Fun Friday: Wildflower or Weed?

I’m back after a day off … had such a full day on Wednesday that I needed yesterday to catch up and relax! And even then, I managed to get out for a few hours of kayaking a rural waterway near my house; I was fortunate to be able to capture some wonderful images of a couple of species of warblers that are busy on the water … I’ll feature those images soon.

On Wednesday, I arose early and headed out with one of my photography students, with the goal of capturing some images of the Adam and Eve Orchid (aka, Putty Root Orchid). We did manage to find some and I’ll be sharing some images of those soon … after I find some time to go through the many images I captured! While we were in the area, we visited a nearby prairie where I captured the Goat’s beard wildflowers (Tragopogon dubius), which is in the Daisy family. If you’ve ever seen this wildflower when it goes to seed, you’d swear it was an oversized dandelion! And even in bloom, it resembles the dreaded weed in many ways. But still a favorite of mine! Here are a couple of images captured on Wednesday:

Goat's beard wildflower in bloom

Goat's beard wildflower in bloom

The Goat’s beard grows up to about 2-3 feet tall. I’ve read (but not confirmed) that these flowers will close by noon on a sunny day. I love the “rays” that surround the wildflower, giving it a much more elegant look than a regular dandelion. And when it goes to seed, the seedhead is so large and fun to capture using macro techniques (you can really play with depth of field with these seedheads)!

Coming up, more wildflowers from the area!

Photographic Equipment Used:

  • Canon 5D Mark 3 body
  • Canon EF 180mm, f/3.5 macro lens
  • Bogen 3221 tripod, with ballhead
  • ISO 640
  • Aperture f/3.5
  • Shutter 1/3200 sec. to 1/4000 sec.

 

 

Posted in Fun Friday Post, Macro Photography, Nature Photography, Wildflowers
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