I was watching a movie of a presentation by Dewitt Jones, and in the course of his presentation he talks about photographing dandelion puffballs. He finally lays down on the ground and shoots a puffball backlit by the sun.

Not long after that I was walking our dog in the park and there were puffballs everywhere. Inspired by Dewitt Jones, I tied our dog’s leash to my foot so he wouldn’t wander off, lay down in the grass and used my phone to take a backlit photo of this puffball. In addition to being my favorite photo for May 6, it is one of my all time favorite photos.

I wrote an article about the photo and sent an email to Dewitt Jones. He sent a nice note back.

You can see a short version of Dewitt’s excellent presentation, along with his puffball photo, here:

Celebrate What’s Right With the World

 

Sarett Nature Center near Benton Harbor Michigan is one of my favorite place to take pictures. I was there one day about 20 years ago when they were selling nursery raised red trillium, so I bought one. Red Trillium are protected in the wild in Michigan, so if you want one you need to get nursery raised stock.

We planted it in our yard in Michigan and it did just fine, coming up almost every year and blooming most years. It dies back in the summer and disappears, but if all goes well, the rhizome shoots up a new plant every spring. When we moved to Ohio, the trillium came with us. We planted it in a shady, moist area of our shade garden. Most years it came up and bloomed.

Last fall we moved to Iowa and it again came with us. We planted it in a shady, moist area of our yard. This year it came up again and bloomed. We are thrilled. This is my second favorite photo for this date.

It was prom night. Across the street Will’s mother could not get her camera to work and it was close to the time Will needed to leave. I offered to take a few pictures of Will. We shot on my front porch for about two minutes and then Will was on his way. Ten minutes later I gave his mother an 8×10 inch print. She was thrilled.

This is my third favorite photo for May 6.

Links

Series: Favorite Photos by Date – all about this series

Celebrate What’s Right With the World – the short online version