Photo of the Week 2025-06-16

 

A few days of the cottage at just the right time allowed me to capture some of the many spring wildflowers currently in bloom. I had planned to present a selection of those photos but there are quite a few and I chose to showcase just two for this post. Others will follow on my social media streams, but for now ... 

 

' lone slipper '

' slipper triplet '

 

I shot these (on morning walks with Lynn and Sullivan) handheld with the RF 85mm f/2 Macro on an R5 at fairly wide aperture for background blur and was very pleased with the results ... some of my favourite images of the Yellow Lady's Slipper so abundant in June on the Bruce.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2023-09-18

 

' chicory dew '

Roadside chicory blooms along the cottage road on a dewy morning

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-06-26

 

' paintbrush season '

Summer officially arrived a few days ago but I still have a few images of spring wildflowers to share.

 

This "Indian Paintbrush" was isolated, using shallow depth of focus, from a rather large patch of them along the road near our cottage. It seemed an exceptional season for this bright scarlet flower, at least in areas close to our cottage. A large number of plants showed up in places I had not seen many previously and larger "patched" in areas where I had.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-06-12

 

I've been waiting for wildflower season on 'the Bruce' and it's here. In the couple of weeks since my last visit, Yellow Lady's Slipper, Indian Paintbrush, Blue-Eyed Grass and Gay Wings have come into bloom and I'm on the lookout for any opportunity to make unique compositions.

Though I haven't found anything particularly different, I have found the Lady's Slippers somewhat more sparse and Indian Paintbrush more plentiful. At least that's the case in the locations I visit annually this time of year. I also noticed an abundance of Blue-Eyed Grass in a couple of surprise locations, one right out front just off the shoreline. These little beauties close up for the night and in overcast conditions, making them hard to see so I'll have to wait for the sun to come out again for a photo opportunity. In the meantime, there are Lady's Slippers ...

' a bunch of beauties '

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-05-29

Spring wildflower season is off to a crazy start on the Bruce Peninsula. The orchid bloom is still a while away but the Trillium are in bloom, and Wild Strawberry flowers are plentiful along roadsides. Another roadside wildflower making a grand presence during my walks along the cottage road network was Wild Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis.

 

The lovely red and yellow blooms were a surprise treat this weekend. The are common, and I regularly encounter them in small clusters but this year must they dominated the side of the road along a stretch near our place. Even so, my favourite image is of a single bloom against a shadowed forest background.

 

' Wild Columbine '

I told you they dominated the roadside

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-06-13

 

Continuing with my wildflower photography season on 'the Bruce' ...

There is a patch of Fringed polygala (Gaywings) nearby our cottage that has become a favourite stop of mine while on my spring walks with camera. The tiny bright pink blossoms wink at me from the forest floor in dappled morning sunlight. When I went to investigate a little earlier than usual, I found this pair of flowers off to the side growing out of some fallen deadwood.

 

' Gaywings on fallen deadwood '

 

' Gaywing flowers up close '

These have to be some of my favourite spring wildflowers and I've only encountered them on my treks in the bush in Northern Bruce Peninsula.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-06-21

On the lookout for a Blue Flag Iris (Iris versicolor) to photograph this spring, I was surprised when the cottage neighbours found several growing along the edge of their property. Of course I took advantage of the opportunity close at hand ...

 

back-lit blue flag

A blossom's eye view of a back-lit Blue Fag Iris

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-06-07

Blue-Eyed Grass

On my late spring walks at the cottage, I'm on the lookout for Blue-Eyed Grass along the margins of the roadway. I first encountered this lovely little perennial wildflower in the years we were driving up to 'the Bruce' while considering if we might buy a cottage there. Now, I'm treated to clusters of these little purple-blue flowers along the road just a few hundred meters from our driveway.

 

Blue-Eyed Grass in Sun

 

This year in the first week of June, I was pleased to see quite a number of the little flower buds early one morning. These flowers only open for a short period each day, closing up again in the evening once the sun begins to set. This makes them somewhat elusive to spot, as without the flowers, they look just like the other grasses in the dirt and gravel bordering the road.

 

Blue-Eyed Patch

 

Blue-Eyed Roadside

 

I'm managed to find several more patches to visit and photograph in the coming years ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-05-31

 

There is a little patch of forest, where the morning sun breaks through the predominantly cedar canopy to dapple the ground. In spring, it is magically transformed when several large patches of Fringed polygala or Gaywings (Polygaloides paucifolia) emerge. Pushing up through the forest floor, their bright green leaves and pink flowers are like paint spattered from natures brush. A closer look reveals an amazingly complex little wildflower, with a pair of pink wing-like petals bracketing a 3rd forward facing petal tipped with with fringe (my description).

 

Gaywings

The location is one I look forward to visiting every spring now, and this year I had plans to spend a bit more time photographing these unique spring wildflowers. With my creative spirit seeming to have fled in these COVID times, the first effort did not go well. Oh, I could blame it on my allergies, raging with pollen filling the air at this time, that had my eyes watering and itchy making it difficult to focus (literally and figuratively), but more likely, I've just gotten lazy with my photography. Firing off exposures, not really paying attention to the basics of composition, shutter speed, aperture, going through the motions is no recipe for a good image. It showed in the initial results when I reviewed them back at the cottage.

 

With a better plan, more aware, more focused, more determined to create an image I could be satisfied with, I settled in to enjoy the process and let it flow. The result above may not be to everyone's liking. Some may critique it's lack of focus on all parts of the plant, but I find it hearkens back to my earlier shallow depth of field (DoF) imagery.

Following are some additional, more conventional images from the outing.

I've seen these flowers at various locations along another trail, but not in the large patches I see in this favourite little patch of forest in my northern backyard.

 

DJE