I am a West Virginia native who has always loved photography. I have studied it for many years. I recently turned my hobby into a business. I do event photography, senior and family portraits. I also have several home décor prints and items available for purchase. Some of my photos have been used for book covers. I hope to soon have an on line store at this site.
Hello Friends!Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Purity In Spring” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the page.
The magnolia bloom continues open all along the Kanawha River. Some are past their prime already. They’ve been bruised by the recent rain and more is expected to arrive in the morning. But for a brief period when I needed it most the sky turned bright, the clouds rolled back a beauty returned to the gray world. The star magnolia was only the first to open. At this very moment the pink magnolia is beginning to catch up. The blooming seems to ripple out from Smithers. As I’ve travelled the Midland Trail between Gauley Bridge and Charleston I’ve seen the magnolia trees opening one by one. It’s almost like God set them up as dominoes so that we’d be able to enjoy them throughout the season. Not one little detail has been overlooked. The rain may be returning but for now I have delicate white flowers and and bright sky to enjoy.
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 FollowLloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me onFacebookor use theContact Form on my website
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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.
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.
Hello friends! tonight’s feature image is titled “Anticipation” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the page.
They Tell me that it’s not really spring until there’s the crack of a bat. According to the MLB the opening day is May 28th 2019 which is actually early for Baseball but late for Spring. I have to be honest. I’m not a big fan of watching sports. What I am a big fan of is the bonding of attending the game. It’s not really something that I do often but When I do go I go for the whole experience. I don’t care about the score or the stats of the players. I like the smell of the popcorn or hotdogs and to listen to banter between the fans. I love to see the excitement in a child’s eyes when his team gets a home run.
I titled tonight’s featured image “Anticipation” because even though I’m not a big fan of watching sports I love to play. other than the occasional picnic i didn’t play much baseball but i did participate in other sports. I know what an athlete thinks about before the game. We work hard and train preparing for the big day. We want the crowd to go wild when we score. We have anticipation. We walk out onto the field on game day long before the crowd gets there & visualize these thing because we know that when the clock starts we will be in the zone. We hope & pray that our best is good enough 7 that when we fail the fans will show grace. Athletes thrive on the admiration of the crowd and losing that admiration is their worst nightmare. That shouldn’t be a big surprise because as humans we all thrive on the admiration of out peer group and we all fail. We hope and pray that those peers will show grace when we fail.
Its going to happen at some point in our lives. We’re all going to “strike out” or “drop the ball” or in the case of a racecar driver “crash and burn”. Failure is inevitable for all of us. we hope to find grace in the eyes of our friends not if but whenit happens.
Imagine the ball player out on the field and all eyes are on him or her as the ball is dropped. when the game is a broadcast that error is exposed to everyone as the crowd hurls sneers and jeers. But what if the camera was on the crowd as someone dribbled hotdog sauce onto their shirt only to have the crowd respond with the same distaste?
I think the most awesome moment is sports history went down without the world even noticing. The game was in overtime and the batters were running out of gas. the pitch is given and the batter strikes out losing the game by one run. Amid the crowd’s disapproval I saw a small boy approach the rail. He couldn’t be older than six years. As the batter walked back to the dugout with his head low the boy reaches for him. I couldn’t hear the exchange but I didn’t have to hear it. Look on player face said it all as the child consoles the man. That grace in the eyes of a child told me that the payer won the game regardless of the score.
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 FollowLloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me onFacebookor use theContact Form on my website
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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.
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.
Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is untitled for the moment as are all the photos in the post. However, if you’re interested in purchasing a copy please use the contact instructions at the bottom of the page.
Before I begin I feel the need to explain the concept behind Forage Friday. First and foremost, Forage Friday is not intended to teach you everything you need to know about wild foraging. Many of the plants I’ll be covering do have toxic look-alikes and for an inexperienced person could result in disaster. It’s highly recommended that you seek out further information before trying it yourself. One of the best resources will be those of the older generation from rural areas who have relied on wild foraging to get by in hard times. They’re just full of knowledge and crave interaction. As you’re reading the post please remember that the author is very human and as such is capable of errors so it’s best to double check with other sources. With that said, it’s my hope that you are entertained and inspired learn more.
One of the first wild edible plants that I learned is also one of the easiest to identify, I’m speaking of course of the common cattail. I remember that when we were kids we’d pretend that the distinctive flowerhead was a corndog. After all, it’s a hotdog shape on a stick. It even looks like it’s breaded. The “hotdog” is not really edible. It’s densely packed fluff would be like trying to eat a down jacket. This is actually the seeds. However, in its season the male flowers are loaded with bright yellow pollen. The pollen is collected by sticking the spike in a bag and shaking it gently. Soon you’ll have a protein rich powder that is generally mixed 50/50 with wheat flour. I have not actually tried it myself but I’m told that it makes awesome pancakes!
What I have tried is the cucumber flavored rhizome and stem base. They are carbohydrate rich and as a type 2 diabetic I tend to avoid carbs these days. But they are tasteful! The big thing to avoid here is contamination. Cattail is capable of absorbing both chemical and biological toxins. Because of this they are quite useful as biological filters in septic systems and in areas where the capture of chemical run off needs to be dealt with. That’s not to say that you can’t ever give them a try but be selective about where you find them. Open ditches in urban and suburban areas are most likely to be full of lawn chemicals or sewage. That pond out in country is a better choice but there’s still agricultural chemicals. Basically, if you wouldn’t eat the fish out of that water source then avoid the water plants as well. As I’ve matured and learned more about things like cryptosporidium I would no longer recommend raw cattail. Instead, scraping the starch out of the stems and leaf base to thicken soups.
Other than the food value of cattail it’s got some tool and craft uses. The fluff from the “hotdog” is a great tinder for your campfire. When I was a kid in Civil Air Patrol we learned that fluffing the down and stuffing it under your jacket makes a great insulation. The leaves are strong enough to be woven into mats or twisted into a string but it’s fairly weak and not suitable for anything that is under stress. But making a sun shelter for an extended stay in the woods is a perfect application.
Cattail is referred to as “Mother Nature’s supermarket. If I tried to list all of the tips and tricks that I’ve learned concerning cattail the post would be so long that reading it would take more time than most people are willing to invest. However, I do know that most of my fellow Appalachians probably have a trick or two to add. The majority of my readers find my posts through groups that I share with on Facebook. I want to encourage you to either comment on the post, or my Facebook page and even my blog is open to the public. I’d love to hear about your experience with cattail. How did you use it? Did you ever fall into the pond when pulling out the stems and leaves?
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 FollowLloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me onFacebookor use theContact Form on my website
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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.
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.
Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Wild Geraniums And Moss” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the page.
The soft rain ends with the breaking of the dawn light and the forest comes to life. The morning chorus includes Cardinals, Flycatchers, Catbirds, Gold Finches and more. By mid morning mottled light filters down to forest floor. It may be the best opportunity to get out and catch some fresh air before doing the day’s chores in spite of the wet conditions. I have on my old sandals. The ones that I don’t really mind if the get muddy as I step carefully around the edges of the yard. The little purple pops of color were the first thing to catch my eye as I moved from the kept area of the yard into the transition zone where the woods begins. Wild Geranium blooms in April just as the leaves start to come out. All along the edges of the roads the landscape is speckled with purple blooms. The impression is that God took his paintbrush full of purple and shook it out onto Little Elk Mountain. The soft morning light seems to linger right on this little cluster to make the bloom glow. For a moment my imagination asks if it’s possible that I have stumbled across a fairy village. I could almost see them huddled together with a turkey tail fungus for a front porch and the moss for a shag rug. I blinked for moment and they vanished like the morning mists. And it was in this moment that I knew it was time to rejoin the real world and complete my chores.
Before I close, I want to announce that tomorrow night I’ll begin the “Forage Friday” series. For as long as I’m able I’ll post an image of a wild edible plant found in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. It’s not intended to teach you everything you need to know about wild edible plants. What it is intended to be is sharing some of my personal interests and to give those who want to explore foraging a place to start.
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 FollowLloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me onFacebookor use theContact Form on my website
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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.
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.
Hello Friends!Tonight’s feature image is titled “Invitation To Breathe” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the page.
As I write tonight’s post the Star Magnolia in Smithers, West Virginia is in full bloom. But about one week ago it was the large white buds that caught my eye as was passing through town. I circled back to the little street that links all the shops together and brought my big blue truck to an abrupt halt. Officially, the Sun crossed the equator at 5:58 PM Eastern Time but for me Spring starts with the first sign of life from the trees. I have been holding my breath since November when the Yellow Popular tree dropped it’s leaf right in front of me.
With the return of the daylight and the new growth in the trees my spirit feels alive. I could not resist the invitation to take advantage of the cement bench and enjoy the sunshine beneath the large egg shaped buds. It felt good to just breathe in the light for while. This was a personal celebration of Spring.
When I processed the image I decided to go with the red filter. I wanted that dark onyx effect on the deep blue sky to symbolize the retreat of winter. The sun obligated my intention by shining brightly on the tree and the bench and allowed me to imply that the time of daylight was now in control of the agenda.
So as the daylight grows stronger let me invite you to find a sunny spot beneath a beautiful tree and enjoy some quiet time.
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 FollowLloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me onFacebookor use theContact Form on my website
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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.
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.
LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC 