Three Views of the Scarlet Bugler -- In the Landscape

Another Scarlet Bugler flower by the roadside where the flowers is shown as part of the landscape photograph. Now you can see that this beautiful wildflower is growing high up American Fork canyon. The photograph was shot using a 12-24mm lens at 12 mm and a small aperture to keep the entire scene in focus.

I like the way that the wide angle lens accentuates the near field perspective, so that the flower is the main subject of the photograph but is still shown in context.

Unfortunately, I could not show clearly is that this flower is at a very edge of a 200 foot very steep slope.

Three Views of the Scarlet Bugler -- The Bouquet

I love to photograph wildflowers as bouquets of more than one species of flowers. I do not know the name of the small delicate white wildflower. This photograph shows how the blossoms mature along the raceme. Shown is the progression from new bud to full bugle and finally to the stamen left after the blossom drops.

The flower is growing out of a gray Granite cliff. The Nikon 300mm F4 lens has great bokeh. I had to maneuver so that the entire raceme was at the same depth from the camera so that a wide aperture could be used.

Three Views of the Scarlet Bugler -- The Close-up

The close up. Taken with a 300mm F4 lens of an early Scarlet Bugler at the mouth of American Fork Canyon. The photograph was taken just after a late spring snow storm. The large drops of water function as lenses. Unfortunately, I did not have a macro lens along so I could not capture a true macro image.

I had never photographed the Scarlet Bugler before and thought them rare. The mouth of the canyon is at 4300 feet. The summit of the Alpine Loop, which circumnavigates Mt Timpanogos, is 8060 feet, so as spring matured the flowers were found at higher elevations. Scarlet Buglers were everywhere.

Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge

Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge is located in the far western Utah desert west of Provo, UT and about 25 miles from Utah's Nevada border. FSNWR is a continuously flowing set of natural springs in the center of nowhere. The Federal government has built a series of dikes which create several large shallow ponds. It is a stop over refuge for migrating birds unlike Bosque del Apache which is also a wintering destination.

The springs are at the base of the distant hills behind the refuge sign. From the ground, one would not even know it was there.

The old Pony Express trail went near the springs for obvious reasons. A dirt road marks the trail even today. The trail can still be traversed across Utah and Nevada today.

In February, I was the only visitor. There is a visitor's center staffed by one or more BLM people. I drove around the large ponds on the dikes looking for birds primarily. The longest lens with me was only 200mm, too short, of course, for most birding. I did learn that the many of birds tolerated my getting close whilst in the car but took off if I stopped and got out to photograph. I am going to return soon armed with my 300 mm and 1.4 TC. I also purchased a bean bag and have practiced photographing from the car window.

Flock of Ducks

There were some birds in abundance. Ducks and Coots were in several of the ponds.

Swans

Group of four Swans, I chased around the refuge. Stay in the car and get a longer lens. The mountains with some snow cover makes a great backdrop. These guys were quiet unlike the Canada geese I have photographed often.

The refuge published a listing of bird likely bird populations versus time of the year. I will wait until the first frost to return when the knats are gone.

Fish Springs is at least 80 miles from the nearest cell phone tower, so its either no telephone or satellite phone. The claims of 95% coverage for wireless, is for population count and not land area.