Ghost Orchids

[Canon_Bob]

Some of you may have heard of the rare find down in Corkscrew Swamp recently. It made National news, as these are a pretty rare flower. Anyway, they are in an almost impossible place to shoot them well, so I just did the best I could with the equipment I had. They are over 100 feet from the nearest trail access, and then about 45 feet up. All I had was a 100-400 zoom and a 1.4x TC. Definitely no prize winning shots here, but thought I'd share them anyway, as they expect the blooms to stop in about a week....So chances are good I'll never get the opportunity to shoot them again. Sorry for the quality, but they were definitely cool to see:

[Loupey]

That cool, Bob. So did the FDNR have an area around the orchid roped off? I imagine some protection for a rare species would be normal and necessary.

[Canon_Bob]

They actuall do! Apparently, there are hardly any of these known in the wild, and very few being grown either. Theft is a HUGE concern here. The orchids are being watched 7x24. I ran into RJ Wiley out there (a local big-name photographer who shoots Corkscrew Swamp regularly), and he was telling me about some of the security they've got set up. Needless to say, there won't be any "macro" shots of these. Funny thing is, they've been there about 40-50 years (estimated). They were just behind a limb on another tree that recently broke off in a storm.

Cool thing about Corkscrew Swamp is that it is one of the only "virgin" cypress forests left in existence. Many of the trees are several hundred years old. Very cool place to go if you ever come here to SW Florida. It's also probably THE top spot for shooting Wood Storks in Florida.

At any rate, I sure wish I'd had my 600L with a 2x TC on it. :-(

[polarbeardiggers]

they are pretty cool,thanks for sharing.