“Columbines in the lush green forest is a sure sign that summer is on our doorstep.” – Ed Lehming

As I set out for a hike recently, to photograph Starflowers, I was surprised to find an early patch of wild columbines. Most were in the shadow of the forest but a few dangled like faery bells in the sunshine.

These perennial flowers are always a delight and are so different in structure than most of the low-lying wildflowers usually associated with Southern Ontario woodlands. Their colour alone makes them stand out dramatically against the deep greens of the forest.

Of course, with late spring heat, the mosquitoes were also out to welcome me to their home. I was more concerned with blackflies, which are usually still quite active this time of year, but they seem to have burned off early. The abundance of mosquitoes surprised me, since the spring has been cool and dry, limiting their ability to breed, but they seem quite adept at overcoming such adversities and there were still enough to be an annoyance as I crouched low for this shot. Next time, I will bring bug spray, but for now, I’m just happy to have captured a few pleasing images.

For my fellow photographers, I was not particularly challenged by the light, but there was a slight breeze, which forced me to increase my shutter speed to limit the effects of the motion for this tight macro shot, but had to bump the ISO quite a bit to properly expose the image.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/1250 sec, f/15.0, ISO 1600