Posts in Category: flowers
Redwood Lupine
I associate Lupine with Maine, mainly because of the children’s book, The Lupine Lady (one of my children’s favorites), and because of the magnificent spring displays of Lupine along I95 from Freeport north, and all over Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park. I have made several trips to Acadia during Lupine season, and photographed it there with some success. But, of course, it is native to the Pacific Northwest as well. I found this stand between the parking for the Trillium Falls Trail and the trail itself in Redwoods National Park north of Orick California. And yes, the color was this intense.
I have more conventional, and wider, shots, but I found this tel-macro composition compelling. The selective focus and the placement of the plants are intentional, and I think it works well (though I did have to fip it horizontally to accommodate my dominant eye :). Somehow this goes a bit beyond a photograph. It is almost the flower itself!
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Song among flowers
Arcata Marsh is really one of my favorite places to photograph birds. The variety is not great. Mostly Marsh Wrens and Song Sparrows, with a few Golden and White Crowned mixed in, and least in April when I visit. But the views of wrens and sparrows you can get are spectacular! I know of no other place where the sparrows and wrens are so oblivious of human presence.
This Song Sparrow made an easy target on its bare berry whip among the flowers. The subdued light of a cloudy morning made for an excellent, full toned, portrait. Enough light to bring out the feather detail, but no so much as to overpower the lighter tones. And, of course, this shot is also about composition. The bird occupies a rule-of-thirds power-point, balanced by the white flowers…and the strong diagonal of the berry whip leads the eye. There is also a nice separation between the focused bird and the out of focus background. I could not have done better if I had actually been thinking about it. 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Trillium West Coast Style
I wait impatiently every spring for the Trillium to flower in Maine. We have the Painted Trillium variety. Growing up in Upstate New York we among the first signs of serious spring was the red Trillium. Here, where I am visiting, among the redwoods of California, they have the larger White Trillium. I was delighted to find this specimen right next to the trail at the Big Tree site in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park just north of Orick CA. Though the Painted is shower, and the Red brighter against the forest green, the big White has its own beauty. I love the water drop there too…though I will admit I did not see it until processing the image.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. Macro Mode. About 60mm equivalent field of view using 1.5x digital tel-converter. f3.5 @ 1/30th @ ISO 640. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Oh me of little faith: Crocus
Just on Friday, four days ago, three days before this image I took yesterday, I posted a shot of our pitiful crocus shoots poking up above the cold ground, and made some kind of disparaging remark about how late the spring has been in Maine. Oh me of little faith. I completely forgot how fast crocus are! Those tiny little shoots, three days later, are full flowered and beautiful (and already home, as you see in the image, to what appears to be a honey bee). Not that the crocus completely redeem the spring. While they bring spring more or less on schedule, they are no match for the March 23 blooming of the crocus last year!
Canon SX50HS. Telephoto macro. 1200mm equivalent field of view from about 5 feet. f6.5 @ 1/160th @ ISO 320. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, sharpness, and color balance.
Arrested Development: Maple Buds
I am quite amazed at how far this spring season is behind last year. Of course, last year was probably advanced, but coming one after the other, the contrast is dramatic. I first noticed the red on the Maple outside the window where I work all day many weeks ago, but then it was like the tree had second thoughts. The buds remain, but they are no further along than when I first noticed them. It is pretty amazing that trees can do that. The flowers will come…they will just come in the tree’s own good time…when conditions are right.
For comparison, this is the same tree on March 23rd last year.
That was March 23rd, or over two weeks earlier. Amazing.
Top shot: Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. Last year’s shot. Canon SX40HS at 1680mm equivalent.
Bougainvillea
It is going to be a while before we have wildflowers in Maine (or garden flowers for that matter…though we may see crocus soon), so I am dropping back a month or more to the sunny days I spent in San Diego for this Bougainvillea against the classic brick wall of the Conference Center at Mission Bay Marina Village. As you see, the flowers are already gone, but the bracts are still bright against the wall. Of course the picture is about the texture of the brick and the warmth of the San Diego, semi-tropical light.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 175mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, sharpness, and clarity.
Calla Lily. Happy Easter
I went to the store yesterday, at least in part, to buy an Easter Lily. I take the celebration of Easter seriously, with great joy! The resurrection of Jesus, and his living presence in us and among us is the core of my faith. Our traditional Easter Lilies generally catch an aspect of what I feel, but this year, their big showy trumpets just did not appeal. I think our local grocery giant may have ordered in the super-giant variety on the theory that if big showy lilies are good at Easter, bigger showy lilies would be better. Very American! I was, however, attracted to the smaller Calla Lilies they also had on display, and bought one to take home.
Part of the plan all along had been to photograph the lily for my Easter post, and I took it, with a black fleece jacket for background, out on the newly swept back deck for a session. The sun was at an interesting angle, there were half a dozen blooms in various stages, and I took a lot of exposures, from all angles, and processed the best.
It was only after processing the images that I thought to look up the Calla Lily and find out what I had brought home. It turns out (but many of you already knew this) that the Calla Lily is also known as the Easter Lily, especially in Britain and Ireland. In Ireland it is also associated with the fight for independence, a memorial to those who died in, and as a result of, the Easter Rising of 1916.
For me, the attraction was the quiet, but totally self-assured, grace of the blooms…and in this variety, the subtle shades of the rich royal purple. These images, I hope, catch just that.
Right now, the Calla Lily speaks to my faith more than the showy trumpets. I’d like to think of my faith that way. Quiet, totally assured, and full of grace. Approachable as the Calla Lily, and, in its own right, just as rich and beautiful. At least that is how I see it on this Easter Morning, as I watch the sunrise behind the trees of the back yard, and let the joy fill me!
Catalina Current
From still snow bound southern Maine, I reach back to my week in San Diego for a touch of spring brightness. Catalina Current, a native flowering shrub from the Visitor’s Center Loop Trail at Mission Trails Park. The busy ant is just a bonus.
Canon SX50HS in macro at 24mm plus 1.5x digital tel-converter. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Correct. –1/3EV exposure compensation. f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Snail in Paradise
I may have (actually I know I have) mentioned before how much I enjoy the Bird of Paradise plants and flowers that are always in bloom when I visit San Diego in early March. I always come back with lots of pictures of the colorful, striking blooms. And occasionally I catch something out of the ordinary. Like this snail, firmly attached to the underside of one of the petals (braches?).
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 45mm macro. f3.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Chuparosa, Anza Borrego Desert
There were not many flowers in bloom in the Anza Borrego Desert in the last days of February when I had the chance to visit. Chuparosa was a brilliant exception. It was ablaze in the lower reaches of Palm Canon. Chuparosa is hummingbird in Spanish, and the plant is sometimes called Hummingbird Bush…but there are a lot of bushes called hummingbird, including the more widespread Flame Acanthus, and only one Chuparosa. And besides, Chuparosa is such a great sounding name!
I took quiet a few pictures of the flowers, but settled on this one, the most extreme close up, for today’s post because it shows the subtle texture of the petals and stems. As you might expect from a desert plant, both are lightly furred to retain as much moisture as possible.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm macro with 1.5x digital tel-converter. f4 @ 1/800th @ ISO 125. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.