Thursday, October 21, 2010

(Day 294) Of weeds 'n seeds

It's amazing how quickly nature reclaims an area that's left alone for just a little while. You may recall that we used to have a few chickens, which we gave away when our chicken sitter went off to college and we started doing more travelling. We had a fenced area outside the coop where the chickens could scratch to their hearts' content, and it was barren of any living plants. It wasn't long after they were gone, however, when the weeds started sprouting. Now, you can imagine how fertile that ground would have been after chickens had run around on it for several years ! Those weeds grew as though they were on steroids - which they were I suppose.

This afternoon I happened to walk by there and I hacked my way through the weed jungle to the centre of the fenced area where an enormous weed, taller than me, dominated the landscape. I immediately noticed the interesting seed pods - which should ensure a good weed crop next year - and which became today's subject. I had to shoot them indoors, however, due to the wind gusts.

(60mm  f4.5  1/2 sec  ISO800)


(60mm  f11  3.2 sec  ISO800)

15 comments:

Carolyn Ford said...

I really like the orange color cast to this photo...It creates that "fall" mood and compliments these seed pods beautifully. You are so creative!

becky said...

I still 'crack up at the "chicken sitter" :)
I also love that you can turn a weed into fine art. nicely done. you know it's a great photo when it makes you think.
these particular pods look a bit ominous... sharp & claw like. long after we're gone, the weeds will likely still be growing strong.

Scott Law said...

Love the detail in these macros. Have fun with those weeds on steroids.

Biana said...

Hahaha, chickensitter, still haven't heard that anywhere else yet Rick, lol. And these are amazing photos. It's so beautiful!!!

Amelia & Mihai-Stefan CHIRCA said...

Amazing photos! Great ! We like the daily stories too ;)

marty said...

bonjour Rick - what time is it ??
ici il fait nuit encore, il fait froid
mais il ne gèle pas !j'ai encore quelques roses sur la terrasse ! toutes les fleurs et les herbes sont belles, even weeds !!!
bisous du matin (ici) !!!

darlin said...

Rick the color in these photos is beautiful, I love them... even if they are weeds! Only you Rick can make me want to plant weeds, you make them look so stunning! :-)

Is it only in Canada where we get chicken sitters? Somebody has to feed the critters when we're not at home! lol

Leovi said...

These two are wonderful, by the tones of color and its balanced composition. I love it. A greeting.

Unknown said...

Your first sentence is absolutely true!

I saw a few days ago a TV documentary about a wanderer (Andreas Kieling - Lived in the DDR and escaped to West Germany), who walked along the former East/West German Border - 20 years later he discovered animals and plants which are not supposed to grow in Europe and not in that part of the world in particular. The nature is raw and beautiful like in other "wild" parts of the world, some trees are thousands of years old and rain forests are starting to grow back. Nature found its way in the heart of Europe, better yet on one of the most aggressive borders after WWII!

If you understand some German or you can find the footage in English, I would highly recommend watching it, since you are a friend of nature. The documentation is called – „Andreas Kieling: Mitten im wilden Deutschland.“ (5 Episodes) Let alone the scenery and the camera work. Simply astonishing and THAT „wilderness“in the heart of Europe! I didn’t know that until I saw the documentary!?!

Nature is stronger than man, even though that some individulas do not seem to want to understand that concept!

I guess these closeups are your best up till now – Perfect focusing and color processing ;-)

Greetz,

Joseph

imac said...

Hi Rick, grand shots of macro in the last few posts my friend.

Rick said...

@Carolyn Ford - thank you Carolyn ! Enjoy your weekend.

Rick said...

@becky - LOL - she was our house sitter too but I thought chicken sitter would look better on her resume ;-)

Thank you. I think those pods have the claws to latch on to the unwary and get spread around. I'm getting ready for a bumper crop !

Katherine said...

These look extra terrestrial in appearance! These brown, hairy, spiky weedy things made fantastic photographic subjects. Great macro shots Rick!!.. cheers Kath :)

ju-north said...

Love these shots - so much variety and colour in the world!

Rick said...

Note: I'm trying to catch up on everyone's comments - have read them all and will respond in one (large ?) comment :

@Scott - thank you; I'm looking forward to more weeds next year - they make great subjects ;-)

@Biana - thank you Biana; I'll let her (our ex-chicken sitter) know she's famous !

@Amelia & Mihai-Stefan CHIRCA- ha ha - thank you, I'll try to keep the musings interesting.

@marty - you are lucky then that Jack Frost is delaying his arrival - your roses and flowers will continue to look lovely. Non-frosty bisous pour toi !

@darlin - I can send you some of these weeds too if you'd like - I think I also have millions of these !

Oh yes - you would understand about chicken sitters ;-)

@Leovi - thank you for your kind comment !

@CarreraCaballo - thanks Joseph; I'd be very interested in seeing the documentary by Andreas Kieling (I've done a quick search online but no luck yet - will keep looking). btw - I had to tone down the colour of these seed pods - they came out too orange/brown from the camera.

@imac - thank you kindly mac; will have to see what you've been up to !

@Katherine - yes, perhaps they're from Saturn (?) Thank you Katherine - hope your week is going well !

@ju-north - thank you for visiting and your nice comment - appreciated !