The next batch of photos exemplifies just the opposite. I used a close-up lens to get in close and personal. In most cases, I even cropped the original file.
I also like to shoot from a different perspective. You can get a lot of visual impact by taking a commonly ignored item and making it larger than life or grabbing it from an unusual angle.
A picture is worth a thousand words (but it takes several million bytes.)
Oh cool! It's a fly agaric mushroom! Let's grab a snapshot!
If you see a picture of a mushroom, it is probably a fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) Even the mushroom people on the popular Nintendo game that my kids like to play is a fly agaric. I don't recommend eating one, unless you want to get sick and high at the same time.
Anyhow, the above picture is singularly uninspiring, isn't it? Let's try again.
That's better! We have more mushroom and less other stuff. Still...
Even better. You can almost see the fairy sitting on it, can't you. (My wife asked me if I saw the fairy before or after I ate the magic mushroom.)
Finally, we see the bug's eye view. It's almost worth getting bit in the bellybutton by ants.
No, this isn't a large exotic orchid. It's a common violet. We tend to walk past (or over) them without sparing a second glance.
The above three are orchids. They aren't big or particularly exotic, but they aren't commonly seen. These pictures were taken near Mothers' Day at my parents' retirement home, which is about half way between Reed City and Cadillac, Michigan.
Pink Lady Slippers are found in low wooded areas. They are protected wildflowers.
If you look closely, you can see pollen on the bottom of the 'slipper' part.
I'm not sure what this one is. I'll have to look it up. It looks a lot like wild mustard.
The Trilliam is another protected Michigan wildflower.
Taking pictures in the wet foliage isn't fun, but the water droplets definitely add to the final image.
Getting closer, we can see detail that the casual observer misses. Who crawls down in the soggy forest floor, anyhow? I did it so you don't have to.
One thing I missed when I was taking the picture, but noticed when I was going through the results, was the pollen that is on the petals -- ready to be picked up by the feet of a pollinating insect or bird.
This is another flower that I haven't identified yet. It is very easy to ignore because it's only about a quarter of an inch long. It's worth a closer look, don't you think?
This is another tiny flower that has a lot to offer when you take the effort to look closely.
... And sometimes, you just take things for granite.
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