After a light rain yesterday evening, today was a clear-blue sky day. I set off late in the afternoon to see what I might discover along Piney Woods Church Road. I took quite a few stand-by photographs, and also found an unopened cocoon — probably belonging to a saturniid moth — suspended from the top of a winter weed. While intriguing from a natural history perspective, the cocoon simply would not yield a good photo. Indeed, it was a day of many shots coming close, but not quite working out. As usual, the principle of taking lots of images and trusting the odds came to my rescue. Near Rico Road, I photographed a sweetgum seed pod hanging from its stem about ten feet above the ground. Since it was well out of my reach, I photographed it with my zoom lens, not the macro +4 I have been using of late. I love the deep blue sky in this photo.
