— Sometimes it is good to look at nature without colors. Often colors will get our attention and take away details. In the leaves above, I wanted to see the details our eyes can perceive when we desaturate the scene. The leaf in focus shows the intricate nuances we sometimes overlook. It is like veins with blood running through them.
This is the final installment of my series about Colors in Copperfield. To see the previous posts (Part 1 and Part 2) simply follow those links.
Because of the pond and moisture in the area, it is often common to see fungi along the trails (such as in the thumbnail here on the left). If I am identifying these fungi correctly, Fomitopsidaceae are a type of fungi considered parasitic on woody plants (Wikipedia). In this case, the tree was dead and partially in the water.
With a similar tonality as the fungi, I also saw an area with plenty of wild oats. I generally see those everywhere along with other wildflowers, but seldom do I stop to admire the beauty and details they offer. In the next macro photo, I took advantage of the sunlight and calm winds to photograph some oats.
This photo is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons. First is the bokeh, those out-of-focus points of lights the sun created. Second is the contrast created with the light green tones from the plants in the areas.
Along with a similar color palette, I noticed a Magnolia tree showing some flowers starting to bloom. I wonder if that tree, as well as other wildflowers, have mistaken the unseasonably warm weather that week. I saw some photos in a couple of Texas state parks showing some blooming wildflowers at this time. They could be thinking that it is spring coming up. However, they will probably lose those buds with the next freeze.
In the Magnolia bud, I was particularly taken by the leaf that had lodged itself before falling to the ground with the next wind gust. The flower buds are beautiful, and the added leaf created an interesting contrast for the scene.
Not everything is blooming in the area, of course. Several of the sunflowers and coreopsis have completely withered, while others still bloom. The area right by the parking spots used to have a lot more flowers in the spring and summer. Now, you can only spot a few here and there. By the time this post goes live, those flowers will likely be gone.
Two particular flowers could still be seen in several places: Wild Petunia and Morning Glory. In these next photos, the Morning Glory is the one that caught my eye first. It was coming up surrounded by several leaves changing colors. I found the mixture of tones very appropriate to the entire area I was photographing. One small patch had some Salvia glistening with sunlight. Unfortunately, I did not see any bees or other pollinators in the area on that day.
Before packing up and heading home, I stopped one more time along the trail to photograph some fall foliage again. This last photo is a good example to show the variety of colors and tones I experienced in this short one-hour walk at the Copperfield Nature Trail. In this one leaf alone, you can see the range of colors the entire area is going through in the fall. It goes from green to yellow, orange, and red. To make the colors more brilliant, the backlight the sun provides lights up the details on the leaf and creates a bokeh in the background.
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