Cup Plant Meadow at Dawn

Description

One of my favourite nature photographers and photo educators is Regina Steytler from Western Australia. In 2020 Australian Geographic produced her first book “For the Love of Birds.” It was highly successful and she was commissioned by the organization to produce a similar body of work on Australia’s plant life. For the Love of Flora was was published in 2023. To make images of indigenous plants, she uses the same artful and dramatic approach she takes with birds. I was inspired by looking through her books and thought I’d try my own take on her approach with some indigenous Ontario plants. Last week I headed to a local meadow where I knew Cup Plants and other indigenous species were in full bloom. The morning was quite cloudless but a thin mist hung over the field. A few minutes after sunrise the pinkish orange sunlight shining through mist provided an opportunity to make this image. Cup Plants are important prairie and meadow residents providing pollen and nectar to bees, wasps and butterflies; seed to birds like Sparrows and Goldfinches; web attachment points for spiders; and water reservoirs where leaves join the stem to form wee cups. Their ecosystem importance is quite high. I can think of no better way to highlight them than with a colourful backlit misty dawn image.

Taken By

Doug Gordon

Taken On

August 21, 2024

Tagged

cup plant native indigenous plants ontario meadow prairie dawn sunrise ecosystem august daisy flower pollen petal sunlight natural_landscape grass