Grimm's Faerie Tale Macros

A couple of years ago while visiting Seattle, I started a project to photograph the miniscule side of nature that defies imagination. Some of the images I compose are whimsical, but most of them have a strange and dark otherworldly feel. There are creatures hiding just around the corners of our sight and just small enough to escape notice. And if you squint your eyes just a little, the macabre faerie tales start to come to life...

Waiting impatiently for spring

The spice bush (Lindera benzoin) is the very first shrub to bloom in my yard every year and it is just not quite ready. I really can't wait to do some intense macro work on both the male and the female shrubs this year. I have one of each and this is the male who is the real showy one.

O'Keefe? Oh, no...

I have been trying to document the emergent spring in the trees and shrubs in super-tiny macro this year because I thought it would look great and be scientifically interesting. But now I feel as if I have been watching the sex lives of trees through a peephole. Have I been shooting plant pornography?! I am going to keep doing what I am doing, but I am not going to be able to sit down with any one of these plants and have a conversation over coffee. Ever.