RMM Loc: Suburban New York

I found one Indian pipe in the woods behind our house today. Just the one. Ended up lying down to get the shot and had to use the flash, as the light was pretty dim. The second shot is just an additional crop. The third was a rock formation up front. I was playing with the light, and trying to get some detail out of the cleft.

Nikon D5000, 50 mm f/1.8 lens.

llindstrand Loc: Seattle Metro

All three are interesting and well done. Even the stem of the flower has detail on it. The rock holds an aura of mystery.
Swede

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

Thanks, Swede.

We've lived here for over 40 years. There have been lots of changes in the surrounding woods. I used to be able to find a number of Indian pipes, and various flowers. Every spring, we would go through the woods to see the pink lady slippers. The deer have wiped a lot of it out. The woods are thinner, too, as they eat the saplings. The town has taken some measures to cut the deer herd back, but we're legally limited on what we can do. The laurel are much less profuse, though that may be due to a disease.

A lot of my photography nowadays is limited by where I can go and what I can do. It makes me nuts to drive along roads I couldn't walk now where I used to run. So I look hard to find the light or the composition that's worth shooting where it's accessible. That 50 mm lens (a present from my sister) makes it fun. I can't get closer than 1-1/2 feet, and it's the equivalent of a 75 mm lens on a DX camera. But that f/1.8 aperture makes for great, soft backgrounds and sharp images. I'm still dealing with just how narrow that depth of field is. As you can see from the attached.

llindstrand Loc: Seattle Metro

I understand only too well the physical limitations and the concessions one has to make. Most of the photos on the last trip were taken through the car window. In a lot of the cases there was no place to pull over and get out. The others it was too hard physically to walk to or get down low enough to take the image I wanted.

I also am aware of changes in the surroundings. The Seattle area has grown immensely the last 50 years since I moved here. I was raised in Montana on a ranch which we sold about the same time. I haven't been back for 20 years and at times think I would like to go see it; however, when I Google the area and look at the satellite view so much has changed that I loose interest.

Thus we must make the most out of what we have available and be happy with it.
Swede

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

We had friends I met through business. I know of 13 places they lived in, ranging from NY and CT to the DC area, San Francisco Bay area and the LA area. Her family had owned a farm in North Carolina which was sold for development. After living in three houses in Greenwich, CT when he worked in NYC late in his career, they moved to North Carolina and bought a house where her family farm had been. That was before they moved - again - to California. Must have seemed strange to her.

llindstrand Loc: Seattle Metro

Gypsies?? Some people can never be happy. My wife has a good friend that has moved back and forth from Seattle area to California to Enterprise Oregon a number of times and finds something wrong each time she moves.
Swede

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

He had a variety of jobs, including the Bureau of Standards, if I recall correctly; Rand Corp.; Information Management, Inc. in San Francisco (where I met him); one of the big 8 CPA consultancies in NYC. She was fantastic. One week after they moved into new digs, whether a house or rental or a condo, you'd swear they'd been settled in there for years.

sailorsmom Loc: Souderton, PA

Very good shots RMM!

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

Thank you, sailorsmom.