winter – Page 8 – LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

Life-Time

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Misty Forest 121619” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

Water gently falls from the the bare twigs striking the sparse leaves. Deep within the mists the sound of hooves cautiously moving through the bush echoes up from the hollow below. The air is full of random chirps from the various little birds. I can also hear the dull thud of the local Pileated Woodpecker as he probes the old snag that’s just out of sight. The mists have stirred up the smell of the moss and it occasionally wafts my direction in the light breeze.

In my youth I would sit for hours on a rock ledge and immerse myself in the surrounding forest. In an age when the only wireless communication was a two way radio and reality wasn’t virtual time belonged to the experiencer.

It makes me question the definition of a lifetime. Is it a measure of quantity or quality? Is ten centuries of existence in a box a lifetime or is life-time the time spent experiencing creation?

The laughter of the woodpecker rings out as I contemplated my place in creation and I realized that his jovial outlook on life is tied to the fact that woodpeckers never invented a clock to divide their lives between existence and living.

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New Life Is On The Way

Color Photography, winter

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Awakening 122719B” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

The New Light washes over the land pushing away the gloom. With my big blue truck parked on the narrow berm I explore the ditch for little blessings that the rest of the world overlooked as they sped along.

I tread carefully trying to balance between avoiding the mud and avoiding the thorns. But, in spite of my best efforts the thorns latch onto my jacket. I cautiously moved my camera to the other hand and tugged my way the freedom. That’s when I noticed the New leaves. Beautiful green leaves. Perhaps the last green leaves of 2019. The Multiflora Rose wasn’t attacking me. It was trying to get my attention. Perhaps it was so proud of the new leaves it got for Christmas that it was showing everyone that close.

Now, a lot of people might think that the recent warm weather woke up the buds and encouraged them to open. But that’s not quite how this kind of thing works. It’s not so much the temperature of the ground and air as it is the wavelength of light. It’s actually common for some plants to be a little more sensitive to the subtle changes in the longer days after the winter solstice. Multiflora Rose is one of those plants and I’ve seen that some even occasionally hold their leaves all winter in my area. It’s also common for the cold snaps of late January through about the third week of February to put the plant back to sleep until March. But for now I have the promise of new growth in 2020. And I’ll take it as a good sign that new life is on the way.

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The Stillness

Color Photography, winter

The big blue truck is parked on the edge of the marsh as I scan the landscape for any sign of life. Just a few short months ago this place was teeming with wildlife and the air was full of bird’s songs. Today even the wind seems to be idle as I continue to search the sea of cattail hoping for a glimpse of colorful feathers.

The lone tree in the middle of the marsh caught my eye. It’s the only tree on this side of the road. It seemed to be longing for the birds to return home and fill it with the joyful calls and cackles. The marsh rose bears it’s brilliant red hips with no eye to behold it’s gift except for the seeker who stands on the edge of the cattails.

The Rose's Second Gift — Image Titled “The Rose’s Second Gift”

I turned my attention to the sky above and the clouds are thick and heavy with melancholy. Surely they will soon begin weeping over the sleeping landscape.

I turned once more to my big blue truck and decided that I should continue to seek out the wildlife in another area when in the distance something rattled the dry leaves of the cattails. I spun around just in time to see the blue jay as it deftly plucked a rose hip from out of the thorns. He didn’t tarry long but swiftly returned to the thick cover of the cattail leaves. From deep within the marsh he gave an angry call. He wasn’t happy to a human near his feeding grounds. Then another jay called out in response and his call was echoed by several more. There was life in the marsh after all. And where there are jays there are Cardnials and Thrashers and many more.

Just because life isn’t obvious doesn’t really mean that it’s missing. Sometimes it’s just a season of stillness and seasons change. At the time of this writing the new light is just hours away. The sun will begin to rise earlier and set later. The winter is the season of the returning light. And with it will come new life.

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A Few Things To Like About Lichens

Color Photography, winter

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Lichen 121319” all the photos found on my blog are my original work and are available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

The cold December rain continues to fall in my beloved Appalachian Mountains. At my core I am as much a part of the forest as the birds that continue to chirp in the lull between downpours. As I tread softly across the wet leaf litter the greenish gray colored vegetation catches my eye. The lichens are thick in this part of the forest. They have completely coated the fallen log and are even out competing the moss. I paused for a moment and took a long deep breath. The air is clean and invigorating and the lichens let me know that I could breath in confidence in this spot.

Lichens are very sensitive to chemical pollution. So much so that the U.S.D.A. and the EPA use them as bioindicators of the air quality. It’s not really as simple as a lot of lichens meaning clean air they’ve got it down to a science. Lichenology is the study of lichens but what are they? By the time most of us take a real science class in school lichens are one of those classic examples of symbiosis. Two different species living as one. Its an algea and a fungus. But there’s a whole variety of different types of lichens. Not only do environmental scientists look at the volume of lichens but they also look at the variety because different types of lichens are sensitive to different types of pollution. By looking at charts and counting the numbers of types they can get a pretty accurate gauge of the types of toxins are in the air and therefore what’s in the rain, soil and water.

Because it’s the Christmas season, I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention that Santa’s sleigh runs on lichen. In the Winter months reindeer turn to reindeer moss for food. Come to think of it, tonight’s feature image does look as if a bite has been taken out of the lichens. And with the special night quickly approaching perhaps an advanced scout is out checking up folks in case of a last minute adjustment to the naughty and nice lists.

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Memories Of The Hay Fields

black and white photography, winter

When I was very young putting up hay was a way for most young men to make a little spending money. A person could drive through the country at certain times of the year and the fields were lined from one end to the other with rows and rows of square bales of hay. The farmers would be seen with huge stacks of perfectly compressed blocks of cut and dried grasses of various types towering over tractors or pickup trucks on their way to a barn. It wasn’t really uncommon to a couple of the older boys riding on top of the stack as the vehicle drifted carefully across the fields while two more boys tossed more bales up to add to the stack. The unloading process was just as laborious with the boys on top of the stack tossing the bales back down or directly into the barn for storage.

Sometime in the late 70s or early 80s I started seeing the large round bales like you see in the feature image. My grandfather began remarking on how his poor cows wouldn’t be able to have a square meal. The iconic large stack of square bales disappeared into the past. ( I’m sure that there’s still some around however I haven’t seen it for decades). The crew of three or four teenage boys was replaced by a tractor with a fork lift attachment. The round bales turned out to be a be a better deal for the farmer because of the labor costs but every time I see the round bales I get nostalgic for the view of acres and acres perfectly lined up rectangular blocks on contour with the landscape.

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Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Country Zen 1” and is available for purchase by usingthe Contact Form on my website. ( just click on the the bell below)

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4X6 is $5.00

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Antique Service Desk Bell in Black and White — Ring this bell to order prints or schedule portraits

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