|
|
|
Cuckoo Flower
 |
|
| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis) so called because within 10days of finding this in flower you should hear the real thing starting to call.
A plant of damp places, such as water meadows, stream edges and as here at the side of a path wndering between ponds and lakes of a local nature reserve that used to be gravel pits, for more details about this rich source for local wildlife have a look at these web sites.
how to get there
about what you can expect to see at the site
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust are the local group helping to make major improvements to the large area so close to the centre of Nottingham City centre, it is probably under 5 miles from it, and during the week you could be miles from anywhere it is so quiet, well worth a visit especially as they have opened a new visitors centre last week.
Back to the flower this member of the cabbage family (Brassicaceae / Cruciferae). Another native plant with many common names and as usual it has sex at the bottom of a good portion of them so its other main name of "Ladies Smock" the Smock bit it would seem to refers to being a "Bit of Skirt" or of "Easy virue" and other things that might happen in a spring meadow !!!!. Others are Milkmaids, Mayflower- not to be confused with the other May flower Crataegus Monogyna -Hawthorn, Coco plant.
The flower can be very variable in colour from as you see here almost white with a touch of pink through to a full Mauve -Pink allover.
the young leaves are edible and can be substitued for Water cress with its peppery flavour, for use in salads and sandwiches.
Fly on the flower.
Probably just an ordinary House fly (Musca domestica) enjoying a spot of nectre , though it could be an early Tachinid fly possibly (Phyrxe vulgaris) which also feed on nectre and pollen, but the young are parasites of caterpillars, it is thought that upto 1/3 of all caterpillars fall victim to them.
Adjustments
Open and Rotate as was taken with camera on its side.
New layer Via Copy
Shadows and Highlights, I use this to lighten the image as I tend to under expose to presserve the details in the very bright areas such as the whites were it is so easy to loose the details there beyond recovery.
Sharpen through Image > Mode > Lab colour > Channels > Lightness >sharpen with USM > Mode > Convert back to RGB
Crop to size 28.22 X 28.22cm @72dpi which = 800px X 800px maximum size for a normal Trek post.
save to web to adjust file size to below 200k limit.
Hope you like. |
Comandante, red45, marhowie, carper, ellis49, Toni, zenitlady, gerhardt has marked this note useful
Only registered TrekNature members may rate photo notes. |
|
|
| Discussions |
| None | | You must be logged in to start a discussion. |
|
Wonderful flowers,ugly fly and perfect shot!
Very good job!TFS...
Hello Robert, This has great aesthetic value with the soft light and colors..And of course, we can't forget our bugs! ;-)
Very well done!
Very nice picture Robert.
This is a very nice flower. Good composition, details and colours. The fly makes it little extra.
Very well done.
- Toni
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 403 W: 2 N: 316]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif)
(2034) - [2005-04-18 16:34]
-
Very nice composition with the sharp fly as a bonus. I like the soft focus of the leaves in the background which enhances the flowers.
Toni
Great macro, Robert! Very interesting notes on another flower new to me, thanks! Impressed to see how you have the fly, and all the flowers, and the bud all in focus--wonderfully composed! One of the best macros I've seen!
-
- red45
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2705 W: 74 N: 8864]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(30243) - [2005-04-19 3:42]
-
Very nice, delicate flowers Robert. Good composition with fresh green leaves with interesting shapes on BG. Note is also interesting. Fly isn't much disturbing for me ;-)
Sorry, points tomorrow!
-
- carper
(8424)
- [2005-04-19 4:46]
-
very nice soft photo Robert,
the composition is very well made, the details are realy nice in the shot, the pov is good and the dof is wonderful,very good note as well,
gr. Jaap
Such a pleasing soft light. Sharp details and as Howard said... our bugs! :)
A John Shaw "natural green" exposure. I have just read his book and he uses the term "natural" green rather than middle grey when exposing nature & wildlife photos. I understand what I have read but to get it too look like this is... another story. Lovely shot, Robert. I have to study our plant life the ID's are almost impossible for me for most wild flowers.
-
- NINIX
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 161 W: 48 N: 347]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-s-g.gif)
(2885) - [2005-04-24 3:05]
-
Hi Robert,
This is art! We call it Koekoeksbloem.
The fly makes it very special!
Hendrik
