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!!
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To book me simply reach out using theContact Pageand 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
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.
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=238248269630914251Lastly, 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 “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!!
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To book me simply reach out using theContact Pageand 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
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.
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=238248269630914251Lastly, 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 “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 theContact Pageand 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
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.
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=238248269630914251Lastly, 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 “The Flow Of Peace” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The morning sun is just above the mountains as the big blue truck finds the wide spot at Charlton Heights. I have always loved the crumbling old stone wall with its little cascade and nearby cave. Today I’ve elected to bring my tripod and attempt a long exposure. I fiddle with the settings a little and eventually get the look that want. Just a few feet away the morning rush traffic zips by. I maintain awareness for safety but otherwise block it out. All I need is a few minutes to lose myself in the flow of stream. The texture of the cut stone and the color of the vegetation. In the few moments of quiet between the sounds of the passing engines I can hear a black capped chickadee calling among the bare twigs. And a sapsucker tapping out his rhythms on a dead branch. I fight against the urge to abandon my responsibility and climb the wall to see what’s up stream but reason overtakes me as I wait for the shutter to close. Folding the tripod away and climbing back into the driver’s seat was the hardest part of my morning. I press the button on the armrest and the passenger window slides down with a whirr and I allow just a little bit more of the peaceful moment to flow into my being and this I carry until I can stop again.
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 theContact Pageand 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
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.
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=238248269630914251Lastly, 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 “Winter Sanctuary On The Kanawha River” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The evening sky fades into a velvety blue as I near the end of my daily journey back to my mountain. The glow of the headlights pierce the darkness to reveal the yellow lines that guide me home. As I pass through curves the radiance of sodium lights casts their luminance against the darkness ahead of me. The majestic old inn stands near the river with its Victorian columns and stone walls that surround the grounds welcoming all passers by into sanctuary for the night. As pulled into the parking lot of Methodist church on the other side of town I could still the inviting glow of the lights from the Glen Ferris Inn. The reflection danced on the water with sky in it’s indigo hue. I knew that I had found tonight’s feature image.
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 theContact Pageand 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
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.
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=238248269630914251Lastly, 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.
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