“Nature is impermanent and cyclical. Where once beauty and freshness abounded, desiccated petals remain and leaves begin to lose their freshness. This too will change, following a set pattern, and a new cycle will begin, in its time.” – Ed Lehming

I can’t say that I have ever witnessed this before. Two weeks ago the forest was alight with the pristine blossoms of white trillium (three weeks ago it snowed). Generally, my observation has been that within about a week, the white fades to a pale and mottled pink, causing some observers to think the trilliums are a pink variety. Once the pink fades, the petals fall off, leaving a bright green plant and a seed pod.

This year, the summer heat came quickly and since it been hot and dry at the same time, the petals simply dried in place. The whole forest is filled with these dry petal trilliums. They are actually quite pretty, but unexpected. It’s been a strange year all around so far. I’m wondering what new surprise is around the next corner?

For my photography community, you will see some ‘unorthodox’ settings. I had just entered the forest when I found these and had my ISO set to 400. Because I wanted to get the majority of the image in focus, I set the aperture to f/10.0 and the camera did the rest. Fortunately, I was using a tripod and the slight breeze I experienced the rest of the hike was not present at the time.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/6 sec, f/10.0, ISO 400