When You Grow Up In Apartment 5E

When you grow up in Apartment 5E with a view of parking lots (and the distant Throgs Neck Bridge) you miss a lot. My joke, told often: Until I was 21 I had never seen grass that wasn’t in a baggie.

Call me nature challenged!

Now I live in the woods. I am the guardian of dozens of trees and more traditional grass.

This time of year I look up a lot. With flowering bushes and lots of color it’s easy to miss what’s going on in the trees. Leaves are beginning to come out for the season.

Please tell me I wasn’t the only kid who never looked? I missed so much. I’m glad I look now, because the show is amazing.

The first signs showed in March. Little nubs appeared on tree limbs. Now it’s obvious they’re leaves, but they’re still tiny and often curled tight for their own protection.

Like I said, I look up a lot. I never tire of this show.

more-leafless-tree

new-haven-green-leafless-trees

bare-trees-at-home

Flowering Trees Are Beautiful And Painful!

I’m tearing, but these are not tears of joy! It’s tough to get angry at the trees when their blooms are so beautiful.

The past few days have been brutal on my eyes. They are raw and sore. By the end of the day all I want to do is close them.

On yesterday’s noon news Dr. Mel said the tree pollen count, which can go to 12, was at 11.5. Historic level!

I’m tearing, but these are not tears of joy!

It’s tough to get angry at the trees when their blooms are so beautiful. Pictured below is a macro shot which means the image produced is larger than the original.

Spring blooms like these don’t last long–thankfully.

Props to my friend Steve who suggested a smaller aperture for macro shots for a larger depth-of-field. There’s still a lot out-of-focus but a lot more that’s sharp.

This shot is at f/13, 1/500 second, ISO 800 using a Tamron 70-200mm lens at 151mm with a cheapie screw-on close-up adapter.