Pink Lady Slippers,

Ah, so pretty...

All of the lady slippers shown here were shot at Andrus Lake State Forest, near Paradise, MI. ---In fact, they were all growing in either the campsites or the picnic grounds, and thus, very easy to find. I saw additional pink ladyslippers along the organizational trail attached to the Rivermouth semi-modern camping at Taquamenon, as well as on the path between the upper and lower falls (along with possibly 5 kinds of ferns---alas that I ran out of memory), quite near the upper falls (within a quarter mile).

At the picnic grounds. I adjusted this image a little, but it still looks a tad on the yellow side, as the one below seem a touch blue. C'est la vie.

Though the stillness meant many mosquitoes, it also meant the flowers weren't bouncing around the breeze. I like the way these pix came out. I should note, these flowers range from ivory with pale pink veining to a quite deep fuchsia, as shown here. The more richly colored flowers had chocolate brown twisted petals, but the lighter ones were more greenish, as was the shield-shaped `cover' which I'm guessing was part of the flower's stamen.

with the sun backlighting. f 3.8 @ 1/14 sec -0.3 exposure bias.

I have resisted the urge to purchase these flowers, as they're extremely expensive (actually, Arrowhead Alpines is offering 'em for $15.00 ea) and hard to grow, but after seeing so many of them, I'm tempted.

Another backlit shot. f3.4 @ 1/23 sec, 0 exposure bias.

In the meantime, I made many sketches and watercolors of these lovely orchids, which perhaps I'll scan and post in the future.

file created 14jun08.