Market St Bridge with grass foreground in Renaissance Park

The weather seems to be as confused as ever, but at least we had fabulous weather today–the kind of weather that reminded me of a late September day in Columbus.  The kind of day where, after months of heat and humidity, you take a deep breath and think, “Ahh.”  Interestingly, it just isn’t quite as refreshing when everyone is waiting for spring and it’s acting more like fall.

A pair of budding something shooting above the juvenile grasses

At least the flowers had finally reached the same point they were at by the end of March last year.  I figured it was a good time to get out with the camera.  Since I was walking Tisen, I opted to just take my favorite walking-around-lens, the 24-70mm.  It’s a nice range for shooting both landscape and getting pretty tight when close to the subject.  It does not, however, do well at macro.  That I will have to save for another day.

Closer to out-of-the-camera than the earlier image. I really like the tree on the right

It gets a little old shooting landscape in the same 100 yards or so along the riverfront.  While I’m sure there are an infinite number of angles to take, at some point, I just get bored.

Glowing blades of gras

I decided to try for some new angle on the Market St bridge.  It was about then that I discovered a bunch of grass that had been allowed to grow to it’s maximum height and was in the middle of going to seed.  I thought maybe it would make an interesting foreground for the bridge.  It wasn’t quite as interesting as I hoped, but making some extreme adjustments in Aperture helped at a little pop, at least.

I had a hard time choosing between the grass images–I might like this one best

Tisen had other subjects in mind.  He quickly pulled me across the walkway towards some fresh green grasses that, for a long time, I thought was bamboo.  I’ve been told by someone who is much better with plants than I am that they aren’t bamboo at all but are a native grass in Tennessee.  I will take their word for it.

More of the Market St Bridge

On this particular day, the sun was hitting them at a really interesting angle that made them turn into glowing blades of green.  They were being backlit by an early evening sun.  I couldn’t help but take about 100 images of these glowing blades.  While I did crank up the volume slightly in Aperture on the contrast between the background and the blades of grass, they really looked pretty much like this in person.

One last look at the grass

Tisen was not, it turned out, impressed by the blades of grass for their aesthetic appeal.  He sees them as a superior communication medium.  He can mark along the clumps of grass and get both height an breadth that cannot be achieved with tree trunks or other grasses.  A little secret–I couldn’t get Tisen to hold still so I could get a shot of him carrying Jack.  So, I snuck a shot when he stopped to mark and just cut the back end out of the frame.  I guess it’s still pretty obvious what he’s doing.

Can you tell why Tisen is holding still in the this photo?