Fiddleheads
Route 9, Quabbin Reservoir, Belchertown
Photograph and text by Anne E. Ely, South Hadley
One sure sign of spring is seeing fiddleheads pop up everywhere in the woods and along shaded roadsides. The “fiddleheads” of the ostrich ferns are often the ones that find their way to the table as spring delicacies, but most ferns sprout up in the spring as “fiddleheads” and are fair game for my camera. Unless they are on a rise higher than where I’m walking it’s a challenge to get down and dirty to get a decent shot. Luckily this group, found at the Quabbin Reservoir on the last day of April, was high enough that I could just lower my tripod, stoop down, and point my DSLR camera with its medium length telephoto lens at it without much trouble. I decided to convert the image to black and white to better show off the curly cues and textures.
Anne E. Ely is affiliated with the Robert Floyd Photo Gallery, 2 East St., Southampton. It is open Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., also, by chance/appointment.