Monday in Nature June 13, 2016

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<p><strong>Basic Guidelines</strong>: Nature based subject matter. Please, declare captive subjects. Keep your image at/under 700 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing and try to keep file size under 300kb. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc. Feel free to link your image to a larger version. <strong><em>In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Please refrain from images with obvious buildings or large man made structures like roads, fences, walls. Minimize man made features and keep the focus on nature. </em></strong><br>

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<strong><em>Are you new to this thread? We post one image per week. For more <a href="/bboard/%20http:/photo.net/nature-photography-forum/00cgtY">details on guidelines</a> please read this helpful information. </em></strong><br>

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<p>Greetings,<br>

I hope you had a great week getting out in nature. There are steep banks in moist to wet places along the paths I frequent. They are ever changing, but force a photographer to slow down and go on little journeys of discovery. Tiny fungi, mosses, liverworts, spleenworts, ferns, lichens, and the occasional wild flower vie for space. Finding something cool, beautiful, and interesting is the easy part. Oh, yes, now, how to set up? That's where the fun and games begin. But, it's nature, so it's best to figure it out and play along.</p>

<p>Looking for small fungi often results in a session with lichens. This species of <em>Cladonia</em> was growing among mosses, and possibly a liverwort. It's a stacked 1:1 image.</p>

<p>It's Monday in Nature. What's happening in your neck of the woods?</p><div></div>

<p>My neck of the woods was pretty wet this weekend. While on a geology field trip we all got soaked pretty thoroughly, which did not keep us from looking at amazing rocks and landforms. Yes, the mountain laurel was in bloom as well, but who has time for these when 620 million year old rocks are competing for attention. :-)</p><div></div>

<p>My neck of the woods consists of a salt marsh wetlands in northern California.  With summer approaching, the pond scum is healthy and beautiful.</p><div></div>

<p>Black-Bellied Whistling Duck seen in Austin.</p><div></div>

<p>Green Lane Park</p><div></div>

<p>In my neck of the woods, the Stripped Coral Root is up. I found this light coloured and thinly stripped stem on the edge of a gravel parking lot.</p><div></div>

<p>This Red-eared Slider seems to have the right idea of how to spend a lazy, hazy, late-spring day. Shot from a kayak at Memorial Park in Lebanon County, PA.</p><div></div>

<p>Alas, this isn't actually my neck of the woods.</p><div></div>

<p>Sea Lions, Monterey Bay</p><div></div>

<p>Now I don't know insects enough to know if the owner of this shadow is a herbivore about to eat the rowan leaf it's on, or a carnivore lurking until a smaller insect comes by....</p><div></div>

<p>Not as much nature chasing as I'd like, as it's been rainy and I'm busy scraping the house (ugh!) but the rhododendrons are still abloom and the bees are still having a good time.</p><div></div>

<p>I guess the tree in my backyard will have to count as woods. We have a few black squirrels in the neighborhood.<br>

<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/Nature/216/Summer/i-w5RD6dp/0/700x700/20160612-IMG_0158-700x700.jpg" alt="" /><br>

<strong>Canon XSi, Tamron 70-300 VC</strong></p>

<p><strong>Hummer Sticks His Tongue Out At Us</strong></p>

<p><a title="Hummer Sticks His Tongue Out At Me" href=" data-flickr-embed="true"><img src="https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7288/26996787044_2fc2f280e5_c.jpg" alt="Hummer Sticks His Tongue Out At Me" width="800" height="800" /></a></p>

<p>Broad-tailed hummingbird.</p>

<p>Came across this image of an animal in a decomposing tree while walking my dog in our neck of the woods -</p><div></div>

<p>I don't know if my photo qualifies. It was made in the garden, not in the woods... DSLR with a plastic meniscus lens.<br>

Hope you like it anyway...</p><div></div>

<p>From my neck of the woods, a red-eyed fly on yarrow.</p><div></div>

<p>Don't have anything current to offer....</p><div></div>

<p>Clouds at Tunnel View.</p><div></div>

<p>Peony early bloom. - Trying the mirrorless M43 Panasonic-Leica 100-400mm zoom as "macro lens" again.</p><div></div>

<p>From my neck of the woods (balcony)</p><div></div>

<p>Strawberry Fields Forever!</p><div></div>

<p>Superb pics on MiN - as usual! The Itchetuknee river cuts through my neck of the woods and when the Florida temperatures climb in to the 90s it is the perfect place to cool off and be close to nature at the same time. Here is a fish-eye view Spider Lily (Crinum americanum).</p><div></div>

<p>Late entry tonight, but its still Monday! Encountered this fellow along a trail where I was hiking near Richmond, VA. You could see where he had been burrowing or grubbing around near by.</p>

<p><a title="OldManTurtle" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/outwithmycamera13/27568452826/in/dateposted-public/" data-flickr-embed="true"><img src="https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7293/27568452826_82314a6f1a_z.jpg" alt="OldManTurtle" width="640" height="499" /></a></p>

<p>The bees are a-bumblin'</p><div></div>

<p>Song sparrow singing</p><div></div>