Helicopter trees

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Helicopter trees

April 22, 2014 by Mike Powell

Blossoming trees get a lot of attention this time of year, but as I looked upward at the trees in my neighborhood, I was struck by the beauty of the seeds of what I believe are maple trees. When I was a child in New England, I loved to watch these seed spinning through the air like little helicopters as they fell from the maple trees.

According to Wikipedia, the US Army actually developed a special air drop supply carrier during World War II that could carry up to 65 pounds of supplies and was based on the maple seed.

It was fun trying to come up with different ways to highlight the beauty of these seeds by moving closer or farther away and by varying the background.

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, spring | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, helicopter trees, maple, non-blossoming trees, Runnymeade, trees | 7 Comments

7 Responses

on April 22, 2014 at 8:04 am | Reply klaudiakatona

Beautiful 😀 the first photo is my favorite though 😀
- on April 22, 2014 at 8:11 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. The bright red color is definitely an attention-grabber. (The first one is my favorite too.)
on April 23, 2014 at 6:34 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

The red ones are most likely red maple. Nice shots-these aren’t as easy to get good photos of as it might seem.
on April 23, 2014 at 2:12 pm | Reply nliakos

They look like Japanese or Chinese paintings.
on April 23, 2014 at 9:50 pm | Reply krikitarts

Lovely stuff!
- on April 24, 2014 at 4:24 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Gary. Every now and then I feel more artistic than usual, most often when the lighting or shapes or colors catch my eye in a certain way.
on April 24, 2014 at 10:55 am | Reply Sue

Very artistic looking photos, Mike. The colors are wonderful.