In 2007 the Nelson family - Tom, Jackie and daughters Johanna (age 9) and Christina (age 5) began a series of wild orchid-hunting expeditions. From our home in NYC we traveled to orchid sites in Vermont, western New York state, Maine, Newfoundland, and Long Island.

2008 was even better; we managed to visit Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah Nat'l Park, Vermont, the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia, the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, eastern Pennsylvania, the Canyonlands of Utah, eastern Long Island and the New Jersey Pine Barrens, all in the noble pursuit of native orchids! We saw a lot of good scenery, enjoyed great hiking and had some wonderful food along the way.

More new species were added to our list in 2009, bringing the total to 90 species in 3 years! Our 10,000 mile west coast trip is chronicled in the latest issue of the North American Native Orchid Journal. 2010 found us back in the Great Lakes region and the Rockies of Wyoming and Utah as well. 4 new species were added.

These photo galleries represent most of the orchid species varieties and forms that we have encountered on these trips. Other plant species and scenic shots are represented in separate galleries. The story of our July, 2007 trip to Newfoundland is told in an article that appeared in the January, 2008 issue of the North American Native Orchid Journal http://culturesheet.org/wiki:user:nanoj:start. The tale of our July, 2008 travels to the Bruce Peninsula of Ontario, and then along the orchid-rich north shore of Lake Superior to a veritable orchid-bonanza in Manitoba, can be found in the August 2009 issue of NANOJ.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos were taken with a Pentax K1000 35mm film camera with either a 50mm Pentax macro lens (with either Quantaray doubling filters, extension tubes and sometimes ring flash) a 105mm macro lens or a 28-70mm Quantaray zoom lens; polarizing filters were sometimes employed to reduce glare. Kodak ASA 200 speed color print film was used; the images were then digitized at the time of processing. The end result is the truer colors of film (in my opinion) combined with the ease of digital post-production. Enjoy the photos - comments are always welcomed and appreciated!