What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset -- Crowfoot
I have a longstanding affection for grasses. Their variety, tenacity and beauty often appeal to me more than showy flowers. Tassels in the sunset, wind whipping across fields of grass, even the sheen of new-mown lawns -- all create timeless images.
Grasses are among the most successful of vascular plants, numbering around 600 genera and 9000 species. They are also important economic plants. The cereal grasses, which include wheat, rice, oats and barley, provide a large part of mankind's staple diet. Other grasses create pastures for grazing animals, and lawn-type grasses beautify our yards, parks and golf courses.
Ornamental grasses in Saddington Park
(click on image for a larger, clearer view)Photographically I never tire of grasses. I shoot both the wild grasses I find as well as the ornamental grasses that grace the parks and walkways I visit. I am riveted by their subtle shapes and colours -- whether a standing group of fronds backlit in the sun, or a single stalk with its seed tip, or caryopsis.
Grass stalk, Marina, Port Credit
(click on image for a larger, clearer view)The principal challenge with photographing grass is separating the details from the masses. My favourite type of lens for this is a long telephoto that can capture the look of the specific strands against the background blur of the rest of the colony.
Grass grains (caryopsis)
(click on image for a larger, clearer view)Although not as striking as flowers or as exotic as butterflies, grasses make good long-term subjects for photography.
For more background on grasses see http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/G/grass.html
(8-Dec-2003, Revised 17-June-2004)
www.NorthernJourney.com -- gene@wilburn.ca