The woods held several surprises yesterday. It saved the best for last.
Trudging home in gumboots and rain gear I ambled along a deer trail. Battery almost gone on the camera. Eyes on the trail for trip-me-ups. Then a flash of bright orange.
In speckled sunlight, between two trees, a single western wood lily.
Sources say this is the most widespread native lily in North America, but they are few and far between in our woods. Each sighting is special.
I squeezed enough juice out of the battery to capture several images. Happy day!
The western wood lily is endangered or threatened in many areas, often through over-picking — it dies since the bulb often comes up with the flower.
Western wood lily Lilium philadelphicum
The Lens and I 
If I’d come across this, I probably would have assumed it was an escaped day lily from someone’s garden. I’m glad to know that natives exist. I’ll take a much better look if I ever see one.
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We’re so accustomed to seeing domesticated versions we forget they began in the wild. It’s an unmistakeable beauty … good hunting. 🙂
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Lovely shots, I love these lilies.
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Ah, another fan! How are they faring in Ontario? Sask is one place I’ve found where they are completely protected … in degrees of trouble in several states.
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I come across them from time to time particularly along rural roadsides. I will have to check to see if they have protected status.
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Hey Belinda, thanks. 🙂
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Very beautiful Sally.
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Thanks, Pete. I’m starting to shoot RAW on my little camera (tho’ posting in jpg). Quite a difference. Have always just edited in iPhoto but am looking at Lightroom … what do you use?
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You are welcome 🙂 I haven’t tried raw yet, probably need a better PC to handle the larger file sizes. Yet I hear RAW is the best way to go, as you can do so much more with it. I use Adobe photoshop to edit my JPEGS, and reduce size for internet use. Lightroom looks like one of the best for RAW
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Right now I’m switching back and forth … some shots don’t warrant RAW so I’ll stick with jpg. Does take up a lot of room on my hard drive … so am thinking of storing photos on an external drive. Also need to upgrade RAM and speed. All this is a (slow) work in progress!
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Yes, I know what you mean. I back up all my images on external hardrives along with any edits. Trouble is even your back up can fail, which did on me when my PC failed. So do you back up the back up, lol? I have done, but I know you can back up on line also. And I suppose blogging is another fom of back up.
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If it ain’t one thing it’s another … backups on backups on …. (What do you mean the floppy won’t fit in the hard drive!?!)
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Lol 🙂
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