Discovering the New

Have you ever met those people who can just find stuff? $20 note? No problem! Rare animal? Sure! Satellites at day time? What's so hard about that?

Well, I'm not one of those people.

I'm always the last to see, hear, do anything. So when we were out camping on the weekend, and I spotted a wildflower I'd never seen before, I made my husband stop in the rocks so I could run out...in my socks among the thorns...to take a photo, thinking I had struck something amazing - a wildflower I had never seen before that was redder than the rocks!

Canon EOS 50D (Betsy), f/18, 1/250 sec shutter, ISO 500, 200mm, manual mode with polarizing filter. Contrast, brightness and white balance adjustments in Adobe RAW. 

Turns out, there were quite literally squillions of these things in patches dotted up the riverbed. The seeds must be carried down when the river is in flood and deposited in small patches - they only grew in the river bed and I have never seen them anywhere else!

I tell you what though, the red was absolutely stunning! It made me think of the Poppy scene from the Wizard of Oz. I even started yawning! If anyone knows what these lovelies are, I am all ears.

Like I said, a more vibrant red than even the rusty iron-ore clad rocks! Betsy, f/18, 1/250 shutter, ISO 500, 20mm, manual mode with polarizing filter. White balance, contrast and vibrance adjustments in Adobe RAW

P.S. If I find out these are weeds, I will surely die!