I’ve hiked to Quantico Creek in Prince William Forest a number of times but have never gone very far past the first set of falls.  I decided to follow the trail a little further this weekend and discovered that there are some great places to photograph on this trail.

The rocks here are the same piedmont rocks found at Great Falls Park on the Potomac river so this is kind of a ‘mini-Great Falls’.

I had a nice hike this weekend in Prince William Forest along the Quantico Creek trail.  While stopping to take a photograph of some of the early flowers that are coming out, a bug (I thought) jumped through my line of vision. When I made a closer inspection of the ground I discovered the ‘bug’ was a gray tree frog.  He was tiny, could have easily sat on the tip of my thumb. I lowered my tripod to the ground and with a 105mm macro lens, moved in as close as possible to take the photograph above.  The frog was a willing subject and stayed fairly still for its portrait.  (Take note of the toe of its rear foot hanging on to a stem, reminds me of ET.)

To get an idea of the size of this frog, here is a picture  from a little farther away. when I first noticed it.  Do you see it?

A number of these flowers (below) have sprouted up along the banks of the stream, the only blooming plant I came across today. These flowers are also very tiny and I had to wait awhile for the slight breeze to stop before getting a sharp picture.

I always see a lot of fungus along this trail but this red variety really stood out on the forest floor.

While walking along the narrow beach at the Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge a couple of weeks ago, I noticed large clumps of snail shells that have washed up on the beach. All empty as their occupants have headed to the big river in the sky, and now available for rent or as subject material for the occasional photographer passing by…

Artistic Photo Canvas, a company that specializes in printing photographs on canvas, asked permission to print one of my images for display in their exhibition booth at the recent Photoshop World in Orlando, FL. While I didn’t attend Photoshop World and can’t verify whether my image made it to the display, it was still a great honor to have them designate my image with their “Five star” rating.

I’ve used APC to print a number of photographs on canvas.  They do a fantastic job and provide outstanding customer service. If you’ve got a photograph you are thinking about having printed, check out their website and take a look at their product line. A canvas print is a great  format to show off a favorite photo. Their website is  at http://artisticphotocanvas.com/

By the way, the image they liked was taken last September at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

After seeing all of the grey and brown throughout winter, it is so nice to see some other colors spreading through Huntley Meadows Park. This shot was taken as the sun was rising in the background.

Speaking of colors, there is no duck more colorful than the male Wood Duck. This guy was perched on a tree overlooking the wetlands.

In my continuing series, “Ducks in Love”…  There are a lot of duck couples in the park now, below are a pair of Blue-winged Teals which were busy feeding for most of the morning. They only stopped feeding long enough to avoid several park volunteers arriving to check the eggs in the nest boxes nearby.