March 31, 2012
For the easily amused
With our late spring there just hasn’t been much in the way of wildflowers appearing yet, but the winter moss is doing extraordinarily well. On the first mile or so of one of my favorite trails today there is a cliffy area where the greens were ever so pretty.
While admiring the moss on the cliff I noticed that there was quite a lot of water dripping through it and then I got sidetracked. What if I could catch a water droplet on a piece of moss? … and here’s where that took me. Sometimes it’s not too bad to be easily amused.
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Montana Outdoors 
Pretty Cool.
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Comment by Homestead Ramblings — March 31, 2012 @ 10:49 pm
Thanks!
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Comment by montucky — March 31, 2012 @ 11:57 pm
It never ceases to amaze me how much beauty there can be in a single drop of water. Lovely. lovely photos!
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Comment by Colleen — March 31, 2012 @ 11:07 pm
Personally I hold water in reverence. It makes life possible and there is always something of beauty in it, on it, near it or because of it.
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Comment by montucky — March 31, 2012 @ 11:58 pm
Fantastic! I’ve found myself taking lots of closeup shots of droplets lately. I’ve certainly had plenty of material to work with!
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Comment by aarontheisen — March 31, 2012 @ 11:08 pm
I like the rain and I’ll like it a lot more when it is a little warmer. We’ve had some thunder in the mix this week too! When the flowers start to bloom this year there should be quite a show.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 12:00 am
You’re right, I think this late, wet winter is going to produce a fine crop of wildflowers this spring/summer.
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Comment by aarontheisen — April 1, 2012 @ 12:48 pm
Yikes, those are gorgeous droplets!
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Comment by Candace — March 31, 2012 @ 11:12 pm
They are! What the camera saw was a complete and pleasant surprise to me.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 12:02 am
What superb images. You did well to capture such amazing reflections and detail. Beautiful!
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Comment by Jo Woolf — April 1, 2012 @ 12:06 am
Thanks Jo. What the lens sees is often amazing to me. Seems like there’s always something!
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 12:13 am
The whole world should be so “easily amused.” Simply beautiful. A mirror of life in a drop of water.
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Comment by Teresa Evangeline — April 1, 2012 @ 5:28 am
The lens showed an entirely different world existing on that mossy cliff, a place that I’ve passed a dozen times before without knowing. I will think of such places much differently now.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 9:34 pm
The third moss photo is one of the best I’ve ever seen. I could not stop looking at it. Simply beautiful, literally, simply beautiful!
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Comment by Wild_Bill — April 1, 2012 @ 6:05 am
Thanks Bill. I noticed the water dripping there and it made me wonder. When I saw what the lens showed me I became fascinated and kept shooting. I don’t know it that would be considered a tiny ecosystem or not, but certainly a community I would think. Lots of plant life there with the moss and lichens. I would have to guess also microbes and insects. A world only a few inches thick.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 9:42 pm
I am glad you got to looking at it close. Every shot is great.
I have to laugh, though. When I saw the first shot on the WP reader, I thought you were amused by that clog shaped boulder.
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Comment by sandy — April 1, 2012 @ 6:15 am
Well, that too. There was a lot of fascinating stuff going on at that cliff!
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 9:53 pm
I am glad you got sidetracked. It appears it was well worth it. Water can create such lovely effects with reflection, transparency, distortion, and in this case, even some prismic effects. Also the choice of featuring water with the moss is very appropriate since non-vascular plants like moss depend so much on the presence of moisture. Very nice images!
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Comment by btweenblinks — April 1, 2012 @ 7:52 am
Where there’s water, there’s always something interesting going on, isn’t there! So beautiful at times, always so useful.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 9:55 pm
Incredible…the things we would miss if we didn’t allow ourselves to become sidetracked occasionally. Very nice.
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Comment by seekraz — April 1, 2012 @ 9:30 am
Letting ourselves be sidetracked is something we probably should do more often. It’s so relaxing to just wander around without the pressure of a plan or a goal that we think we must accomplish.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:01 pm
I am with you there…well said.
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Comment by seekraz — April 1, 2012 @ 10:32 pm
Wow! Beautiful!
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Comment by Roberta — April 1, 2012 @ 12:11 pm
Thanks Roberta!
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:01 pm
Neat shots, the spring here has come very early. All our trees came into bloom and lots of wildflowers have come up already too… nearly a month early it is really odd.
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
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Comment by Anna — April 1, 2012 @ 2:59 pm
This is an interesting spring. Most places it seems have had a very early spring, yet some, like here are still at the coat-tails of winter. Thank you for visiting!
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:04 pm
What kind of camera do you use? Good equipment is nice but it’s the eye of the photographer that captures the spirit and true art.
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Comment by Debby — April 1, 2012 @ 3:21 pm
I use a Nikon D80, Debby, and a good close-up lens. I consider photography to be a team endeavor, which includes the photographer, the engineers who conceived and designed the equipment and those who view and consider the results.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:10 pm
thanks
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Comment by Debby — April 2, 2012 @ 5:32 am
very cool .. like the 3rd drop the best .. that extra small fraction of a second. The moss is growing great here, too.
But, I was not sidetracked in such a great way as you were. You have inspired me to take a closer look at it.
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Comment by bearyweather — April 1, 2012 @ 4:00 pm
Yes, that tiny fraction of a second was difficult to catch! Mosses are awesome plant forms and I feel a little guilty in not knowing much about them. There is a lot going on in their world!
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:16 pm
Fantastic work again. I’m happy you were easily distracted, ooh a shiny thing, too.
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Comment by dave1949 — April 1, 2012 @ 5:06 pm
Thanks Dave!
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:16 pm
These are amazing, Terry! (And beautiful.) 🙂
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Comment by Val — April 1, 2012 @ 5:10 pm
The droplets, especially the elongated one reminded me of some of your art, Val.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:17 pm
Very cool!
I love discovering the world around me with a macro lens 🙂
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Comment by TheDailyClick — April 1, 2012 @ 5:48 pm
I do too. That lens has been worth every penny!
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:18 pm
Beautiful AND surreal. That’s a good combination. I heard Sally Streib once say that if you thought some aspect of nature was boring, you weren’t looking closely enough.
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Comment by jomegat — April 1, 2012 @ 6:59 pm
That’s a good and accurate thought! I often think of the story of the Student, the Fish, and Agassiz.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:23 pm
I had never heard of the story, but I looked it up. Yes, it does apply!
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Comment by jomegat — April 2, 2012 @ 7:16 am
Your first photo looked, at first glance, to be a marvelous landscape, with a waterfall washing a granite cliff and trees all around. Oops! I don’t know if I’d say these photos are for the easily amused. Maybe I’d say they’re for the “rarely astounded”, because they are astounding, both in their beauty and in the technical accomplishment.
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Comment by shoreacres — April 1, 2012 @ 7:20 pm
So much of the natural world is astounding, I think. It is equally astounding that we perceive aesthetic beauty in such things, and then I wonder if that perception is a natural part of the whole or a strictly personal reaction.
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:37 pm
It certainly is a wonderful small world!
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Comment by Margie — April 1, 2012 @ 7:27 pm
It is indeed!
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Comment by montucky — April 1, 2012 @ 10:24 pm
oh wow!! magical!! your photos are really amazing!
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Comment by skouba — April 2, 2012 @ 6:33 am
Thanks Stacey. I hope you and your family were not hurt at all by the storms today!
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Comment by montucky — April 3, 2012 @ 8:50 pm
Wow-those are close ups! I’m going to have to try water drops. Thanks for the excellent photos.
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Comment by New Hampshire Gardener — April 2, 2012 @ 12:41 pm
Always worth a try! Something amazing usually happens!
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Comment by montucky — April 3, 2012 @ 8:50 pm
Incredibly gorgeous photos!!!!!
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Comment by beyenburgerin — April 2, 2012 @ 1:18 pm
Thank you!
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Comment by montucky — April 3, 2012 @ 8:50 pm
Fantastic!!!
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Comment by dhphotosite — April 2, 2012 @ 1:26 pm
WOW! These pictures are more than amusing, they’re fascinating! Hubby just told me this weekend as he was out trying to spruce up the yard a little that we have a lot of moss this year. Warm winter may be the cause.
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Comment by Mama's Empty Nest — April 2, 2012 @ 5:14 pm
Warm winter possibly, wet probably too. We have a lot of winter moss in this area. It’s amazing stuff.
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Comment by montucky — April 3, 2012 @ 8:52 pm
Though I’m really looking forward to your annual parade of wildflowers, this series stopped me in my tracks!
I know this blog keeps you plenty busy, Montucky, but if you had a spare moment you should drop in at my favorite a forum, Any Port in a Storm, which has an active Image Bank of photos on themed topics, including this one on Moss, Lichens & Fungus: http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=photo&action=display&thread=5125
If you reposted any of your photos there, you’d instantly become a star! (Not that you aren’t already!)
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Comment by Kim — April 3, 2012 @ 9:34 am
Thank you Kim! I will check that out!
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Comment by montucky — April 3, 2012 @ 8:53 pm
They also have threads on “What’s in Bloom” “Color!” “Trees” “Landscape”, “Black and White” etc. You’d fit right in.
And the Any Port visitors would LOVE your work.
Hope you are having a good trip.
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Comment by Kim — April 7, 2012 @ 8:57 am
Thanks Kim. I saved the link and will visit there when I catch up a bit. The trip was safe and good although I had a lot to get done. Sure nice to be back in Montana!
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Comment by montucky — April 11, 2012 @ 8:59 pm
Will look forward to seeing you there!
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Comment by Kim — April 17, 2012 @ 9:49 pm
Wow ! Those water droplets photos are unbelievable ! Superb shots !
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Comment by Inspired and pretty — April 3, 2012 @ 11:00 am
Thanks! I’m glad I tried a few shots on an impulse! I like them too!
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Comment by montucky — April 3, 2012 @ 8:54 pm
Hi Montucky, Your last shot is especially beautiful with the various colors showing in that drop. The moss is quite lovely. Have a super Wednesday!
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Comment by wildlifewatcher — April 3, 2012 @ 6:45 pm
I also love the colors in that drop. Something for the imagination!
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Comment by montucky — April 3, 2012 @ 8:54 pm
Those shots are so cool!!
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Comment by kcjewel — April 3, 2012 @ 8:02 pm
Thanks Jewel!
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Comment by montucky — April 3, 2012 @ 8:55 pm
Whoa, what stunning photos! Excellent!
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Comment by Watching Seasons — April 4, 2012 @ 5:48 pm
Thanks. It’s always worth trying for a shot!
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Comment by montucky — April 11, 2012 @ 8:40 pm
Awesome photos. Green moss is looking gorgeous although green is not my favorite color. 🙂 Close-ups are incredible!!!
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Comment by Sartenada — April 6, 2012 @ 1:22 am
Thanks Matti!
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Comment by montucky — April 11, 2012 @ 8:40 pm
Incredibly beautiful and artistic !
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Comment by isathreadsoflife — April 24, 2012 @ 5:45 am
Thanks! Sometimes simple experiments work out well!
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Comment by montucky — April 24, 2012 @ 8:43 pm