t recall seeing one, so I took as many pictures as I could while I had the chance. Some of the others came out sharper, but I still like this abstract one the best.
Another picture from my trip to Mississippi of another old friend that I first met when I got into birding back when I lived in the East. Knowing I might have an occasional chance at birds and lizards, I brought my oldest lens, my 100-400mm telephoto zoom. I love how it collapses enough to fit in my little camera bag that fits in even the smallest overhead bins, this lens doesn’t get enough credit for how easy it is to take on casual trips. Yet without a tripod and in low light I knew pictures were likely to be blurry and soft.
I missed focus on the chickadee so it is indeed rather soft, even at web resolutions, and making matters worse I might have even had a tele-converter on and been manually focusing. And while I don’t like the look of the foreground, I love the background and since it’s my only decent picture of this little bird, I’ll put it online.
At least for now.