Speckled Pond Lily
Yesterday I went for lunch and a photo outing with Toad, of Toad Hollow Photography, which was a huge pleasure that I hope to repeat again soon. This shot is from our wander through some of the gardens at Royal Roads University in Colwood, west of Victoria. These lily pads are in a small pond in front of the old Dunsmuir residence, Hatley Castle. I wondered why they were so speckled, as if some ash had fallen on them; careless smokers perhaps, or some strange amalgam of pollen. Imagine my surprise when, at home, I zoomed in and found the specks were alive. Or at least the black ones are. I think the white ones are moulted skins. Below are a couple of crops from the image above, just so you can see what I mean.
Naturally, if one hangs out with the Toad, one shoots brackets. So, this is an HDR processed image.
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Canon 5dii, Canon 100mm/f2.8 macro lens, ISO200, f5.6, 1/800th +/- 2.0 E.V.
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I really wish that I wasn’t so terribly busy all the time, I’d love to do much more of this together Ehpem! It was so much fun having a chance to explore this with you and see what you saw in realtime like that. You are far too kind here with your comments, in reality it was you who was a wonderful friend who really created a terrific afternoon of exploration that I will forever be grateful for!
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Oh, and by the way… I think I’ll skip Ken’s breakfast, whatever it was he had in mind…
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Hi Toad – it WAS fun. While it is good to be busy, it is a drag to be so busy that chances for fun are limited. Whenever we can do this again, I will be glad of the chance. And even though it is past breakfast, re-reading Ken’s comment makes me think maybe I am not all that hungry.
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Nice shots, bugs and all. Not gonna lie – I am little jealous of your time with Mr. Toad….
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Mr. Toad is a charming man, and very generous with his knowledge and good cheer. He seemed worried I might fall in the pond to get this shot. Had I noticed there were so many bugs, I would have been worried too. This shows also that he has very sharp eyes; acute vision. As we see in his photos.
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Well that’s quite a bunch of little critters! Lucky you having a day out with Mr Toad
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Hi Andy. I think this is a pretty sick pond ecosystem, from the looks of it.
It was an awful lot of fun spending time with Mr. Toad. He is the only person that I have met through blogging that I have also met in person. Not how I grew up meeting people, but turns out to be a very good one. I don’t know any other photographers in this area (which is my fault since I have not sought out any of the camera clubs, or other places to find people with similar interests) so it is a rare treat to talk with someone about photography, and to take pictures together.
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Well, you have been shooting a lot of bugs and bees lately. These are really very nice and the cropped images hold up very well. The first photo made me think of pepper on a sunny side up egg. Guess I’ll go have breakfast.
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Good morning Ken. I need breakfast too, but anything that looks like these photos is not likely on my menu!
I thought I was shooting flowers yesterday, it was only when I got home that I found yet another bug shot! The lily pads were out of reach toward the middle of this little water feature, so I could not get close enough to see what the specks were, and in fact I was not curious enough at the time to have a closer look.
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Great photography……….. nice shots…..
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Thank you Mona. Nice to have you visiting burnt embers, and commenting!
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