Field Guide – Linda & Robert Scarth

Spring was making a more than tentative appearance during our recent trip to the southeastern US. In spite of the severe dry conditions, we saw Redbuds and Flowering Dogwoods in south Georgia and Florida. The tiny green flowers and their white petal-like bracts of this Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) which we saw in a state park in northern Florida were in much better condition than those we saw further south.

A few strands of Spanish Moss are seen in the background. Spanish Moss is not a moss but is an air plant which is common on some hardwood trees, especially Live Oaks in this part of the U.S.

Many years ago when we lived in Georgia, the Flowering Dogwood display in the Atlanta area in April was spectacular. People sometimes said that it looked like a cotton field from the air.

Several inches of snow fell today. Every inch is welcome to recharge dry soil as we wait for Spring. We have a Pagoda Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) outside this study window. The layered branches all the way to the pagoda-shaped crown wear white snow fur along their tops.

The Pagoda Dogwood is a northern cousin of the Flowering Dogwood with very different blossoms – flat-topped clusters of fluffy, white, tiny flowers – that appear in late Spring. Their ranges overlap so some people can enjoy their beauty in succession.

Yesterday, as we drove toward Minneapolis to see the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, we encountered the gifts left by an early morning freezing fog. The landscape in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota looked as if it stepped out of a fairytale. One could imagine a Nordic scene or a pale Japanese cherry blossom setting for a story.

We were on a tight schedule as our admission tickets were for a specific time. These two trees were so striking that we had to stop. They are natural works of art that complimented the Asian art we viewed later in the day. The laceyness of the branches is reminiscent of the intricate patterns on some of the brass and terracotta objects in the Terracotta Warriors exhibit. Buckles, pots, tiles, weapons, and the carved hairdos of the warriors and their horses often had branching designs.

Art museums are the reference works for artists of all types. Photographers have much to learn about light from paintings. Sculptors teach how to present subjects within a composition or in isolation. Great collections like those in the Minneapolis Institute of Art need to be studied and enjoyed in small portions.

Yesterday we were immersed in the story of the First Emporer and his warriors and plan to learn more. We also visited several other rooms to look at more Asian art and some North American Indian artifacts. We quickly realized that we had to process what we had seen and heard about the warriors before adding more. There will be other occasions to absorb some of the other works.

As well a lovely colors, autumn leaves sometimes have other characteristics. One is the appearance of galls or growths made of the leaf tissue. Oak trees may have galls of many shapes that are the homes of tiny wasp larva. Hackberry and neighboring trees are sometimes home to a very tiny insect – the Hackberry Psyllid. Their larva live in galls that are called Hackberry Nipples.

We found this example while on a walk in a nearby state park on Sunday afternoon. It seemed a good example to discuss. Hackberry Psyllids are tiny flying insects shaped somewhat like cicadas. They can get through screens and are often called knats, flies or even fleas. This gall had a pin hole in the top so the adult had emerged recently. It will overwinter in tree bark or other crevices and the females will pierce new leaves and lay their eggs in the spring. This single generation will emerge in the fall.

The leaf was on the ground among the multitudes of fallen leaves. It needed to be placed to show the gall’s shape and location and the leaf’s texture. A nearby rotting stump provided the platform and some contrasting color and texture. The aim, as with all documentary photography, is to show off the subject in a satisfying composition. If we were to repeat the image we might decrease the background focus and move a bit to the right to reduce the dark area in the upper right.

All photos need to be studied to learn what make them more informative, more compelling, and/or more attractive, as the case may be.

The recent gentle rains are most welcome after the summer drought. The subject of water figures extensively in both landscape and close-up photography. Close-up images are sometimes intimate landscapes, as well as abstractions. Autumn leaves and water mix so well. Colors intensify and the accompanying overcast adds a special depth.

The undersides of fallen leaves are often waxy and rain drops form and stay. Water on the top sides of leaves usually is just a sheen of wetness. Sometimes the water tension is able to maintain large drops on the waxy surface like the ones above. Each drop magnifies and sharpens the underlying pattern of veins.

The tree from which this leaf fell was a warm yellow and one of many colored trees in the neighborhood inviting us to make out-of- focus images of single and patchwork colors. Large prints of out of focus foliage can be useful backgrounds for other subjects. They also can become a faux mat layer for another image.

This background was at the widest aperture to make the smooth wash of yellow and gray-green seen in this faux mat. The file at the top of this post was superimposed on the yellow file. The perceived color of the original image was brightened by having the brighter faux mat. Color, like light, has chameleon qualities. Neighbors influence one another.

Many fallen leaves were examined between showers. Another large yellow and tan birch leaf had a small pool of water as well as little drops. It also had a small locust leaf floating just at the surface of the ‘pool.’ The little leaf had a sheen of water that softened the little leaf’s sharpness in spite of careful focusing using LiveView.

Autumn is a good time to add to the collection of files for the ‘backgrounds folder.’ A zoom lens works well to capture the wonderful colors that are out of reach. We vary the aperture to alter the degree of focus and separation of colors.

In July we happened upon a lunch tree developed and maintained by a family of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius). The tree was riddled with the distinctive pattern of drilled holes prepared by these birds. For several hours one afternoon we observed and photographed the activity at the tree. During that time we saw an adult male, an adult female, a juvenile female and at least one juvenile male. There may have been two because photos and behavior of the young male(s) vary a bit.

The adult male (above) was very brightly colored. He was the most wary of the birds that came and went.  He was the only one who would look over his shoulder in our direction.

The adult female has a red crown but no red throat. She was still feeding her youngsters. We saw her feed insects to the juveniles while on the sap tree. There were several other trees nearby that seemed to be part of the family’s territory. She would also approach the youngsters on them. 

Even though bird guides say that the juveniles stay brown through the first winter, we thought of this one to be a young female because she did not have any traces of red and the other youngster(s) did. She would shyly peak around the tree at us. We were in the shade of our pick-up truck with its pop-up camper. There were some shrubs between us and the tree to serve as a minimal blind.

This is one of the two juvenile males still tended by the adult female. He had the beginnings of his red cap and throat.  Both young males’ chests were still quite brown.

We think there were two juvenile males because this one has almost no red on his head and the red chin was smaller than the one above. This one seemed more self assured. Of course birds can manipulate their feathers so what is visible may change.

The tree was also visited by bees and flies. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird male came several times as did a Red Admiral butterfly. The hummingbird and butterfly made threatening gestures at one another and even bumped into each other. The most assertive visitor was a Red Squirrel who licked in the larger holes where sap flowed quite freely.

Here is a last look at the adult male with a shaft of sunlight on his throat; ever bit as dazzling as the gorget of a hummingbird. The yellowish cast of his belly feathers is almost visible from this angle. 

Long lenses, sturdy tripods and good fortune contributed to this experience with an uncommon woodpecker family. Some bird field guides describe Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers as furtive. This family was not. The only things we would have changed was more even light and a less mottled background.

On a recent beautiful, cold day, with the possibility of wintry weather ahead , we went in search of Bald Eagles to photograph along the Mississippi River. Only two flew by, so we looked around for another subject. When we looked up into the Sycamore tree next to our vehicle we saw several late winter compositions. Here is one with three Sycamore seed balls glowing in the mid-afternoon sun.

Sycamores (Planatanus occidentalis) are often described as stately. This young tree showed promise of one day becoming a giant. Already it had a healthy crop of fruit including this trio. As the trunk thickens, the mottled bark in shades of gray, olive and white will have interesting abstract patterns. Trees are not just background or objects in a landscape photograph. They are full of interesting subjects and compositions for the photographer who thinks “small is beautiful.”

Early winter can provide a special light. This afternoon the sky was a uniform cream color while carrying the possibility of snow. The air was icey cold with a few tiny flakes providing a bit of snow mist when we stopped at Rochester Cemetery in Cedar County, Iowa. This special native savanna prairie remnant is lying quiet and silent as it waits for Spring when its famous flush of Shooting Stars will bring visitors again.

Some may have thought the light much too uniform and flat. The camera saw the shadows and shading in the tree and in the nearby tombstones. There is contrast in the sillouetted tree that still retains its details against the light sky. This image is almost a monochrome in variations of russet from the cream of sky and tombstone to the deep red brown undersides of tree limbs. 

The elderly oaks on the savanna with their huge limbs flung wide, end in lacey compositions of branches and twigs. The pattern against the sky is distinctive and very different than the crowded second and third growth woodlands that surround this patch of natural and human history. There is something both solemm and joyous about these large and imposing trees. They are tall but also wider than they are tall. Though strongly attached to the earth by a substantial trunk, the intricate pattern of branches of this tree appear to flounce and fling themselves skyward.

While we were there a long waving skein of Canada Geese flew over, providing a calligraphic element as they wrote their story across the sky. When we saw them come over the tree, it almost seemed that they had been thrown skyward by the tree.

Indian Summer continues though it is a bit cooler. Oak leaves are now following the maple and other leaves to the ground.

Oaks generally come in two main groups – red oaks and white oaks. Red oaks - red and pin oaks – are the ones with pointed leaf lobes and tiny bristles at the ends of the lobes. The white oaks (burr and white oaks) have rounded leaf lobes. Many of them are hosts to tiny gall wasps which lay their eggs in the leaf tissue. Some of the galls are reminiscent of seed pods. The one in the top image reminds us a bit of earth star fungi and birds’ nest fungi.

As leaves turn to browns, coppers and golds, leaf galls are more apparent. The wasps only 1 to 8 mm (1/16-1/4 inch) long so are not really noticeable because they do not bother people. Their galls where their larva live and mature vary in size, color, shape and texture. These three examples are the more subtle and neutral colored. Some are vivid pinks and yellows and have highly decorative shapes. Many galls are found on the leaf undersides as do these. Galls may appear in clusters but single galls along a vein are common.

This spherical Oak Apple Gall is quite large - over 3 cm (1.25 inches) in diameter. The egg around which it formed must have been laid while the leaf was young. The shape of the leaf was bowed by the presence of the gall. It is not known how galls develop though they seem to only affect leaves and do not harm trees. Most of the hundreds of species of gall wasps lay their eggs on oak leaves. 

This white oak leaf has a rosy cast on the underside but was a warm grey-brown on top at the time it was photographed. It bears a single gall that did not distort the leaf’s normal shape.

When one takes a closer look at this somewhat spongy gall on the vein the damage to the nearby leaf tissue makes a lacey pattern.

A good place to see the wide variety of galls and some wasps is to the BugGuide site and search for “oak gall”. Just like fungis and lichens are reminiscent of some corals, so are some oak galls.