Pale jewelweed (Impatiens pallida), like its cousin, spotted jewelweed (I. capensis) is a lovely, French horn-resembling blossom that is prolific in the Southern Appalachians in July and August. According to folklore, wherever Nature creates a botanical peril, it provides a remedy nearby; so both of the jewelweeds are found in close association with poison ivy for which they provide relief from the rash and itching. The name “jewelweed” comes from the fact that water, especially in the form of dew and rain, tends to bead up on the plant’s leaves, making sparkles in the sunlight. Jewelweed always seems like a happy plant to me, and it never fails to evoke a smile. I found this stand along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Haywood Gap, but they could have been almost anywhere along this beautiful section of the road. Using my Kiron 90mm macro (135mm on D2x body) with a Nikon PK13 extension tube to increase magnification and decrease the angle of view, I was slightly larger than life size with the blossom (effective focal length around 165mm). An aperture of f/5.6 gave me the depth of field I wanted, and I focused just inside the throat of the flower to achieve actual and apparent sharpness on the flared petals and just inside the interior. A shutter speed of 0.6 second at ISO 100 gave me a slightly lighter-than-medium exposure.
I forget how very special a simple flower may be – this is a beautiful reminder.
Lovely, very lovely, and a perfect composition.
Oh, no! I woke up this morning eager to see this week’s image, only to find no email from Don in my inbox. 🙁 Are you ok? So I went looking on your website anyway. The image is beautiful, I never knew about jewelweed, and I appreciate your instruction about macro focusing. Thanks, Don.
The email showed up. All is right with the world :-).
Hi Don – lovely photo. I heard a different story about why the plant is called jewelweed (at least here in the Northeast). When the flowers turn to seeds, the pods explode when touched, thereby scattering the seeds. If you rub one of the seeds, the outer layer easily rubs off, exposing the inner seed which is a beautiful aqua blue color, i.e., the jewel.
Beautiful! Thanks for the details on your setup. Floral macros are fun, but hard to do well. I like how you were able to blur the leaves creating the contrasting color and with the yellow sharp and the green soft.
always a pleasure to open my email on Sunday. The information about the jewelweed adds to the overall experience. Thanks
Hello Everyone. Thank you all for joining me on this macro adventure. The tiny world is such an endlessly fascinating place with beauty at every tilt of the camera. As an artist who sees the world primarily in wide-angle landscape format, I often have to remind myself to become immersed in that world, but I never regret the time spent. Dee, thanks for your kind and thoughtful words. The grace of a small blossom like jewelweed, for me, is a wonderful reminder of the awesome beauty to be found in nature’s simplicity. Thank you for reminding us of that. Jessyca, it’s great to have you joining us. You seem, typically, to offer your observations on larger landscapes, so I appreciate your words for this small one. Don, forgive me for startling you. I had a couple of technical issues with the email end of things this morning, so there was a delay between posting the image and getting out the announcement. I appreciate your staying with it to the end; and thanks for your kind comments. I’m glad the description was useful for you. Bob, thanks for sharing the New England version of the “jewel.” All that you shared is completely true, and you probably also know that another of the common names for the Impatiens genus is “Touch-Me-Not,” exactly for the reason you have shared. Nancy T., thanks for your thoughtful observations and kind words, and for reminding us of the warm/cool tonal contrast here, as well as the sharp/soft one, too. What made the sharp/soft contrast easier to accomplish here was the distance from the flower to the background leaves and the shallow depth of field offered by a dedicated macro lens. Hinda, it’s always good to have you with us, and thanks for your kind comments. As you know me, it’s never only about the image, it’s also about the connections to be found in the beauty of the natural world. Thank you all, again, for being part of this conversation. I appreciate your comments very much.
Lovely, lovely picture of jewelweed. One of my favorite plants if, for not other reason, because I’m highly allergic to poison ivy….If you rub off the green coating, the seeds taste like pecans.
Hi Helen. Thank you for joining us, for your kind words, and for sharing your connection with this lovely plant. I have always been fortunate in that I have never reacted to the toxins in poison ivy, but I am quite familiar with how it can affect others. Maybe if I had your reaction I would have learned about the seeds. It’s a very interesting piece of botany and I will give it a try at my next encounter. Thanks for sharing it.
Although called a weed, it brings beauty to our woodlands and trail sides. A beauty that you have captured well. Blooming just slightly ahead of the ironweed, Joe Pye weed, and goldenrods, it reminds me that the magical season of September is just around the corner. Yes, I like October best but the quiet September countryside with its haze and smell of ripening corn accented by the colors of late summer flowers has to be one of my favorites. Although I have tried many times, I have no images of jewel weed this well focused and composed. Looks like I need to get out the extension tubes. Thanks for sharing. I enjoy your work as always.
Hi Don,
I love this composition and exposure. It creates a very tactile image. I also like the texture created by the lighting falling across the petals and I am wondering what time of day this was taken to capture that lighting. Do you recall roughly when it was taken and the lighting conditions?
Hey Michael and Dorsey. Thank you both for joining us. Michael, I’m glad you enjoyed it and that it evoked the questions it did. This image was taken in mid-afternoon, but so there was plenty of ambient light all around, but the salient fact is that it was taken under thin overcast conditions in open shade.This produced a very bright, but even, light on the subject so that there was essentially no contrast save for the warm-cool tonal contrast between the blossom and the leaves.I agree that the image is a very textured, and therefore tactile, one. This is something I enjoy doing in macro work: creating the impulse to reach out and touch whatever the “it” of the image may be. Thanks for those observations and the questions they led to. Dorsey, I know you’ve been traveling and doing some great work in the North Country, so thanks for taking the time to join us. Your thoughts and observations, as usual, are spot on. Many beautiful flowering plants that are commonly thought of as “weeds” share with us both their loveliness and often something beneficial as well, as I mentioned in the story of the Impatiens. I have watched as this “weed” has soothed the itching of poison ivy rash and have appreciated its unique physical charm as well. Many of the species you mentioned also come to us bearing gifts, and we are blessed to receive all of them. Your description of the onset of fall and the joys of late-summer are well-received Thank you for sharing such lovely word pictures. And thanks, again, everyone for adding to this journey of mine.