This week, I made the Fellows help me with a research project I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m excited about it, but the logistics of actually setting up the project were a little unpleasant (I think Ashley is planning to post about the details later, so I won’t spoil it). Regardless, after we got done, we rewarded ourselves with a little photography time at one of our restored wetlands in the Platte River Prairies.
When we started, there were some light clouds diffusing the light, but they didn’t stick around long and we got less photography time than we’d hoped for. It was still nice to explore the wetland – especially compared to what we’d been doing earlier. Today’s photos are a sampling of those I took during that brief wetland exploration.
Well, actually, this photo took place earlier in the day after a light rain. This monarch was perched on some Canada wildrye, trying to dry off and I made the Fellows stand around for several minutes, waiting for me to get the photo I wanted. (To be fair, I offered them the chance to photograph it to, but they turned me down.) Nikon 105mm macro lens. ISO 500, 1/200 sec, f/10.Here’s Ashley experimenting with some photo techniques at the wetland. This is a former sandpit lake that we’ve restored over many years into a stream with lots of backwater wetlands, side sloughs, and isolated pools. Tokina 12-28mm lens @ 12 mm. ISO 500, 1/500 sec, f/18.There were numerous examples of this plant sprawling across dry sandbars left by flooding earlier this year. According to my friend and helpful botanist Gerry Steinauer, it is Mollugo verticillata, aka green carpetweed. I enjoyed both the orange color of the maturing leaves and the webbed pattern of the stems across the sand. Nikon 105mm macro lens, ISO 500, 1/200 sec, f/16.Obedient plant, aka false dragonhead (Physostegia virginiana) is not a common plant in the Platte River Prairies, but when we do see a patch, it’s usually full of gorgeous flowering stems. I hung out with this patch for quite a while, playing with light and compositions. Nikon 105mm macro lens. ISO 500, 1/320 sec, f/16.Here’s a wider view of the whole patch of obedient plant. Nikon 10.5mm fish eye lens. ISO 500, 1/200 sec, f/20.
3 thoughts on “Photos of the Week – August 7, 2020”
I’m newish enough to your blog that you might have covered this before, but now I am fascinated by what you did with the sandpit lake over the years. More details?
The Prairie Ecologist 
I’m newish enough to your blog that you might have covered this before, but now I am fascinated by what you did with the sandpit lake over the years. More details?
Sure, here’s a link to a post from years ago. There should be more links at the bottom of it that will send you to even more posts on the same project. https://prairieecologist.com/2012/09/26/an-update-on-a-wetland-project-remember-the-sludge/
I’d love to see some current “side-by-side”comparisons of the restoration using photos from previous posts if have them to share.