Tag Archives: photography

Photo of the Week – January 30, 2014

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Of the many categories of art in the world, the still life is not one of my favorites.  I appreciate the skill needed to create a nice still life photo or painting, but I don’t often find them very compelling.  Because of that, I think it’s ironic that I stopped to photograph this frozen plant mainly because when I saw it, my first thought was, “Hey, that looks like a still life!”

Arrowhead plant (Sagittaria sp.) encased in ice a the Helzer family prairie near Stockham, Nebraska.

Arrowhead plant (Sagittaria calycina?) encased in ice a the Helzer family prairie near Stockham, Nebraska.

I suppose it would technically be considered more of a portrait than a still life?  What do I know?  I’m not an artist, I’m just an ecologist with a camera!

I was pretty sure this plant was an arrowhead (Sagittaria sp) but I took it to my botanist down the hall, Gerry Steinauer, for confirmation.    Gerry first gave me a hard time for not bringing him the actual specimen (?!) but eventually agreed with me that it was an arrowhead and even identified it to the species – Sagittaria calycina.  I’m sure the botanists out there reading this will look closely to see if they agree with him or not.  Let me know what you think!

(By the way, if you don’t have your own “botanist down the hall”, I highly recommend them – though mine likes to wander into my assistant’s office and eat all the snacks from her desk.)

Photo of the Week – January 24, 2014

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I’m in New Orleans this week at a conference with more than 200 colleagues from across the Central U.S.  It’s been inspiring to hang out  and learn from them.  Early in the week, I got to go on a field trip to a couple of natural areas just north of New Orleans.  Here are a couple photos from that trip.

Slash pine at The Nature Conservancy's Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve north of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Slash pine at The Nature Conservancy’s Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve north of New Orleans, Louisiana.

We visited a couple sites where the Conservancy is working to restore longleaf pine savanna and similar natural communities.  These photos are from a site that includes plants such as cypress, pitcher plants and myriad other species I don’t get to see at home.  In fact, it was both fascinating and a little humbling to see all the plants that I couldn’t identify.  For quite a few of them, I didn’t even recognize the genus, let alone the species!  That said, many of the restoration techniques are very similar to those we use in Nebraska, so there was a lot we could learn from each other.

The Conservancy's Nelwyn McInnis leads a tour group through the site.

The Conservancy’s Nelwyn McInnis leads a tour group through the site.  The savannas we hiked through were essentially prairies with trees, which are beautiful but I had to keep reminding myself that it was ok to have trees in a prairie…

Many thanks to the staff of The Nature Conservancy in Louisiana for hosting us this week.  I look forward to visiting again.