Lake Sommerville
Sunday morning I joined two professors from Texas A&M, Wayne Smith and Helen DeWolf, for a morning wandering through Lake Sommerville State Park. This is an area that Carrie and I have been wanting to visit for quite some time as we are struggling a bit to find some local natural areas when we are itching to get out and away from the computer and library. It’s a beautiful area and I really enjoyed the time we had there.
The light was a little harsh as we were there late in the morning so I decided to continue to shoot in black and white. The oaks in the area were starting to turn yellow and I really enjoyed the way the light was backlighting the leaves. The bright yellow leaves lit by the late morning sun from behind in combination with the dark branches and trunks caught my eye and I captured a few different scenes.
Later on, Wayne found a couple of plants that were totally covered in butterflies. By covered, I mean on 3 small bushes we had probably 50+ individuals with at least half a dozen species. It was quite an amazing sight. I didn’t have a macro lens with me, only my 24-70mm zoom so I had fun trying to get some wide angle shots including the butterflies and the flowered plants they were feeding on. This was the first time I have ever tried anything like this and while the lighting isn’t great, it was fun following these beautiful insects around. If anyone knows the ID of the insects or the flowers, I’d be grateful.
Tags: b&w, butterflies, Lake Sommerville State Park
