Spectacular Southern Appalachian Wildflowers (And Where to Find Them)

I spent an incredible 2 1/2 weeks in April photographing Southern Appalachian wildflowers. I spent some time in places I’ve visited before – and discovered some wonderful new places to photograph. I thought I’d share some of them with you in case you’d like to check some of them out for yourself.
	I visited two Botanical Gardens this trip – the Asheville Botanical Gardens and Reflection Riding Arboretum. The Asheville Botanical Gardens are one of my favorite places to visit in western North Carolina. Located on the grounds of the University of North Carolina – Asheville, the gardens focus on native plants of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Every time I visit, I discover species I’ve never seen or had the chance to photograph. The gardens are open from dawn until dusk and admission is free. Reflection Riding Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Chattanooga, Tennessee is a spectacular 300 acre preserve dedicated to the native plants of the region. There is a long drive that winds through the property, as well as several hiking trails. If you visit in late April through mid-May, be sure to spend time at the native azalea garden. Their collection is incredible. Reflection Riding is open from 9 am to 5 pm daily, except Sunday when it opens at 1 pm. Admission is $6 per car.
On this trip, I made my first visit to the Crockford-Pigeon Mountain Wildlife Management Area outside of LaFayette, Georgia. I first learned about this wonderful location from one of my twitter friends @USWILDFLOWERS who is photographing and documenting many of the native plants of the region. The Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail includes a boardwalk through a hardwood cove and a rougher trail to Pocket Falls. There are also other trails and old logging roads to explore.
	The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in Graham County, North Carolina is wonderful spot located off the Cherhola Skyway. Named in honor of Joyce Kilmer, the author of “Trees”, the forest includes a 2 mile hiking trail that winds through the woods including a stand of yellow poplar trees over 100 feet tall. Since this location is higher up in the mountains than many others, I often find a different set of wildflowers in bloom here than I do at other locations in the area.
Fall Creek Falls State Park near Pikeville, Tennessee has been on my to visit list for a while.  I finally got there on this trip – and it was well worth visiting. Known mainly for it’s spectacular waterfalls, this wonderful state park has some wonderful hiking trails  with wildflowers  winding through the park. If you enjoy photographing waterfalls – you really should visit Fall Creek Falls State Park. Not only are the waterfalls beautiful, many of them can be photographed from overlooks on trails that are pretty easy hiking. More adventurous hikers can take more difficult trails to the bottom of the various waterfalls.
	My last stop on the trip was the Great Smoky Mountains National Park – my favorite national park to visit. I hiked several old favorite trails including Cove Hardwood Trail, Chestnut Top Trail, Schoolhouse Gap Trail, Twin Creek Trail. I also checked out some trails that were new to me including Cucumber Gap Trail, Kanati Fork Trail, Laurel Falls Trail, Middle Prong Trail and a section of the Appalachian Trail. As I hiked the various trails I began to understand how different the various eco-systems in the park are. Each eco-system had a distinct set of wildflowers blooming (and available to photograph). I’m already trying to figure out when I can get back to the Southern Appalachian Mountains – especially the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The flowers accompanying this article are Yellow Lady’s Slipper – Great Smoky Mountains National Park Bleeding Hearts – Asheville Botanical Gardens Bent Trillium – Crockford-Pigeon Mountain WMA Crested Dwarf Iris – Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest Rockhorse Falls – Fall Creek Falls State Park Pink Lady’s Slippers – Great Smoky Mountains National Park Speckled Wood Lily – Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Links – May 27, 2011

Catawba Rhododendron (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

These are a few articles I enjoyed reading this week. Hope you find some interesting links . . .

Photography and Art Links

My Modern Met has Tiny People’s Wonderful World of Food

NYTimes has  Fine Print Blurs Who’s in Control of Online Photos

Flowers, Plants & Gardening Links

Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens has Wildlife Value for All and Finding Native Groundcovers

NY Times has A Tree Hugger, With a Twist  and A City Prepares for a Warm Long-Term Forecast

TH Online has Garlic mustard weed taking root

Cool Green Science has  Nature Brains: Will Climate Change Spoil Fruits and Nuts?

National Park and National Wildlife Refuge Links

National Parks Traveler has NPCA Leading Petition Drive To Protect Funding for National Parks, Tornado Destroys Great Blue Heron Rookery At Mississippi National River and Recreation Area  and   National Park Service Director Takes Chair Of North American Wilderness Committee

Wildlife Link

National Parks Traveler has Grand Teton National Park Urging Motorists To Slow Down and Watch Out For Wildlife,   Study Points To Value Of Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem For Future of Wolverines and Marking ‘Endangered Species Day’ In the National Park System

Environmental Issues Links

Mongabay has Ten-year-old takes on KFC for destroying US forests

Texas Wildflowers – part 2

Here are a few more of the wildflowers I photographed on my recent trip to Texas.

Engelmann’s Salvia & Blanketflowers – What can I say – I just love the look of a field of wildflowers.

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Butterfly Weed – Asclepias tuberosa subspecies interior – related to the Butterfly Weed I photographed along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Green Milkweed – ascelpias viridis – like Butterfly Weed – milkweed is a member of the Asclepiadaceae family

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Purple Prairie Coneflowers – echinacea sanguinea – related to the Purple Coneflower I photographed here in the DC area

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Silverleaf Nightshade – solanum elaeagnifolium – related to the Nightshade I photographed at Acadia National Park

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

And finally Texas Frog Fruit – lippia nodiflora – a very small white wildflower, The flowers are about 1/4″ long.

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

I hope you’ve enjoyed a few more Texas wildflowers. I”ll be posting a few more to the blog next week.

Supporting our National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges and National Forests

Colorado Wildflowers (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Some of my absolute favorite places to photograph are in National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges and National Forests. These are some of the last unspoiled natural places in some parts of the country. When you visit a National Park or National Wildife Refuge, you can get a sense of what the landscapes were like before they became covered with buildings and highway. They are also wonderful places to see and learn about wildlife, native plants and historical events. The National Parks and Wildlife Refuges are incredible resources that need to be protected and preserved.

Unfortuantely, they don’t receive as much funding as they need from the Federal government. Over the years, a huge backlog of deferred maintainence and unfunded projects has developed. Even with all the funds directed to these areas in the 2009 economic stimulus bill, which has funded 750 million dollars in repairs and projects in the parks, there is still a several billion dollar shortfall. In the current federal budge climate, ensuring adequate funding for parks, refuges and forests will continue to be an issue.

Smoky Mountain Sunrise (c) 2008 Patty Hankins

So the question is - what can individuals do to support these incredible places?

1. Purchase an America The Beautiful Pass – at only $ 80, the America the Beautiful Pass is an interagency pass that provides admission to any National Park, National Wildlife Refuge, National Forest and other federal lands for a full year. While some Parks and Refuges have admission fees that help support them, the majority do not.

2. Shop at the stores at the Parks and Refuges. Many National Parks and Wildlife Refuges have gift shops that feature items related to nature and places you are visiting. Many of the stores are run by Friends organizations and profits from the stores help support the Park or Refuge where it is located.

3. Join a Friend of a Park or Refuge Organization. From the Great Smoky Mountains Association to the Friends of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, there are a variety of organizations that support a specific park or refuge. When you join, you not only are supporting a place you love, but you also receive benefits such as discounts at stores and recipriocol discounts at other parks and refuges.

4. Contribute to one of the non-profit organizations that supports the National Parks, Refuges and Forests. There are several national non-profit organizations that help protect and support our public lands

• The National Parks Conservation Association works to protect and enhance America’s National Parks for present and future generations.
• The National Park Foundation works to strengthen the connection between the American people and their National Parks by raising private funds, making strategic grants, creating innovative partnerships and increasing public awareness. It was established in 1967 by an Act of Congress.
• The National Wildlife Refuge Association works to to conserve America’s wildlife heritage for future generations through strategic programs that protect, enhance, and expand the National Wildlife Refuge System and the landscapes beyond its boundaries that secure its ecological integrity.
• The National Forest Foundation works to promote the health and public enjoyment of the 193-million-acre National Forest System.

If you enjoy spending time in the National Parks, Wildlife Refuges and Forest as much as I do, I hope you’ll consider ways in which you can help support them.

3 Tips for Taking Better Flower Photos

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about how I create my flower photographs. So I created a new video 3 Tips for Taking Better Flower Photos. I hope it helps answer some of the questions people have been asking.

The three tips are

1. Use a Tripod

2. Fill the Frame

3. Try Different Compositions

And a bonus tip: Review Your Photos

If you can’t watch the video in this blog post, you can find it on Youtube.

I hope you enjoy my video

Links – May 20, 2011

Orange Paintbrush © 2010 Patty Hankins

These are a few articles I enjoyed reading this week. Hope you find some interesting links . . .

Photography and Art Links

PhotoAttorney has   Quote of the Day – Cariou v. Prince  and  Have You Granted Your Client An Implied License?

10,000 Birds has Photographing Wood-Warblers

Dan Williams has Nature Photography…….With elements of Man

DIY Photography had Your Complete Guide For Photographing Star Trails

Small Aperture has Your Pictures; Your Rights, redux

NYTimes has Christo’s Colorado Project May Hinge on Sheep

LightStalking has A Killer Collection of Adobe LightRoom Tutorials

Flowers, Plants & Gardening Links

Christian Science Monitor has Daylilies are wonderful flowers, but, oh, their names and How to have a ‘Star Trek’ garden

BBC has Invasion of the orchid snatchers

National Park and National Wildlife Refuge Links

National Parks Traveler has Celebrate “National Kids To Parks Day” This Saturday and  History Of American Mountain Music To Be Told At Blue Ridge Parkway

Refuge Watch has “Restoring America’s Wildlife Refuges 2011: Assets for All Americans”

Wildlife Links

NY Times has A Coast-to-Coast Guide to Endangered Species

Audubon Magazine has Mysterious Rodent Not Seen for a Century Appears At Colombian Eco-Lodge

MSNBC has Camels in Australia? 1 million causing havoc

Salem-News.com has Second Wave of Mystery Pelican Deaths Hits Topsail Beach, NC

Environmental Issues Links

BBC News has Rising resource use threatens future growth, warns UN

Texas Wildflowers – part I

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Texas photographing wildflowers. A friend invited me to a wonderful 600 area near Gainesville, Texas set aside for the preservation of wildflowers. I had a wonderful time discovering wildflowers that were new to me – and some that I’m familiar with from other places I’ve photographed.

These are some quick edits of some of my photos. I’ll be editing more photos and posting more information about the flowers – but I thought you might like to see what I”ve been photographing recently.

Texas Paintbrush – castilleja indivisa – related to the Orange Paintbrush I photographed last year in Colorado

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Englemann’s Daisy – engelmannia peristenia – photographed in front of an old stone fireplace

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Prairie Coneflower -  ratibida columnifera – these coneflowers are also known as Mexican Hats

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Showy Primrose – oenothera speciosa

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Erect dayflower – commelina erecta – related to the Asiatic Dayflowers I’ve photographed closer to home

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Milfoil – achillea millefolium

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first look at some of the Texas wildflowers I photographed last week. I’m hoping to post a few more to my blog next week.

Capturing the Beauty of Nature Workshop – July 8-9

The Lotus Pond (c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Have you ever felt uplifted by what you see in nature – but you couldn’t bring that feeling home in the photos you took?

Have you ever wondered how some photographers take amazing photographs of every day scenes in nature?

IF YES, then the flower photography workshop I’m teaching this summer may be just what you are looking for:

Capturing the Beauty of Nature

No Matter What Kind of Camera You Use

A Hands-on Workshop with Flower Photographer Patty Hankins

July 8 & 9, 2011

Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens

Lotus Blossom (c) 2007 Patty Hankins

The workshop will include classroom sessions on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, and a Saturday morning field photography session at Kenilworth Gardens. I’m limiting registration to 8 participants so that everyone can get the maximum benefit from the workshop.

Located in North East Washington, DC along the Anacostia River, Kenilworth Gardens and Aquatic Park is one of the hidden gems of the National Park System. The park features wetlands and ponds full of water lilies and lotus blossoms.

For more information about the workshop and to register – visit the Capturing the Beauty of Nature page on my website.

Some of My Favorite DC Area Botanical Gardens

When I’m home in the Washington, DC area, some of my favorite places to photograph flowers are at some of the local botanical gardens. Most have professional staffs of gardeners who maintain the plants in spectacular condition, and are often available to answer questions about the flowers. They’re are often happy to let you know about plants that are at their peak bloom. Another great feature of photographing at professionally maintained gardens is they often have identification signs by the flowers – letting you know what you’ve been photographing. These signs are how I’ve learned to identify and classify many of the flowers I photograph.

Brookside Gardens

Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland is the local garden where I spend the most time. In the spring, their daffodil and tulip displays are unmatched in the Washington DC area. Throughout the summer, there is an ever changing display of flowers in bloom. One summer highlight at Brookside Gardens is the Wings of Fancy Butterfly Exhibit in the Conservatory. This year’s Wings of Fancy Exhibit will run from April 30 – September 18.

Brookside Gardens is located in Wheaton Reginal Park. The gardens are open daily from sunrise to sunset.

McCrillis Gardens

McCrillis Gardens in Bethesda, Maryland is a little-known part of Montgomery County’s Parks Department. Primarily a shade garden, McCrillis has an incredible variety of shade loving plants in natural settings. The gazebo and pavillion provide wonderful seating areas to enjoy these beautiful gardens. McCrillis Gardens are the smallest of the local public gardens and the least crowded. I’ve rarely seen more than one or two other people at the gardens when I’ve been there. So if you’re looking for a quiet peaceful garden to explore, McCrillis may be a great choice for you to visit.

McCrillis Gardens is located in Bethesda on Greentree Road. The gardens are open daily from 10 AM until sunset.

Green Spring Gardens

Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia is another garden on my frequently visited lists. With a variety of gardens from demonstration gardens to incredible perennials there is always something wonderful to photograph at Green Spring Gardens. One of my favorite areas of these gardens is the native plant garden and wooded path to a stream. There are literally hundreds of native plants growing in the woods, many have identification signs. This is one of the best places in the area to discover plants that are native to the region.

Green Spring Gardens is located on Green Spring Road in Alexandria, Virginia. The gardens are open daily.

U.S. National Arboretum

The U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC is one of the largest if not the largest public garden in the area. With over 440 acres of land and 9.5 miles of roads, there is always something to see at the National Arboretum. Some of my favorite areas of the garden are Fern Valley (full of native plants), the Pepper Garden, and all the wonderful flowering trees, including magnolias, azaleas and cherry trees. If you want to see cherry trees in bloom in the spring, the National Arboretum is one of the best places in DC to see them – they have more varieties than the Tidal Basin – and many fewer people.

The National Arboretum is located on New York Avenue in Washington, DC. The garden is open daily (except December 25) from 8 AM to 5 PM.

When I’m traveling, I try to visit local botanical gardens. On my spring wildflower trip last month, I visited the North Carolina Arboretum and the Asheville Botanical Garden in Asheville, North Carolina and the Reflection Riding Arboretum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Do you have a favorite botanical garden I should put on my list to visit when I’m in your area? If so – please let me know.

The flowers accompanying this article are

Yulan Magnolia – U.S. National Arboretum
Glory of the Snow – Brookside Gardens
Royal Star Magnolia – McCrillis Gardens
Zowie Zinnia – Green Spring Gardens
Yoshino Cherry Blossoms – U.S. National Arboretum
Grecian Windflower – Brookside Gardens

Links – May 13, 2011

Gray’s Lily (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

These are a few articles I enjoyed reading this week. Hope you find some interesting links . . .

Photography and Art Links

Dan Williams has Research and Planning the Shot  and Making Directional-lighting Work for You

PhotoRadar has New Jersey Bill Would Ban Child Photography

Fine Art Views has Exposure: The Ugly Myth

The Online Photographer has To USB or Not to USB

Kirk Tuck has Approval. Tacit Approval. Implied Approval and “Street Photography.”

Guy Tal has Don’t be an Idiot

Michael Albany has The Photography Business, It’s Not about Photography

ArtBizBlog has High-Quality Connections on Twitter

National Parks Traveler has Dream Of Being Artist-In-Residence at a National Park? Here’s the List Of Participating National Parks

Plagiarism Today has The Twitpic Terms of Service Debacle

Flowers, Plants & Gardening Links

NYTimes had A Method Behind All the Wildness

National Wildlife Federation has Wildlife Gardening for Beginners: Five Simple Steps

Beautiful Wildlife Garden has Beware Cheap Wildflowers

National Park and National Wildlife Refuge Links

National Parks Traveler has Does Today’s Technology Offer A Better Connection, Or A Disconnect, To Enjoying National Parks? and   Walls at Risk of Collapse at Historic Fort Jefferson Make “Crumbling Infrastructure” a Harsh Reality

Refuge Watch has Fire Fighting Effort at Alligator River NWR Hampered by State Budget Cuts

Wildlife Links

Stop Extinction has Endangered Species Day

NBC Washington has Campaign to Drive Out the Nutria

BBC has   Tiger find prompts WWF pressure against planned logging

National Parks Traveler has  “State of Birds” Report Points To Value of National Parks, Other Public Lands For Birds

New3 has Kiwi found in Russia baffles authorities, wildlife experts

Environmental Issues Links

NYTimes has Coal Curriculum Called Unfit for 4th Graders,   Young Activists Sue U.S., States Over Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Report Stresses Urgency of Action on Climate
The Guardian has Biodiversity: It’s the ecology, stupid