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I've become increasingly aware that most of the pictures I take anymore are not remotely scenic. 

I gotta' work on that. I just don't see as much stuff since retirement. I saw a lot of the world from behind the wheel of that service truck. At least this little corner of it. 

The "real" world troubles me deeply these days.   

Try to make it a point to see nature daily, even when in the city.   This Swallowtail caught my eye as I was shuffling back into the house after a long, hot day in the Machine Shop.   Our backyard is loaded with milkweed, poppies, peonies, bee balm, cup plants (the one pictured) as well as dandelions, raspberries, catnip etc.  Seeing monarchs and  native pollinators is the norm, even saw a hummingbird moth* the other day.  Right after taking that picture a bumble bee and 2 other native bees were wrestling on one flower.
   
The Swallowtail is a rarity, and a beautiful reminder of our neighbor Curtis, he passed two years ago, the day of his funeral we were talking to Annie (his wife) and a Swallowtail just wouldn't leave us alone.  Certain it was Curtis who loved to garden.  The day after this picture was taken I spoke with Annie and told her about the encounter, it made her happy and she shared a couple stories about Curtis. ♥️

*hummingbird moths are green horn worms (caterpillars) in their youth, not a good thing if you are growing tomatoes.  But an absolutely beautiful flying critter.

This picture for instance, is somewhere deep in this thread. I used to see things like this every day at random.
 

This particular picture was taken in a field across the dirt road from a remote Water Treatment Plant in Franklin County, where I was the Operator for a few years. 

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on Yesterday at 09:11:09 AMI've become increasingly aware that most of the pictures I take anymore are not remotely scenic. 

I gotta' work on that. I just don't see as much stuff since retirement. I saw a lot of the world from behind the wheel of that service truck. At least this little corner of it.

Here's a thought, landscapes are great, but small places can be cool as well. 

We have an app called WiBee, created by the Wisconsin College of Agriculture and Life Science, it 'trains' you on how to observe (and count) pollinators.  Pick a 3'x3' area, start a "survey" and note how many pollinators visit during a set time period.

They use this data and we have fun identifying the buzzing things.

What's troubling is that I do take a lot of pictures... for work. I take pictures of work, incoming and outgoing. I see so blame many guitars anymore, and I don't often have time to triage in the store at pickup. So first thing when I get something on my bench is look at the repair ticket notes, then inspect the instrument. I take detailed pictures of any odd-looking damage, or anything else I see that isn't mentioned, and I have a phone conversation with the client. I'll usually casually mention a few things but make sure there's a clear understanding about what work I'm doing and what else is observed.

I've had very little trouble in the year and a half I've been at this as a full-time gig, but I really don't like confrontations. Most people are very cool, and happy to get things fixed. There's always that one though, with expectations I can't manage. Fortunately my boss there at store backs me up if I'm in a tight spot, but it helps him a ton if I have the pictures and the 'receipts' so-to-speak when someone either doesn't want to pay the bill or wants us to fix something else for free.

Hence, most of my pictures are boring, un-picturesque, CYA's.

Cephalanthus occidentalis

Quote from: rv_bass on Yesterday at 05:54:29 PMCephalanthus occidentalis

Well now I know.

Several years back I had this temporary assignment at a big Water Treatment Plant... they needed a couple more Class 1's to rotate in on swing shifts. (we called it swapping seats) I volunteered for the duty because they had a big construction project going on, and the Project Manager was an old friend and mentor. Anyway, part of that gig was a complete walk-through inspection of the process by one of the two of you on the shift at intervals of two hours. If you really did it right, it took about an hour to walk the whole thing front to back, and another few minutes in the lab to run samples.

So while walking that daily beat, tracing the same footsteps... I watched this odd-looking weed take root around one of the large concrete sedimentation basins, and grow, until one day it bloomed into that. I never did figure out what it was. 

Nice.  Buttonbush is the common name.  Common wetland shrub on the east coast 😊

That is interesting; never seed sech a thing in all my born days!

Peter

Nor have I, must be an east coast thing. 

Ma Nature seriously is brilliant, seed distribution occurs in so many different forms.
For me, the 'design' of a poppy after it has bloomed is absolutely fabulous.