Very nice, Rupert. Spring has arrived!

Yesterday I found a crocus that was about to bloom. I took the camera and took a couple of shots. I went over today to get a shot of it open and the deer had eaten it to the ground. I cant tell you how much I dislike deer.



Looks like the daffodils will be the next to bloom. Maybe the deer won't eat them.

Al

I like the shot Al, love the color too! Deer...yep, they eat everything. We don't have that problem here, but down south it is a nightmare. Squirrels are very damaging around here, but not at my place....here they always have so much to eat that they don't destroy anything.

Thanks, Rupert. My two biggest problems are the deer and the groundhogs. The deer destroy all of the flowers and shrubs and the groundhogs dig holes all over the yard. There were 13 deer in the yard the other day. There were two bucks. The herd will probably be a lot bigger next year.

Al

Nice flower shots guys. Things were going good here until we had a cold snap. Same thing happened last year, most of the Magnolias are ruined. I was able to get a few though. First Spring with my D FA 100. Here is one of my first attempts, a Dafodil.

Craig

The only spring flower in Mahone Bay NS today. This flower is probably animal proof though guys.

Nice shots everyone--although not to play favorites, I have to say that post of yours, Jim, is just gorgeous! Beautiful color, the petals actually look translucent and the light is great and the background blurring is very nicely done. Lucky--I can't wait until we have some flowers in our yard! All we've got is a lovely crop of dirty gray snow patches and under that, dirty, grayish lawn! lol! Cindy

Jim, very nice. I know you like to play the naif, but you do have a good eye. More flowers to come over the next month or so?

Al, I like the crisp light, the highlight sheen on the left sides of the buds. Sorry about the deer. Where do you live? Robin here, in Connecticut, has the same problem. The east coast needs to get realistic about the problem and take responsibility for being the only predator these animals have. The forests are being killed.

Craig, nice! Is this your first macro lens? Pretty intense lenses to use!!

Dan

Dan, Yes it is. I really enjoy using it. Thanks.

Craig

Cindy, thank you! I have a lot of these little "weeds" coming up in my yard. They come up every year about this time and are so tiny you could easily miss them. I love the colors,they range from lavender to a soft maroon.

Dan, I certainly hope we have some nice wildflowers this year. We just had about 6 inches of rain a week ago, which will help, but wildflowers depend on how much rain fell in the previous Fall...and we had very little. Besides my taste for "yellow" tints, I have a thing for lavenders. They always draw my attention.
The same plant (or type of plant) from two years ago. This is one of my favorite flower shots...it's the color! The entire bloom would barely cover a nickel.

Great flower shots, guys. I even like LG's flower and that is about the only type I am seeing now.

Al, I sympathize with the deer problem. Everything I plant gets eaten, sometimes within minutes of planting!

Rupert - What kind of plant/wildflower is that? I love delicate little blossoms.

Robin

Jim, next time you shoot one of those lavender flowers, could you take one shot with something in it for scale? A nickel, a match, a finger, anything? Just for a rough idea, nothing scientific. How do you even see them when they are that small??

Must admit I like the first one, from today, a bit more than the older one. Although I think it'd be better if the 'Rupert 2009' was moved to the lower right corner.

Dan

Beautiful shot Jim. Just goes to show, size isn't everything.

Great shot Al.

Craig, that is a very good lens. I have the FA 100mm f2.8. Nice shot also.

LG when I was taking the flower pictures at the Dundee railroad museum. I saw some lovely flowers surrounding a Gazebo they had there. Upon closer investigation I found they were silk. It's getting really hard to tell anymore.

Have a great day.

Larry

Al, judging from the leaves, it had already been eaten once :-) I'm surprised your deer eat crocus. They usually eat all our tulips and sometimes they do great damage to the smaller apple trees, but they always ignore crocus.

Espen - If you look close at the bloom there appears to be some tooth marks in it as well. The deer seem to eat anything and everything. Last year they didn't bother the crocus, but there's more deer per acre now than last year. My vegetable gardens are enclosed in 8' high fences to keep the deer out. They jumped over 4' fences. Maybe I should enclose the entire yard in a 8' fence :o)

The Daffodils are next to bloom. Lets see if the deer destroy them as well.

Al

Al: Just shoot the deer. That's what we do here in Carolina. Then we take it to the local farmer who makes the best deer jerkey anywhere. I give him half the deer and he gives me half back in jerkey. Works for us.

Jimbo: Nice to see you shooting something other than those fat, ugly rodents. I like. Don

Don - I would, but I'd have to drop it in one shot and be silent about it.. My property is surrounded by 10 other properties and most of them think the deer are cute. The game commission said I can shoot them, but only during the appropriate season and with a license.

I'm thinking cross-bow. Or, maybe if I get out the pellet gun and shoot them in the butt enough times they'll stay away. Again, I need to make sure the neighbors to see me and complain.

Al

Al, there are warehouses of unused landmines in countries other than the USA. Form a pool with other deer jerky lovers and get a crate shipped to you.

And yes, yes... I can hear it already, but whoever said trespassing was a risk-free activity for children?? Why should Al suffer for other people's poor parenting?

Dan

LOL! Thanks, I needed that.

Al

Thanks James for starting this thread.
Some awesome contributions here.
Something the deer wont touch ..... the only flower blooming in my back yard....... just a comon field weed.
And some Mapple blooms.

Uloo-We apparently share similar weeds! This was from my yard two years ago. They look like little hungry mouths, don't they! You have to look hard for these, they are as tiny as a dime.
<img src="">

Uloo, what is a Mapple? A new maple-flavored apple? Anyway, fascinating bloom and the bees are great.

Great to see what appears to be the same type of flower from both you and Jim! Beautiful little blooms.

I don't know if this counts as a wildflower. It grows all year, sort of a clover-type ground cover. I was given a piece by a neighbor. But it does grow wild in curb cracks and against building all over the city, so maybe that counts as a wild plant?

Experimenting with a new lighting setup for macros for another project. Everyone else got me thinking how it would work for flowers. The large ball is 7/16" across, or 11mm for the civilized people out there. A bit more than half a dime.



Setup is a sign white acrylic "table" with a couple of flashes underneath, a flash above to left, a white reflctor board below right. Pentax SMC-A 100mm f4 macro with Vivitar extension tubes.

DDandan
Its a red mapple, its a very comon tree.
About 2 years ago I noticed that they also have those tiny red flowers
And the bees are all over them I guesse its the first thing to bloom in the spring here in Kentucky in large numbers.

Ah, nice to learn.

Is your little sig photo of you in a boat you built? I think I remember you showing that last year on DPR, yes? Very beautiful boat!! How is it working?

ddandan.
Yes thats my little boat I built last year.
I love it it works out great. i may have to build a second one just like it
since so many of my friends love to go out on the water with me to go take pictures.
www.pbase.com/uloo/_home_made_wooden_boats
here one from last weekend .
All the water fall pictures in my photostream were only accessible with a small canoe or kayak. It was a small tributary of the Kentucky river.

Jim- look at this- Allium canadense Meadow Garlic, wild garlic, wild onion
davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/146630/

www.missouriplants.com/Pinkalt/Allium_canadense_page.html

Looks like a highly variable flower and plant.