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Snapshot

Outdoors: Ohio DNR: Field Guide Central
​Science: Backyard Blooms: Common spring wildflowers you can find at home
​Photography: Phone camera basics: standard, wide angle, telephoto
​Erratic: Outdoor live cams

Outdoors

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has a top-notch library of field guides for you to download or print off and take with on your outdoor treks. Or take lots of photos of what you see and look them up when you get home. There are guides for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, moths, butterflies, wildflowers, bees, spiders, dragonflies, snails, and the list goes on and on. They are beautifully designed with colorful photos and jam-packed with information.

Venturing out with the kids or grandkids? The 12-page Spring Wildflower Activity Book is a great way to get them engaged ahead of time or continue learning after you get back home. If you're up for a challenge, take the Spring Wildflower Checklist with you and keep track of what you find.

Also here's the Week 4 Ohio Spring Wildflower Report.

Science

While most of our spring wildflowers prefer woodlands, some are more generalists and can be found growing in a wide variety of habitats. Here are a few natives that you might find right in your backyard this time of year.

Species Profile: Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia)

The common blue violet is indeed common. You can find it growing in lawns, gardens, woodlands, meadows, and other habitats this time of year. Flowers are comprised of 5 separate petals and the 2 side petals have thick tufts of white hairs (beards) at the base. The bottom petal is heavily dark-veined and forms a rounded spur that sticks up above the contact point between the flower and stem (see photo below).

The flowers of this species are edible! Learn to identify it and impress your friends by adding it as a garnish to your salad or appetizer. The flavor is subtle but pleasant. The young leaves are edible too and are reported to be high in vitamins A and C.

The seeds have a fleshy coating called an elaiosome. Ants carry the seeds to their nests, eat the coating, and discard the seed in their waste pile, a perfect environment for germination. This trait is common among other spring wildflowers including trilliums, bloodroot, and Dutchman's breeches.

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Photography

Most phones these days have multiple cameras. Yes, they are in fact completely different cameras as opposed to different lenses for one camera. Oftentimes you have three choices: standard, zoom (or telephoto) and wide angle. These may be denoted with numbers such as 0.6 (wide), 1 (standard) and 3 (zoom/telephoto). In some cases the standard camera may be referred to as wide and the wide angle camera may be referred to as ultra wide. For our purposes we'll call the "main" camera standard and the wider camera "wide."

The obvious differences are that you have a much wider field of view with the wide angle lens and you can "zoom in" on things that are further away with the telephoto lens compared to the standard lens. But there are some other considerations and creative reasons to choose one lens over the other. Let's have a quick look at each.

Standard Camera

This is your phone's main camera and probably has the best digital sensor, capturing an image with more megapixels than the other cameras. The main camera also often has better image stabilization features to reduce camera shake. So use this one if you don't have a good reason to use one of the others.

If you're looking to get a close-up image of something like a flower, use the main camera and physically get as close as you can while still getting the camera to properly focus on your subject. You'll get a higher quality image this way than trying to zoom in further away with the telephoto zoom. If you are trying to exclude a busy background, you may want to use the telephoto (see below).

Telephoto (Zoom) Camera

Use this camera when you can't physically get as close to the subject as you'd like. With a longer lens comes increased risk of camera shake which will result in blurry photos in some conditions. If you are in low light, try to stabilize your phone by setting it on something, propping it with something, or using a tripod.

Zoom lenses are also good at isolating subjects from the surroundings since they have a narrower field of view. So if you are photographing something that has a very busy background behind it, you may opt to stay further away from the subject and use the telephoto lens as opposed to getting closer and using the standard camera.

Wide Angle Camera

Obviously this camera will allow you to cram more into the frame than the other cameras. But that comes at the cost of lens distortion. If you're photographing a large group, try to back up and use the standard lens as opposed to getting closer and using the wide angle lens. By doing so you'll avoid distortion and gain the advantages of using the standard camera discussed above.

Use wide angle distortion to your advantage. If you want to emphasize a subject and include the wider context around it, the wide angle lens is a good choice. Your wide angle lens can't focus extremely close, so this only works for subjects that are of a certain size...it won't work for a single miniscule flower. Try it with subjects that are at least 6 inches in width so it'll take up most of the width of a vertical frame.

The trick to getting this to work is to s close as the lens will focus. The lens distortion will make that subject look larger than life without taking up the whole frame. Things beyond the subject will be minimized in comparison but kept in frame to give context.

Erratic

If you're stuck inside and looking for some nature on your lunch break, check out an outdoor live cam for a bit. Explore.org has dozens to choose from including bald eagle nests, aquariums, bird feeders, coral reefs, animal sanctuaries, and more. Watching a bald eagle feed fish to a pair of eaglets in real time is pretty cool.

That's it for this week. Happy exploring!

Chad Kettlewell
Photographer & Ecologist
​chadkphotography.com​

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