Wake-robin Trillium, deep red bud barely open

Wake Robin Bud

The wildflower pageant continues. Poised to burst onto the stage is this Red Trillium, Trillium erectum. It is variously known as wake-robin, stinking benjamin, purple trillium and, a new name to me, beth root. I like the wake-robin name for the red variety here. What adds to the striking deep red in this flower is that all of the other wake-robin in this valley are the white variety. The white and red varieties do share a deep red center, which distinguishes it from the yellow center of the more common Large-flowered Trillium, Trillium grandiflorum. The leaf shape is broader in the wake-robin, and the petals are more a creamy white in the wake-robin white variety. The plant here will be fully open by tomorrow most likely.

Image was taken with a Nikon D90 and a telephoto lens, the Nikkor 70-300mm AF-S VR ED. Telephoto here got me close to a plant that was off the trail. It also increased the depth of field; a macro lens could get the same framing, but the leaves would not have all been in focus. The ISO is 1800, and frankly not grainy at all at screen-size resolution. I used f/11 to maximize sharpness; the speed was 1/200, which the vibration reduction handled very well while extended fully out to 300mm focal length handheld. Post-processing here in Aperture was a tap on the auto-enhance, plus a tweak of the vibrancy, definition, and sharpness sliders. The composition is in-camera (no cropping), and I am rather pleased with it, if I do say so myself. And I do, because it’s my blog.

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