Yesterday morning, I made an early morning hike around the nearby natural prairie. I had a great time and saw quite a lot of things happening. First, let me say that yesterday was an ideal day to hike the prairie around sunrise time … our temperatures have dropped dramatically over the past 24 hours (it was 47F as I began my hike), and with the extreme change in temperatures, there was some fog in the air and a heavy dew on the plants … ideal for early morning photography!
Today’s post is a collection of macro images I captured of Thistle, profusely blooming on the prairie right now. I’m not certain on the species, but I believe this is Cirsium vulgare, commonly referred to as Bull Thistle. Here are my favorites, from the many images I captured yesterday morning, with thistles in various stages of blooming:
In the next post, I’ll share some interesting “residents” that are calling these thistles home :o)
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon EF 180mm f/3.5 macro lens + Canon 1.4x TC
- Vanguard Alta Pro 283CT carbon fiber tripod, with 3 Pod H-3 ballhead (this is my new, lightweight macro setup)
- ISO 500 to ISO 1250 (ISO was changed, as wind and light required)
- Aperture f/5 to f/29 (aperture varied to achieve varying depth of field
- Shutter 1/6 sec. to 1/80 sec.