After today’s storm, I took this photograph of loblolly pine needles capped by water droplets along Piney Woods Church Road.
Aug 202014
Aug 202014
I ventured out to Piney Woods Church Road this afternoon after an intense thunderstorm. The air was delightfully cool, and thunder still rumbled overhead. I found great delight, as I often do, in photographing droplets of water. I was delighted to discover this one water droplet with a tiny spider, a few millimeters across, just below it, clinging to a slender thread. I was reminded of an astronaut on a space walk above our blue-green sphere.
Aug 092014
I set out on a humid morning, after the fog had lifted and shortly before the heat descended. After so many dry afternoons I was drawn ineluctably to drops of water, minute suspended temporary worlds. My favorite photograph is of this single water droplet, hanging from the tip of a sweetgum leaf.
Jul 202014
Walking down Piney Woods Church Road during a light rain, I encountered a pair of spiderwebs with water droplets clinging to them, parallel to each other and just a few inches apart. In this photograph, I have focused on the closer of the two, while droplets from the one behind it form bright circles of light in the background. Connecting the centers of those circles reveals the other web, much as stars connected by lines depict constellations.
Jul 202014
Late Sunday morning, under a fine drizzle, I explored the wonders of Piney Woods Church Road. I was drawn, invariably, to droplets of water. I have chosen two for today, because they go so well together. Both would, I think, make stunning earrings. Two watery worlds cling to the tips of vine branches, against a background of flowing colors. My familiar gravel road becomes a path through a museum of water, color, and muted light.
Jul 192014
From my post-rain walk down Piney Woods Church Road earlier this afternoon, here is a pair of water droplets, awaiting the Sun’s return.
Jul 102014
I ventured out to Piney Woods Church Road today between rainstorms. It was wonderful to see water everywhere — in shallow puddles on the roadbed, in droplets on leaves, and suspended from twigs like this one. The humidity was amazing — I dripped as much as the vegetation did — and quite a few insects were about, including an odd little treehopper or leafhopper that I am still trying to identify. Heading toward Hutcheson Ferry Road, I advanced into a mix of blue sky and clouds. Returning toward Rico Road, I headed into a gray cloud. The rain began while I was on Rico Road, just about to turn up my driveway. But for the most part it was a gentle, nourishing rain, a rarity in these Southern summer months.
Jun 302014
With my Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic and macro converter, I had a grand time today photographing water drops. Here are two of my most successful images from this afternoon. The top image is a spent bloom on the Cleyera shrub I have been writing about lately. The leaf in my second image belongs to a vine clinging to a pecan tree, a vine that I have not been able to identify (probably a nonnative cultivar of some sort).
Jun 292014
Here is another photograph with my Lensbaby Composer Pro with Sweet 35 Optic earlier this afternoon. A rain storm had ended; as I type this, another, more dramatic, storm is waiting on our doorstep. This was an unusual case (for me, at least) in which an image I found passable in color looks quite lovely and a bit mysterious converted to black and white. A droplet of water clings to a grapevine; a second water droplet on the same vine is an out-of-focus spot of brightness to its left.
Jun 232014
Here are two more after-rain photographs from my Piney Woods Church Road explorations this afternoon. The first is a water droplet suspended at the tip of a leaf; the second is another water droplet, contained by a woody grapevine tendril.
