When Goldenrod isn’t golden well then it’s Silver-rod. At North Common Meadow in Petersham-a Trustees of Reservations property.
The flower
The whole flower
And nothing but the flower.
Ouch. New computer on the way. My present computer just sits and stares back at me rather than processing as it should. It could be worse, I suppose. I’ve only seen the BSOD twice. We recovered but……
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
What a pretty flower. It looks like a cattail that got all dressed up — maybe for a date with a photographer. I especially like the long stem, and I’m glad you included the last photo, since it shows how much color there actually is in the individual blooms.
New computer, huh? I never even got the BSOD — my hard drive just made a noise like an old Model T falling into a rut and breaking an axle. It had been clattering for a while, but I wasn’t smart enough to know what was up. I was lucky. I managed to get nearly everything back, though it was arranged somewhat differently.
I do have a question. If someone were to have a new camera, with a nice, new lens, in your opinion, would it be better to start with a clear, a UV, or a UV-haze filter for protection? Asking for a friend…
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Heh, heh. You just gave me a picture in my head of a bouquet of long-stemmed goldenrod, Linda. Of course, goldenrod does not cause hay fever or make people sneeze, with some exceptions of course, but for those who think it does…..
Actually, when I received my present Dell it made sounds like a meat grinder. I’d say almost every component, save one or two, has been replaced over the five years I’ve owned it. You are lucky to have recovered your data. I’ve heard of some photographers who lost everything in a crash…..of course they didn’t back up so that is the real reason for their loss.
I am not a fan of any of those filters. Keep the lens cap on and use a lens hood for protection. That said, I keep a polarizer on all my lenses but not for protection. However, if your friend insists then I would use a clear filter. Chances are the filter glass may be inferior to the lens glass which is a drawback. If he or she says they’ll just remove it then we’re back to the lens cap scenario.
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Anything rod is cool with me ☺️
Not sure what a BSOD is. But forsnt sound like something you want.
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It’s the Blue Screen of Death, Rod. You guessed right….it’s not anything one wishes for.
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I’m glad Rod asked the question as I wasn’t sure what BSOD was either! You’ve reminded me, I need to back up all my stuff, haven’t done it for ages. How tall is the Golden Silver Rod? 😀
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Do it soon, Lottie. I am sure you have a lot of things you’d hate to lose.
The Silver-rod is, in this case, around 15 inches tall, but can be up to two feet.
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I’ve never heard of white goldenrod flowers. Do you know whether this plant is a species of its own or just a variety of a species that’s normally the expected yellow-orange?
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I am my own self….http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=SOBI
It was a new one to me also. When I found it I was thinking it looked a lot like a goldenrod, but had never read about a white one. There was only this one lonely plant surrounded by a few different yellow species.
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Your link shows that Solidago bicolor grown across much of eastern North America, but perhaps it’s not very common in most or all of those places. I imagine the species name bicolor indicates that some yellow remains in the predominant white.
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Or possibly that the central portion, the disk flowers, retain the yellow along with the white ray flowers.
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Impressive set of images Steve. A new computer is good news. You can process faster and post more often. That’s an order 😁
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Order noted, Sir. I am quite excited with the idea of the new box and what I might accomplish with it. This thing is getting slower by the hour.
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Are you staying with PC or might you be switching to a Mac? I was a dedicated PC user for … mmm … more than 30 years and recently switched to a Mac. I wish I had done so 20 years ago! My new machine is a Mac Book Pro with 15″ screen … totally love it. D
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Sticking with a PC, David. I tend to stay in my comfort zone with technology and most else. In addition to the new computer, I replaced my display last year with a 30″ NEC Multisync PA271W and it is a great monitor to process images. I have a separate screen for the Photoshop Tools and palettes as well as my TK actions box and the Nik tools. That leaves lots of real estate for the actual image.
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TK actions? Are these plug-ins that work with PS? And, if so, for what purpose? As you can tell, I’m still thinking about picking up PS. D
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They are definitely for Photoshop, although not plugins. An action is a series of adjustments or tool usages that you can program to be automatically repeated without having to do the individual moves one by one. TK’s (Tony Kuyper) actions select the various channels at various tonal strengths for adjustment layers. Maybe a slight curves adjustment to the brightest brights or darkest darks for instance. They make it quite easy to pinpoint a slight adjustment to just a small area rather than a global change to the entire image. Really a genius creation.
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Yeah, I’m pretty partial to my Mac, too. Although it doesn’t always play well with others. Perhaps I just need a class or two.
Solidago bicolor is a new one to me, too. Now I think I need to get out there and pay more attention! Lovely photos.
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I’ve given thought to a Mac, but as I mentioned to David, my comfort zone is just to comfortable to wander into another world. 🙂
Solidago bicolor was a pleasant discovery and every year I am acquainted with new and exciting species.
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I hope the set up is going well so far? That always intimidates me.
Like you, I am constantly being amazed by new discoveries in locations I thought I knew well. Wonderful, isn’t it?
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New and exciting is a good reason to be out there.
The system is still being built and I probably won’t receive it for a few weeks. It is coming from Washington state so will most likely take a week to get here once they ship. I am not sure it intimidates me as I have done it a few times. But the hassle of transferring the software, especially Adobe’s with there controls, is a PITA.
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What an interesting plant…I am off to the internet to search out more information. Loved the photos.
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Thanks, Charlie. I am glad they inspired you to seek out more information…..even though that means that I may not have provided enough myself.
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A new species huh? I like seeing new info and species on your posts.I really like the second pic the best. I enjoyed all the commenting about PC verses mac. My daughter has given me her less than 2 year old HP. She bought a Mac and claims it is superior to a PC. “I can do so much more with the Mac and do not have to worry about security since it has a built in system,” said my daughter.
I’m not sure if her info about security is totally correct but she loves the Mac. Well I l love my HP Vista which is now about 6-7 years old. I’ve had it in the shop for small things and I hope that by writing about my PC that this does not jinx it and then crashes. I was told by a former WordPress help person that WP has our stuff protected..I’e put most of my pics to external hard drive but have done nothing to my blog. Now with this discussion I am scared and I don’t know how to back up. A friend did my pics for me. Guess I;ll take it to a computer shop so that I can learn how.
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I would think that what the WP tech person told you is true and your blog is saved in their server…at least if you have not used up all the space allotted to us for our blogs. If you have saved all your writing in a folder then you should be able to copy that to an external as well.
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