Pioneer violet

As you capture an image of the first yellow violet that you’ve seen this year you realize that’s the way photographing wildflowers is meant to be!

Lying prone in the wet grass and low shrubs along the stream, one leg of your tripod (in this case your right elbow) in the water (causing you to wonder momentarily how water that is at a temperature of -40°F is still in liquid form), the second leg of the tripod (your left elbow) wedged into a nest of sharp rocks, and the third leg, which is a six inch long monopod screwed into the tripod mount on the bottom of your camera with three of those inches buried in the mud, leaving your nose also in the mud as you attempt to frame a photo in the viewfinder, you are, under the circumstances, having a quite pleasant experience.

In between exposure bracketing it comes to your attention that every creature that has eight or more legs and lives within a four mile radius of your position has joined its friends in a gleeful stroll through the neck of your sweat shirt and far down the center of your back. You probably don’t want to think too much about exactly what they’re doing down there, but you’re pretty sure you heard the “pop” of a champaign cork. Actually you hope that’s what it was.

It’s late evening, the light is failing, you’re two miles from the trail head and as you click the shutter for the last time you hope that wet sensation you just felt in the middle of your back wasn’t caused by the foot of some large hairy creature of the night stepping on your cold, wet body because, while that might make the trip back to your Jeep faster by several orders of magnitude, you know on that trip back you really won’t enjoy the sensation of knocking down that big Douglas Fir near the bottom of the trail with your sternum because the trail took it’s sudden turn to the left and you didn’t.

But it wasn’t: the Fir survived because your more leisurely pace allowed you to make that sharp left turn in the dark, and, after you arrive home and transfer your photos to the iMac you can see that the photos of the flower were actually in focus this time. Life is good!

Pioneer violet
Viola glabella
Violet family