WALKIN' IN THE WOODS

With a new camera lens...

Just splashes of color remain in Ohio's woods this time of year.

The evergreens are, well, ever green but the deciduous trees stand virtually naked as winter stalks our calendar.

The little spots of color remaining, however, are like scattered treasure waiting to be found by a beachcomber.

A tiny oak seedling (top) is proud of its colorful, adult-sized leaves which adorn its woody skeleton just a foot or so tall in the very basement of the under canopy while rays from a lazy sun paint the leaves with back-lit translucence.

The close-up (right) takes on an abstract life of its own and shares its strong geometric shapes in a pallet of highly muted colors. It's really a near-sighted view of the trunk of a towering Scotch Pine at eye level.

My old, everyday, walking-around Canon lens on the digital SLR camera failed recently so I replaced it with Canon's new 17-40mm, f/4 L model. They regard it as a super-wide angle at the top of their line.

Taking it for its first hike recently was like getting acquainted with a new friend.

Then, a day or so after the above material was posted to the queue for publication we took another walk around the woods and the image below made itself available.

This is another low angle view, this time of a young beech tree sapling loitering under the towering pines. It is waiting for the canopy to open so it, too, can grow into a towering adult. Meanwhile, it is content to smile at onlookers with its winter-long sprinkle of golden-tan leaves.

The woods certainly is an every-changing tapestry of visual delights.