My mother is rapidly becoming my favorite person in the family to canoe with. Oh, she's got all kinds of good qualities, but the thing that puts her above the rest is the fact that she doesn't complain if I want to take a photo. She's even been known to encourage me to take pictures, whereas members of the family seem to think that me stopping to set down my paddle and take my camera out of the dry bag is some kind of act of craziness or even treason. They say things like, "Oh, god. Don't you already have a photo of a water lily?"
In fact, the first photo I ever put on this blog was a picture of a water lily. I've used a water lily as my haloscan icon and my facebook photo, and I like to leave multiple comments so that I can see a whole row of water lilies. I just don't think you can ever have too many water lily images.
Water lilies look like exotic hothouse flowers, with such perfect petals, yet they live in muddy, shallow water. I'll be canoeing through beds of matted weeds, the boat sliding past cattails and rotting duckblinds and last year's brown punks, my paddle stirring up water so murky I can't see the shallow bottom, and there, nestled up against the green lily pads, just above the tangle of weeds, I'll see a perfect water lily. In August, under the full heat of summer sun, the lily pads will often be crowded and curling at the edges, no longer as green as they were in the spring, but the water lily will still be fresh. On this flower, the petals were bent almost backwards so fully was the flower willing to open to the sun.
13 comments:
I don't think you can have too many water lilies either.
Love the water lily photos. Want more!
One of the many reasons why I love my boyfriend is because he's a photography enabler -- willing to go places with me just so I can take photos. Your mom is one of your photography enablers!
That's a steady canoe you got there! Carolina lilies are in bloom down here...I just saw my first!
Loved ones who support quirky inconveniences are a treasure, but I also have a fondness for those who tease about odd habits as well. So as much as I love your photos (and can't imagine too many water lilies!), I'm equally happy when your posts include members of your family.
We need photo support. It's a wonderful trait.
lovely photo. I also love the watermelons chilling in the water--that one makes me want to jump in with them.
So pretty!
Technical question: What sort of bag do you use for your camera when you are out on the water? Does it float? I'm always scared to take my camera out on the water with me (most of the time I'm in a pedal boat). I worry about getting it wet and/or losing it, and as a poor grad student I don't want to lose or destroy my camera.
k8 - Google "dry bag".
k8: What tie-dye brother-in-law said. Dry bags are made for canoes or whitewater rafts. You fold the top a few times to make it waterproof and then clip it to a thwart so it's attached to the boat.
You CAN NEVER have too many water lilies!
I hope I get a whole column of them on my blog someday.
[hint! hint!]
;-D
Thanks! I didn't realize that was the official term for them which is why I didn't try a search right away. I will have to get one.
so first things first, because I was reading other comments and I like the dry bag and I like the word thwart.
Yes I really do.
Now that is out of the way - I think this flower is a princess, nay a queen among flowers and so unexpectedly beautiful, I would sit for a long time taking pictures of it - this is glorious and deserves to be worshipped through the viewfinder.
The other day, I was staring up into the branches of a tree outside the library and my oldest daughter said, - Hey! Crazy Camera lady could you unlock the car before you start taking pictures? - and I didn't even have my camera out!
I love what Yankee said "we need photo support."
Now, we're kindred spirits in this (and various others too) respect -- I totally understand the need to take photos. And I have tons and tons of water-lily pictures too, I guess you've seen some of them in my blog, right?
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