"Ladybug Landscape"

After shooting snow laden landscapes, I began my descent from the mountains back to Bakersfield. As I transitioned from snow to rain, I pulled over to change my CD. Sure enough, I was soon out of my car working a section of flowers and grasses. The rain drenched area was dripping and I was thoroughly getting soaked while the temps hovered just over 32 degrees. When I am engaged with shooting, I soon forget how cold it is. Micro landscapes are more experimental for me, but perhaps this was my best attempt. I expect 3's and 4's are likely, but I think this will be appreciated by some, so here goes. Thanks for your impressions. Meanwhile, a Larger preview is available!!

Thanks for your thoughts!

Beautiful picture! An impressive work.

Mark, this is my cup of tea, love how you have capture the sometimes beauty of the unorderliness of growth in nature. None of your soldiers lined up in a row.The wide tonal range of the greens is very well captured & all the raindrops are the icing on the cake. Believe this is the first small slice of nature I've seen in your work Well done 6/6. Best Wishes -Ross

Thanks Gunnar and Ross. You're right Ross, not too many of these in my portfolio. I have been wanting to get out of my box more this year, but it goes slowly. My first order of business for this year is to shoot more vertical landscapes. I used to shoot often in the portrait mode, but slipped into a horizontal only mode when I was contributing work to Webshots for screen savers. I got stuck there, and when I started looking at my collection, I found that verticals were a rare thing. As well, I need to get into other types of shooting to keep things fresh. Microscapes and intimate landscapes are on my list of creative challenges, so I will have them on my mind more when I am out. Still, for me, nothing beats the grand expansive viewpoint!