This summer I was finding my newer telephoto lens to be quite nice for taking pictures of things like grass flower/seed heads due to a slight difference in the way the depth of focus works for that lens. This seed head particularly stood out to me since the slightly twisted stem gives it a whimsical look.
This spring while out in the woods I noticed a blue jay watching me from a branch nearby. The jay’s idle curiosity gave me a generous opportunity to get some photos (I think I even had to switch lenses). I wouldn’t be surprised if this particular bird recognized me as a regular visitor to the woods.
I like being able to figure out interesting ways to photograph familiar subjects that shows them in a much different way than people are used to seeing them (usually in a way that draws attention to something I’ve noticed about them). These photos are a good example of that concept: 
If you weren’t able to figure it out, these are veins on the ‘wings’ of maple seeds (which are technically called samaras). The samara in the second to last photo is the oldest; the green between the veins is actually the background because that one was pretty translucent. These were all cropped at least slightly which gives them a nice abstract look, but I also liked some of them uncropped too.
