Yesterday morning, I took a little break and took the kayak out to a local state conservation area. It had been several weeks since my last kayak outing at this area and I was anxious to see what was going on. With water levels going down, I was not sure how easy kayaking would be. Well, the water was still high enough for kayaking, but was overrun with vegetation. Ever since our drought, two years ago, the amount of vegetation growing in the water at this location has been very dense.
When I began kayaking, I noticed some unusual flowers growing in the water … some that I had never seen there in the 6-7 years I have been kayaking at that location. Although I hadn’t seen these before, they resembled some hibiscus flowers that I have around my home. Here are a few images I captured from the kayak:
On my way back to the kayak take-out site, I came upon some more of these beauties … and these were backlit by the early morning sun, so I made a couple of images:
After returning home from the outing, I checked my wildflower references and found that this is Rose Mallow (Hibiscus lasiocarpos), It grows near water (and, in this instance, in the water) and can grow to ~8 feet tall. Each flower is about 6″ across and can be either white or a rose color, with a central wine-purple spot. Seeds from this plant are eaten by ducks and quail.
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon EF100-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens, with Canon 1.4x TC (shot from 140mm to 560mm)
- Handheld, from a kayak
- ISO 2000 (top 3 photos) and ISO 1600 (bottom 3 photos)
- Aperture f/6.3 to f/8
- Shutter 1/40 sec. to 1/2000 sec.