Crow-Hassan Park Reserve

[rtbaum]

Continuing last weekend's theme we walked a different wild area close to home. If I were to say I have any sort of plan in this summer's photographic jaunts, it would be the exploitation of local parks within a half hour of home.

Crow-Hassan is one of a series of park reserves within the 7 county metropolitan area of Minneapolis/St. Paul that offer a range of outdoor activities. Crow-Hassan is about 3 miles as the crow flies from home. It is likely the least developed unit of the series, which suits me just fine



The prairie here is still rooted in sandy soils, but the organic matter content is much higher than Uncas Dunes. The vegetation is lusher, a classic example of tallgrass prairie. The casual observer will note nothing more than an overgrown field.



Closer observation yields an amazing diversity of forbs....look that one up, Izzie ...., the tallgrass prairie is one of the highest biomass producers on the planet. The grasses that you see will soon reach up to 6' in height, the roots reach 20' in depth.
Front to back: the bright orange of Butterfly-Weed, scattered yellow of Black-eyed Susan, white speckling of Allysum, about 3/4 of the way up the frame is a lavender hued patch of Lead-Plant.

Birds are heard all over, but a challenge to photograph. I was too late in the season to see the Blue Bird family here. We saw Bald eagle, an assortment of sparrows, Bobolink. Met a couple birders, asked about their day, they were excited to report a common loon in one of the lakes. I really must make the effort to try to capture the birds here.

Caught these though


There are a variety of coneflowers blooming currently:


Black-eyed Susan


Grey-Headed Coneflower


Purple Coneflower

****Caution****Trivia Ahead****

The showy parts are a ruse, the actual flowers are tiny and are arranged in the perfect geometric conformation for packing seeds in the cone, in two opposing arcs set at 137.5 degrees. Ain't Nature cool!!


Bergamot

Mints make another popular class of flowers in a prairie and attract numerous pollinators


Tiny little Skipper on raspberry leaf

Legumes are another plant that make up the prairie, enriching the soil


Purple Prairie Clover

On another front.....Bailey the Brave has just turned two, last weekend he observed a friendly Lab playing fetch in the water. I could literally see the wheels turning in his head.


Bailey, on the cusp of his first swim...should I or shouldn't I?

[Urbanflyer]

Thank you for the tour! Really enjoy seeing different parts of our country!

[rtbaum]

Thank you for the tour! Really enjoy seeing different parts of our country!

I enjoy it.....fringe benefit, the more I wear the dog out, the less trouble he gets into.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[rtbaum]

Thank you, John

[IzzieK]

OK...how did you know I will be trying to peek at your postings? I think you are beginning to know me too well. LOL

Anyway, OK...I googled two words -- forbs and loon. I know what a loon is for the bird but I was looking to see if google will mention "looney tunes" too as a reference to some nutty people. I enjoyed your walk with Bailey...did you make sure there are no piranha in the water first before allowing your dog to swim there? My favourite here is image #2. that is a very nice composition indeed. And I like your commentary...on all the rest of them. I was at the edge of my seat wanting to see the rest of your post. Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey with you and your dog.

[rtbaum]

Izzie- I learned some time ago that you and John are the only one's that read my posts. I struggle to find good compositions while shooting prairie. Foreground is grass, subject is grass, background....you guessed it. Bailey allowed the many horses that were about to screen for piranha in the lake.

[Ziggy]

I also enjoyed the tour.

[ccphoto]

Might I suggest you lay on your stomach, or stoop down real low for some different perspectives and shoot either earlier or later in the day and take advantage of how the golden hour light affects the grasses and plants. You might even want to consider shooting one plant from a variety of angles and post them as a double triptych. As I travel about the US, I find the midwest the hardest area to shoot for the same reasons you are experiencing.

[Dave Humphries]

Izzie- I learned some time ago that you and John are the only one's that read my posts. I struggle to find good compositions while shooting prairie. Foreground is grass, subject is grass, background....you guessed it. Bailey allowed the many horses that were about to screen for piranha in the lake.

Hi Randy,

I enjoyed the series last night, but alas I didn't comment

Your struggle isn't obvious, but now motivated in to action, I'll make an observation on each, as I often do for Izzie - she's likes me to be 'harsh'

#1 - Not much I can suggest to improve this, if mine I might look at the hue of the sky, since (for UK), it looks a little odd)

#2 - I like the composition, the only minor thing I'd do is possibly clone out that cloud that is in extreme top right corner.

#3 - Nice scene, human interest as well. Ideally, you'd catch the cranes(?) coming towards you, not (slightly) away, but I know how difficult it is to catch passing birds in flight at all, so you did well (better than I do).

#4 - I'm not saying your composition is wrong, just that I wouldn't have composed the cornflowers like that; to me they are 'looking out of frame' and that white bloom in the top right attracts attention away from the subject. So, if I'd shot this, I might have tried for an angle where the cornflowers were more to the right of frame - now arguably; that would make for a more boring shot. But I never said I was an expert

#5 - This works as a composition (even if they are past their best), although I find the bright, mostly horizontal, out of focus grass a bit of a distraction, I would attempt to clone (or spot heal) it out if the shot were mine.

#6 - I would have had the blooms lower in the frame - and avoided that broad bit of green in lower left edge.

#7 - I didn't understand the trivia in relation to the picture of the Bergamot

#8 - Difficult to critique the skipper shot without being really nit-picky. If mine; there's something sharp and white just peeking in to the right hand edge of frame, beneath the out of focus (foreground) leaf, I would clone that out.

#9 - The light angle not offering any additional separation of subject green from the green behind is the biggest problem here, whether the application of off camera flash might have helped is difficult to judge - and probably 10x more difficult to do. but I'm just 'thinking outside the box'

#10 - I'd like to see Bailey's face or at least be right down at his level, so we can see what he's looking at.


Bet you wish you hadn't said anything now, don't you?


I'm not a 'borders' person, but I like how you did these and the choices of colours.

Hope that was useful, Dave

[rtbaum]

Hi, Dave, Thank you for your critiques. Just a couple explanations are in order, The trivia fact was in relation to the 3 preceding images of the coneflowers, particularly apparent in the grey-headed coneflower. The grey headed coneflower actually has petals that droop like that, what you see hear is a plant that is just beginning to get its groove on . I can tell what Bailey was up to, he has been building up the nerve to start swimming of late.......influenced by a sexy black lab over the 4th of July.

[IzzieK]

Heard you go some hard pounding last night from that rain and hail...did it get ya? 'Supposed to have its tail hit us but we missed again. Now I have to water the backyard before we leave for Washington. Darn!

[rtbaum]

Heard you go some hard pounding last night from that rain and hail...did it get ya? 'Supposed to have its tail hit us but we missed again. Now I have to water the backyard before we leave for Washington. Darn!

I could see the line of storms all day, but thankfully we were spared. Missed us by 20 miles.....and no rain to speak of either