Researching your Subject.

I always research my subject first before I go on a shoot...unless I know the subject well enough to pass the research up. Like the Bloodroot It is a very unique flower. I have went out many times on a cloudy day so I would not have harsh light, but found out these flowers only bloom when the sun is shinning.

Bloodroot is a variable species growing from 6-12 inches tall, normally with one large, sheath-like basal multi-lobed leaf. The flowers are produced from March to May, with 8-12 delicate white petals and yellow reproductive parts. The flowers appear over clasping leaves while blooming. Plants are variable in leaf and flower shape and have in the past been separated out as different subspecies due to these variable shapes; currently most taxonomic treatments lump these different forms into one highly variable species. Bloodroot stores sap in an orange colored rhizome, that grows shallowly under or at the soil surface. Over many years of growth, the branching rhizome can grow into a large colony. Plants start to bloom before the foliage unfolds in early spring and after blooming the leaves expand to their full size and go summer dormant in mid to late summer. Plants are found growing in moist to dry woods and thickets, often on flood plains and near shores or streams on slopes, they grow less frequently in clearings and meadows or on dunes, and are rarely found in disturbed sites. The flowers are pollinated by small bees and flies, seeds develop in elongated green pods and ripen before the foliage goes dormant. The seeds are round in shape and when ripe are black to orange-red in color. Deer will feed on the plants in early spring.

So if your not sure about a subject try doing some research on it. You might be surprised how much you don't know of the subject you are going in search of. The Bloodroot will be blooming in a few weeks and it is one of my favorite spring flowers.

Learning Patience

When I was younger my Dad taught me patience. He took me flyfishing and taught me to wait for the right time to move in on a fish that was feeding. He taught me to sit on the river bank and watch the waters surface for a trout to rise. I still flyfish and still have the patience he taught me. Now I use that patience while I'm out taking photographs. The hummingbird moth is a swift and fast flyer and don't hold still long. They move in on a flower and feed quickly form one blossom to another. So I sit and wait and wait for one to come to the flower I'm sitting by. It don't always work, but when it does it is a joy to be close to one of these small creatures. So patience is a big part of my photography. Waiting for the right light...the right sunset or flower to bloom.