Riata Trace Pond
Click for greater clarity.
By December 2nd at the Riata Trace Pond in northwest Austin the fall had made itself firmly felt and a couple of unrelated plants there, one a grass and the other a wildflower, had turned fluffy together. The two tallest stalks you see in today’s view are goldenrod, Solidago altissima, while most of the other and more numerous ones are bushy bluestem, Andropogon glomeratus. All the bright spots in the upper part of the photograph are Sparkles sunshinei.
© 2014 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Nice sparkles of reflection peeking through.
Jim in IA
January 30, 2014 at 7:23 AM
Reflections like those are rare in my photographs, which is why I happily played with them in the set of pictures I took there that afternoon.
Steve Schwartzman
January 30, 2014 at 7:38 AM
I’m really quite taken with the hour-glass shape formed by the reflections and grass, and the way the Sparkles sunshinei seem to be pouring down into the grass.
shoreacres
January 30, 2014 at 7:55 AM
I also taken in by the tapering in and expanding back out from top to bottom (or bottom to top, for that matter). Call it splendor beyond (rather than in) the grass.
Steve Schwartzman
January 30, 2014 at 9:06 AM
Let’s hear it for Sparkles sunshinei! At the moment the temps here are all the way up to 30 F, the skies are grey with impending snow, and the winds are howling.
melissabluefineart
January 30, 2014 at 10:01 AM
And let’s hear it for you and shoreacres, who both homed in on that whimsical nomenclature. Given your (and many other people’s) weather this season, even the mention of sunshine is something to howl about.
Steve Schwartzman
January 30, 2014 at 10:11 AM
loving the sunlight on the water.
sedge808
January 30, 2014 at 10:02 PM
Me too, especially since it’s not something I’ve photographed much.
Steve Schwartzman
January 30, 2014 at 10:08 PM
This is a wonderful composition. The bushy bluestem seems to be pulled toward a spot in the center of the photo and the sparkles on the water seem to be spewing up out of it.
Bill
January 31, 2014 at 4:49 AM
I’m glad you like it, Bill. I also noticed the apparent pull toward the center, where the sparkles seem to be born inside the colony of dry grass and to spread upward and outward.
Steve Schwartzman
January 31, 2014 at 6:15 AM
Oh, boy, Miss Magpie approves of the sparkly water as a great backdrop for the fuzzy, feathery foreground flora!
kathryningrid
February 2, 2014 at 10:19 PM
My thanks to Miss Magpie for her alliterative appreciation of the scene. Could a Sparks not go for sparkles?
Steve Schwartzman
February 2, 2014 at 10:23 PM
Absolutely beautiful. Immediately makes the eyes arise!! Cathy
Cathy Testa
February 3, 2014 at 7:11 AM
Thanks, Cathy. Your comment is a Testament to the photograph’s effectiveness.
Steve Schwartzman
February 3, 2014 at 7:21 AM
Oh, and I like your rhyme in “the eyes arise.”
Steve Schwartzman
February 3, 2014 at 9:21 AM