Make a Ripple
Make a difference.
What a gift it was to find this single phlox flower floating on the surface of the birdbath. You’ll see a few more.
This quote is by me.
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Read more about this series of photos.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Tiny Perfections
Tiny Perfections.
They are everywhere, these little moments of bliss. Found this one in my birdbath.
This quote is by me.
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Read more about this series of photos.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Simplify
Simplify.
After Thoreau. Today my birdbath full of rainwater was my Walden Pond.
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I gave myself a physical and creative break out in the back yard yesterday afternoon. You never know what beauty you’ll find anywhere you go.
I had just wanted to walk around and think about a project I was working on and not be distracted by any other activity, which is what I usually end up doing—take a break from one thing, start another—but it had rained, then stopped, and my Mimi kitty and I would enjoy the air. Typically I take my “good” camera, but determined not to be distracted I took only my smartphone so that I could keep track of time.
Perhaps it was that I had walked out there in a creative state of mind but the place was full of inspiration. It’s just a small back yard, lots of green, not too many flowers after the heat, but I couldn’t decide where to go first. I found one single pink phlox flower that had fallen into a shallow birdbath, and from each angle as I walked around it the view changed, different reflections of the flower, of the tree overhead, of the sky between the leaves, of the mossy concrete below the surface of the water, and magical tiny ripples where the flower rested on the surface of the water, pressing down on the surface tension as if reclining on a transparent mattress.
I prowled around it with my smartphone’s camera as Mimi prowled for the little voles that run right under the leaf litter, each of us aware of each other but focused on our tasks.
Wishing I had all the lenses and quality images I would get from my DSLR—going back into the house would have broken the spell—I pushed that insufficient little phone camera to its limit, and with patience it did not disappoint. I took quite a few photos, several photos that inspired me to crop and edit and add text, which I rarely do, and I shared them on Instagram first, and now here, more to work with later.
So what does this flower have to do with simplifying anyway? It may look like a simple photo, but it’s deceptively complicated, and yet by having only my smartphone to work with I simplified a process which I usually complicate immensely when I run outdoors with all my camera equipment, that’s what it meant for me, and brought to mind Thoreau. Posting a photo that demands one “simplify” isn’t going to convince anyone on the spot, but it may make people stop and consider the idea.
So I got my break, I got creative inspiration to carry back in, and Mimi got her vole. It was very simple.
See two other photos from this magical time, Make a Ripple and Tiny Perfections.
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We’re posting with
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly
Spread your wings. Another wet morning. It’s my iron butterfly with a dewy tendril of honeysuckle dancing with the rusty butterfly antennae.
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
Happy Birthday, Rachel Carson
Happy Birthday Rachel Carson
The back yard was lovely this morning, and I owe the reading of Rachel Carson’s books to my observance of my little wild space. I’ve managed to retain that “sense of wonder” each time I look at the world around me. I photographed this fleabane just this morning, covered with dew and shining in the sun as if it was celebrating.
Rachel Carson was a Pittsburgh area native who attended now Chatham University, whose books and work were a great inspiration to me, both as a person who observes and honors nature and as a woman who wanted to walk my own path.
Baltimore is Back!
Baltimore Oriole
I’ve heard his chatter and song off an on for a week or so and I finally spotted him. The Baltimore Oriole is back in the back yard, leaping from branch to branch high in the maples, looking for a good meal of bugs and other good stuff. I first spotted one in my yard nearly 15 years ago and it seemed to be lured to the wild black cherry. Since then I’ve let a few extra mulberries grow because orioles do like their fruit and will nest near a good food source. I had found the hanging way at the end of a branch in the maple in the front yard, then a few years later in the maple in the back yard; somewhere I have a photo of it, but I’ll be darned if I can find it.
Wild Black Cherries
Mulberries
The leaves are just big enough now that birds are obscured, and the females are about the color of new maple leaves, so though I scanned the trees top to bottom with binoculars I did not spot the female. I’ll keep a lookout for this year’s nest, and keep my hummingbird feeders full and add the oriole feeder this year as well as put out some orange slices and other tasty fruits. The mulberry tree directly under this maple has the biggest, darkest, juiciest mulberries on any of the trees in my yard, in fact, they look more like big blackberries. The wild black cherries are small and turn a deep black-purple. This seems to be the fruit varieties and colors the orioles like best, although both trees are often considered “pest” or “weed” trees because from blossoms to fruits to leaves to branches they are “messy” trees. I’ve no doubt, though, they are two of the reasons I have so many bird species in my yard.
They’re not named for the city of Baltimore, but both the city and the bird were named for the British Baltimore family whose colors are orange and black.
These were the best photos I could get from the ground and from the deck. The maple trees are 70 to 80 feet tall and this guy was happily hopping along the tops of all the branches. If I can get a shot from the second-floor window I’ll be so happy! And I may have to seriously consider fitting a converter onto my 70-300 lens, or getting a lens up to 500mm.
Baltimore Oriole
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For a print of any photo, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.
All images in this post are copyright © Bernadette E. Kazmarski and may not be used without prior written permission.
A Favorite Tulip
Favorite Tulip
I like tulips of any sort, but most of mine have been eaten by small burrowing creatures or the bunnies who come to visit in spring. I quit replanting them in my yard, but this one single tulip continues to sprout and bloom each spring. Its leaves are smaller and shorter than the others, and the flower itself is as well, so perhaps it’s camouflaged by the ivy for long enough to actually make a showing. It’s just a tiny little thing too, just like a small cordial glass. Studying the red veins fading out into the petal never ceases to amaze me.
Wren Returns, 2010
Wren
This bossy little wren is likely a return from last year, finding the two feeders as soon as I hung and filled them. Here, she is on the post at the bottom of the steps to my deck debating which one to visit next. Whatever she decides, we are sure to hear about it.
I put out two more feeders today in the back yard and it was as if the birds had been hanging around waiting. They were immediately in the flat feeder with the mixed nuts, and then in the feeder out under the trees.
This usually means they are returning birds since they are well-acquainted with the accommodations. Welcome back!
Bloom Again in Autumn, 2011
Bloom Again in Autumn
The pink pasture rose blooms again in autumn, surrounded by so many buds it will be November before they are all done. I was lucky to find it in such magical light at an angle that caught the shadows of the buds on the outside of the flower, showing through the translucent petals.
Purchase a print in a variety of styles and sizes or a greeting card from my Fine Art America profile: Bloom Again In Autumn
Home-grown Tomatoes
Tomatoes
My neighbor balanced a few beefsteaks on his deck rail. Perfect composition; often the best are unintentional.
The Forgotten Place
The Forgotten Place
Yes, I’ve neglected my old park bench, always one of my favorite places to sit, cool in summer, scenic little view of my yard in all seasons, lots of little critters around. Now grapevines twine on the wrought iron and one of the boards has broken I pledge to myself to revisit it again before winter and make repairs.
Park Your Toys
Park Your Toys
This was just too cute, and what a great idea? Where would you park all those Big Wheels and other plastic conveyances and tricycles and little bicycles—all over the yard? Colorful on a sunny morning, it looks like summer for the kids to me.
Dragonfly: 2011
Dragonfly
This one came to visit my back yard this morning. She looks like either a Common Whitetail or a 12-spotted Skimmer to me.
My Life Savings
My Life Savings.
These plants are, among other names, called “money plants” or “silver dollar plants” because these round bright green seed pods mature to a light tan and when the outer layers and seeds are removed what’s left is a thin, papery, translucent creamy-white sphere; because this also resembles a full moon, they are also called “lunaria”.
But the joke is on the money plants—they seed themselves all over the yard and this year are doing quite well. if I had this much in my pockets I’d be doing pretty well. But they also look lovely with the late afternoon sun shining through them, and beauty is priceless.
Bloom Again in Autumn
Bloom Again in Autumn
The pink pasture rose blooms again in autumn, surrounded by so many buds it will be November before they are all done. I was lucky to find it in such magical light at an angle that caught the shadows of the buds on the outside of the flower, showing through the translucent petals.
Home-grown Tomatoes
Tomatoes
My neighbor balanced a few beefsteaks on his deck rail. Perfect composition; often the best are unintentional.
Today 