lloydslensphotographyllc

First Bloom In 2020

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “First Bloom 22520” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

Softly the rain drifts through the mountains kissing the landscape before pooling and making it’s way back to the river. The cycles of the rise and fall of the water seem never ending in the Eastern Forests. I have the day off so I decided to take a trip and venture out to look for some fresh photos for you. These trips often mean me just driving until I spot something that stands out from the background. Which is exactly what happened today. I don’t know why this little spot in Smithers West Virginia is different but every year it yields the first blooms of the season. Usually several days ahead of the rest of my area. Forsythia is one of the very first plants to wake from its long winter slumber and smile at the passersby. The bright yellow flowers always bring a welcome break from the doldrums of winter. I don’t mean to mislead you. We do have more cold weather on the way. We’ve been told to expect snow within the next few days and it’s normal to see the Forsythia flowers covered with ice and snow. It opens not because of warm weather but because of the Earth’s angle to the sun and the length of the day. It’s because of this I believe that this little strip of land must have just the right solar aspects give it a head start on everything else. Officially, it’s only 22 or 21 days until the Calendar start of Spring But from the blooming of this bush forward is when the land really starts to wake up and get ready to receive the light.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that graduation will be here before you know it. Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

Lloyds Lens Photography web link — Click here to visithttps://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.

https://youtu.be/FDcrY6w8oY8

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.

Clicking on the photo takes you tohttps://www.zazzle.com/lloydslensphotos?rf=238248269630914251

Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.

Thank you again for your support of my page!❤

Thoughts Provoked By A Small Roadside Cascade

Color Photography

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Living Water 21920” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

Tiny drops of water pool into a stream form the flow that cascades down the mountain. The body of water isn’t really all that large. In fact most places wherr you might encounter the flow you could cross in a single step. But life doesn’t have to be large to be important. The First Nations people understood this. In their world everything was alive. Everything was important in some way. The small cascade in tonight’s feature image is only a few inches high but that’s enough for water to become oxygenated before it reaches the river. I haven’t really looked into the math but my guess is that shallow streams with lots of little spots like this provide a significant amount of the oxygen that gets into the rivers and helps make life possible for the fish. The smaller streams definitely carry nutrients into the larger rivers that makes it possible for aquatic plants to grow. They also give photographers an opportunity to pause and consider the little things in life and how important they are.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that graduation will be here before you know it. Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

https://youtu.be/FDcrY6w8oY8

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

Thank you again for your support of my page!❤

At Rest

black and white photography

I’ve been told that if the devil can’t hold you back then he’ll push you forward. The modern world is constantly humming with it’s hustle and bustle and there seldom seems to be time to take a breath.

I look at tonight’s feature image and think about how chaotic and choppy the water seems to be. Like the modern world it never really stops moving with ripples that go in every direction and eddies that swirl around threaten to toss you about. But if you can that place of stillness like the little structure in the water you can hold your focus even if it’s just for a moment.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that graduation will be here before you know it. Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

https://youtu.be/FDcrY6w8oY8

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.

Thank you again for your support of my page!❤

The Winds Of Change

Color Photography

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Casting Seeds 022220” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

The big blue truck comes to a rest on the edge of the marsh at Muddelty Creek. I had decided to take a few minutes and see if the Red wing Blackbirds had returned. I pressed the button on my door and lowered the windows to listen for that familiar trolling call to ring out through the cattails. There was a few random calls from the chickadees but no red wing Blackbirds. At least not yet. Out in the distance a few ducks paddled around in the water at the very outer limit of my longest lens. I tried to stalk in closer but one loud quack and the whole flock became airborne at once disappearing into the bushes. And then the wind came filling the air with downy seeds that circled in the eddies. It was almost like snow. Everywhere I looked the cattail seed floated softly by. This area has the largest concentration of cattails I’ve seen. The highland delta is a bit of a rare thing here.

I decided to take the opportunity to capture the moment when the seeds found the breeze and discovered that the breezes were changing direction. A gust would come from the south and a few minutes later the next one would hail from the North.

A breeze from the North moving the down in the opposite direction of the feature image.

The southern breeze had more activity today and that means that seasons are changing. It’s only 25 days before the first day of Spring!

Are you ready for the change? Let me know in the comments below. 😊

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that graduation will be here before you know it. Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

https://youtu.be/FDcrY6w8oY8

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

Thank you again for your support of my page!❤

Forage Friday #46 Dryad Saddle

Color Photography, Forage Friday

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Dryad Saddle 5420a” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

Never eat any wild plants or fungus unless you are positive about the identification.

The Spring rains of 2019 were slowly coming to and and I decided to take a tour of my property and survey what had popped up. Right in my back door I found a fungus that I really had not paid much attention to in the past. The dark scales growing in concentric rings was what first caught my attention. Now, I must admit that fungus is a little bit of a weak spot in my knowledge and experience. It’s just not something that I looked into much. My forestry classes were centered on management of the timber for its lumber value and the only thing that we were rewired to learn was how to either prevent fungal infections in the lumber or how to treat them once they were found. Most instructors simply presumed that the students who grew up in Appalachia learned mushroom hunting from their families. My family just didn’t do a lot of foraging and so there was a gap in my experiences. I knew that there was a fungus called Dryad Saddle but I didn’t really know that it was good for anything beyond composting fallen trees in the woods.

But there it was proudly standing out from a storm thrown log at the edge of my yard.

Image titled Dryad Saddle 5420b

By early May the main fruit body ( mushroom ) was at least 10 inches wide. Now that I’ve had a little help from Nicole Sauce and her Living Free In Tennessee podcast I’ve learned what the fungus is ( Nicole provided confirmation of the ID via a Facebook comment last year) and a little more about how to use it and I’m looking forward to finding it again so I can try it for the first time.

Okay, for starters the mushroom in tonight’s pictures is way too mature for good eating. Once polypores get larger than about 3 inches they’re way too tough to eat. So I decided to leave it to develop and spread it’s spore into the surrounding fallen logs. Running my hand over the mushroom confirmed that it had indeed turned leathery.

Image Titled Dryad Saddle 5420c

After touching the Dryad Saddle my hand smelled a little like cucumbers and watermelon rind which is one of the ways to confirm the identification. I did learn however that in this stage I could have used it to make broth for a soup. I would have probably needed to chop it with an axe because the outside of mushroom was like touching boot leather. All of the processes that I read describe removing pieces due the toughness. The perfect size for cooking is said to be about the size of the palms of your hand. The smaller mushroom growing from the base of the Dryad Saddle may have been about right in retrospect.

Image Titled Dryad Saddle 5420d

Another identification characteristic is the droplets of honeydew that form on the gills on the underside of the mushroom. I didn’t try a taste but judging by the amount of insects I found under this one I’m guessing that it’s sweet. And that’s another thing to be mindful of with a larger specimen of Dryad Saddle as well as other mushrooms is that insects absolutely love them and a larger specimen means it’s probably going to have bugs.

Assuming that the Dryad Saddle grows back this Spring or that some of its spawn finds a foothold I’ll be trying it for the first time. I’m kinda anxious to have this new experience so if anyone reading this article has any tips I’d love to hear them. Just drop a comment below! 😊

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that graduation will be here before you know it. Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

https://youtu.be/FDcrY6w8oY8

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

Thank you again for your support of my page!❤