Fern Frond Fiddlehead

Fern Frond, April 19, 2005
I enjoy this image of the fern "fiddleheads" unrolling during spring. Ferns begin opening up a few weeks after hepatica and spring beauty start bloooming, and they slowly un-curl to reveal long "feathery" frond (leaf) of various shapes and sizes. Some of the more common ferns include Christmas fern, maiden hair fern, interupted fern, cinnamon fern, lady fern, and woodsia. I suspect this fern shown here is an Christmas fern (which stays green through the winter), but I want to recheck the plant before saying for sure. I posted two images of interupted fern on this website back on September 29th. Check the ARCHIVE "September 2005" to see more.
In this shot, only one fiddlehead is in focus, while the other is somewhat out of focus. This was intentional. I tried to make the left fiddlehead sufficiently out of focus to make it obvious that this was my intent, but not so out of focus that the fiddlehead would lose all details of its general shape. I like the way the left fiddlehead, without overlapping, replicates the shape of the fiddlehead on the right.