Monday in Nature Weekly Photo May26, 2014

[Laura Weishaupt]

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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. Do you have a series of great shots to compliment your post? Please, tell us where they are so we can see them.</p>

<p ><em >In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Try to minimize man made features, keep the focus on nature, and let common sense be your guide. <strong >Let's make this a true Photo of the Week and only post 1 image per week.</strong></em></p>

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<p>Happy Birthday Monday in Nature</p>

<p>Well folks, light a candle, set off some fireworks, tip a lens cap, raise a cup of coffee, and hit us with your best shot...... well, your best nature shot. It's time to celebrate one full year of Monday in Nature.</p>

<p>Each Monday it is a privilege and pleasure to open an ever evolving weekly celebration of the nature that we all love. Overall it's a success. You all love statistics, right? Over the last year we averaged 31 photo posts per week. That's pretty good given that we only post one photo. 129 people have contributed photos here. We'll never know how many folks quietly visit each week without posting. We've made an inviting place for nature lovers to visit and/or contribute. We've all learned new things. We've been shown places in nature that we may not visit or see in person. We appreciate humor when the holiday urge strikes. We even had a spammer. We all seem to be having a pretty good time.</p>

<p>Let's see where the next year takes us. One thing I do know is that photography has an impact that we don't always feel or know. A student may see a photo here and be inspired to become a biologist or geologist. The photo of a place may bring fond memories to someone you'll never know. A couch potato may go hiking for the first time because a photo here pulled them out of the house. Documentary photos may help a county official make an important environmental decision. The click of a shutter, the click of a mouse, a photo goes out and takes on a life of its own. Thanks to everyone who has come along on the journey.</p>

<p>I'm opening with my favorite things in nature, water and fungi. <em>Vibrissea truncorum</em> is a pretty ascomycete that grows on wood in moving water. It's very small and likely to be overlooked.</p>

<p>It's a special Monday in Nature. Today is Memorial here in the U.S.A..</p><div></div>

[Rick Bortnick]

<p>A year of MiN, who would have thought it would go so fast. Thanks to all for having/keeping the quality so high.<br>

My image this week is a sighting of Laura in her habitat. </p><div></div>

[johnfarrar]

<p>Laura - congratulations on steering MiN so well for a year. Now photographers in the UK could feel disadvantaged compared with colleagues in the USA - we don't have The Wave, or Antelope Canyon, or Delicate Arch. But it would be wrong to - we have plenty of shape and colour if you seek out smaller detail in places perhaps not famous for photography. Here is some wave-washed Triassic sandstone, 220 million times older than MiN! </p><div></div>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>Found this<strong> butterfly</strong> at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. </p><div></div>

[mbkissel]

<p>Laura, thank you for starting the MiN thread and for your special messages each week. I'm sure all of the participants here and those who stumble across the thread enjoy reading your opening monologue and seeing photos of nature from around the globe. Thank you for your time, effort and contribution each week.</p>

<p>Rick, when I've been asked to photograph someone for a portrait, I usually try to get to know them a bit to see if I can learn who they are and make their image do justice to their personality. If I thought of making a portrait of Laura, your photo immediately comes to mind. It would probably be one of her down on hands and knees near a stream, with magnifying glass in hand, looking at some minute growth that most of us would never see.</p>

<p>Whenever anyone asks what's your favorite photo you've taken, I'm immediately at a loss to think of one. I like to photograph flowers, animals and insects, so it's hard to choose just one. Here's one with two of those things.</p><div></div>

[gordonjb]

<p>Happy first anniversary for MIN. Spring moves forward here at a slow pace with the wildflowers finally coming into bloom. Lots of trilliums and other flowers carpet the woodlands. This Jack-in-the-pulpit had yet to unfurl its leaves.</p><div></div>

[User_2019667]

<p>Very lovely photos this morning. <br>

Mine is a reflection on a beautiful Memorial Day morning in NE Ohio.</p><div></div>

[biomed]

<p>Happy first anniversary to Laura and everyone else who have made Mondays something to look forward to, even to those of us who don't regularly post images.<br>

Taken yesterday on a morning hike on the Mattabessett trail in Meriden, CT.</p>

<center><a href="/photo/17774121&size=lg"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17774121-md.jpg" alt="caterpillar105" width="680" height="453" border="0" /></a></center>

<p>Canon 6D and Sigma 105mm macro OS lens.</p>

[jordan2240]

<p>Laura,<br>

Very much enjoy this forum and the contributions, so thank you for managing it so well. In honor of Memorial Day...</p>

[jordan2240]

<p>Trying again.</p><div></div>

[Andrew Gosden]

<p>Thanks for starting the thread each week. I always check out the thread even when I don't post.<br>

I just got a cheap Minolta 50mm and a reversing adapter. This is one of my better shots so far.<br>

<img src="http://akgosdenphotos.smugmug.com/Other/Close-Ups/i-bqBdTWn/0/700x700/IMG_1336-700x700.jpg" alt="" /><br>

<strong>Canon XSi with Minolta 50mm reverse mounted</strong></p>

[robert100]

Saturday morning I went out to walk over to the vineyard and almost stepped on this dude in my graveled

parking area, so I got down on my belly in the sharp stones with it and spent 15 minutes wearing the

knees and elbows out of my clothes working for camera angles.<div></div>

[Charles_Sumner]

<p>A quick year, time races on! A large thank you to Laura, for starting each week with inspiration. To all contributors, a thank you also. These photographs set a high level of skill and are often a lovely Monday surprise. </p>

[DawsonPointers]

<p>Greetings from the depths of northern Ontario. <br>

Thanx for the leadership, Laura. Lots of inspiration comes from this thread.<br>

Here's a lichen landscape.</p>

<div></div>

[William Kahn]

<p>Laura, you're the best, and I'm looking forward to another year.</p>

<p>Lately, my shooting expeditions have been hampered by weather, a bad back, hip bursitis, and trying to sell this house so we can get the hell out of Dodge and move back to Arizona where we belong. (OK, thanks, I feel better, now.) So using this excuse....uh, I mean <em>opportunity</em>, I have been going through a lot of old negatives and working on getting presentable images out of them. The main problem is that I was really just getting started again in photography in the late '90s and really had no clue what I was doing. But, I have been able to do restore some shots, some better than others, from Canon de Chelly (northeast Arizona on the Navajo Nation) in 1998. Here's one of the <em>not</em> better than others. But, I love the chaotic wildnesss of the place...</p><div></div>

[bing_huey1]

<p>Birthday wishes, indeed, to this great weekly show of visions of nature. Thanks to Laura for her effort and insightful thoughts. My contribution this week is a view of the crimson columbine prior to its fully blooming. I was trying to capture its symmetry.</p><div></div>

[birdied]

<p>Happy Memorial Day ! To all the veterans and active service men and women, thank you for your service and sacrifices.<br>

I was able to spent a few days in south Texas this past week. Loved seeing the White Morph Reddish Egret. I learned that the Reddish Egret is the most rare egret in North America, with the white morph being even more rare. They were almost driven into extinction in the early 1900's as their feathers were wanted for the hats.<br>

They estimate around 2000 pairs left in North America . The largest population is in Texas where they are protected.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[didereaux]

<p>Well, the Spring bird migration is at a close, and the summer heat, humidity, and mosquitoes are here....so its early morning time again. Went out practicing panorama shots at sunrise. This isn't great but certainly a pretty Memorial day dawn on Galveston Bay.<br>

9 frames<br>

Canon T2i<br>

ISO: 800<br>

Exposure: 1/2 sec<br />Aperture: 6.3<br />Focal Length: 24mm<br /> <img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9r26Qhzu5y4/U4N3vAjw7bI/AAAAAAAAC1Q/F7LBdcH7CZs/s800/Untitled%2520pss%2520bolivar%2520sunrise_Panorama1%2520100dpi%2520reduced%25204x24.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[Glenn McCreery]

<p>Yellowstone Exit and Substitute Ranger, Gardner, Montana.</p><div></div>

[jonathan_parkhouse1]

<p>Thanks to Laura and all who've made Mondays a little more interesting over the past year.<br>

This is a female Red-eyed Damselfly (<em>Erythromma najas</em>) from yesterday's insect hunting:</p><div></div>

[dzaebst]

<p>Thanks Laura for a great year in nature! I truly enjoy this forum even if I don't post every week. The photos posted here are an inspiration to me. <br>

<br />Here is a Great Egret wheeling and turning sharply in flight. Captured at the Venice rookery in Venice Florida this year. </p><div></div>

[Gup]

<p>I join everyone in thanking you, Laura, and in celebrating this weekly thread. <br>

This is a Rose-breasted Grosbeak that dropped in for lunch the other day.</p><div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Not rare but usually invisible, here's one of the two Virginia Rail parents that has been exciting the photo crowd over at Bolsa Chica this past week. No luck for me in catching a shot of the chicks - they seem to have a cloaking device a la klingons!</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>Civil War - Memorial Day shooting today, so here I am again, in Africa.</p><div></div>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>Thanks for the kudos.....you are the ones who make this party work. It's always nice to see folks who have been away for awhile. The focus of much of the day here has been our Memorial Day observances.<br>

Roberta, incredible shot of a rare bird. <br>

Paul DeLay, you need a Romulan lens.<br>

William K, best wishes for improvement all around. It really will get better.<br>

John Farrar, we're getting on a plane one of these days and flying to your side of the pond.. There are a lot of places I want to visit and photograph there.<br>

Wonderful shots and birthday sentiments. Here's to the future.</p>