I promised in a couple of earlier posts to feature the fungi along the Keddie Cascades Trail. I explained that my initial focus was on leaves changing color, but upon noticing a bright red mushroom, my focus suddenly changed and I wasn't noticing leaves any longer. I was seeing lots of different mushrooms. Well, I've since posted lots of mushroom photos from Butterfly Valley and from the sides of my driveway. So, enough with the fungi! Instead, I want to show you this special place (above) along the trail, a stream of water pouring out of a rock wall. Thousands of people have walked by this spot, but I wonder how many have discovered my special critter in hiding.
For several years in a row, I have turned over a flat rock in the pool just below the falling water and found a Hellgrammite, the aquatic stage of the Dobson Fly. These critters are hard to spot even if you know they're there. In the above photo, I've tried to capture the initial sighting. Reflections of moving water with a bottom covered in brown leaf litter. Click on the photo and you can make out the Dobson Fly, and perhaps can imagine how difficult it is to spot. This aquatic stage can live under a rock for several years before metamorphosing into an adult and flying away to complete its life cycle.
I gently captured the Hellgrammite and placed it on a rock away from the leaf litter for a better photo, then put it back. Hopefully, it will still be there in the spring.
Nearby, in the middle of the trail, I spotted my only Wooly Bear caterpillar of the season. In most years, I find several while splitting my rounds of firewood, but none this year. I placed this one off the trail to slightly improve its chances of completing its life as an Isabella Moth. It's a coast-to-coast species, and I have fond memories of playing with them as a child growing up in Massachusetts.
I might have another photo and story or two from the Keddie Cascades Trail or Butterfly Valley, but knowing how "way leads on to way," that might not happen. Before you know it, I'll be photographing frost and snow. That is, unless I get an overwhelming urge to drive down to the Central Valley to photograph spring, or what seems like spring to me.
Your first photo looks like it could be a painting; don't know if it's due to my tiny 10" screen or what, but I like the effect.
ReplyDeleteActually, the scene itself seemed like a painting as I remember it. No camera tricks. Just fortunate lighting I guess.
ReplyDeleteI agree it does look like a painting. I would say that it is caused by the color saturation and lack of shadowing. There is depth to the image, but the light source is non-specific, just like paintings that convey a mood rather than a specific scene. If I had to levy a guess, I would say that the only camera "trick" is an effective use of fill flash provided by the on-board flash unit. Not commonly used in scenes such as this. I very much like it, well done Joe.
ReplyDeleteLike they say, give 1,000 monkeys 1,000 typewriters and one will write a play. I was lucky.
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