Leaf Photos

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Saturday, December 22, 2007

Carmel Valley Hummer

Today we took a nice trip to a nursery in Carmel Valley. It's one of my favorite places to chase humming birds. There are always a bunch of them but there is one in particular that seems to like to play. He keeps buzzing me and then sitting and waiting for me to get almost close enough for the shot I want before taking off again. I'm sure he's having as much fun with me as I am with him. Fortunately, he usually takes pity on the big lumbering beast with the 300 millimeter nose and lets me get a few nice shots.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Backlit Grape Leaf

One nice thing about living in Southern California is the fact that you can take pictures like this even this time of year. On the other hand, we were walking The Hound yesterday when we passed a tree with beautiful fall colored leaves. Makes me think about taking a trip somewhere to see some real fall colors!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Courthouse Glow

Sometimes its nice to take a closer look at something beautiful. This is a gateway into the Santa Barbara Courthouse. The building as a whole is amazing, but as I am so fond of pointing out I really like the details. There is some incredible craftsmanship there that I don't think you would find very easily today. Perhaps the only thing that will make me stop sounding like my grandfather now (WHYYYY, IN MY DAY... !) is to point out that it was probably pretty rare to EVER find this kind of creativity!

(Unless of course, it was actually one of my perfectionist German grandfathers doing it! :-D At least I come by it honestly!)

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Hummer in the Bush

It's taken a while but we have built up some nice traffic to our hummingbird feeders in the back yard. Originally I thought our umbrella was blocking their view of potential threats and scaring them away. When we put it down for a while they came closer and started eating at our feeder that is hung the highest. Now that they are more comfortable, the umbrella is back up and they seem to like the seclusion of it. We have two lower feeders that are almost under the umbrella and they are emptied the fastest. I even got scolded today when the lower feeders were empty!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Diffuse Hibiscus

This Hibiscus was in the garden of a mission by San Diego. It was an overcast day which made for some nice soft light. I particularly liked this flower since most of the others were tightly closed or all the way open.

diffusion ₁ | flower ₃₁₃ | Hibiscus ₆ | leaf ₄₁ | pink ₂₈

Friday, May 18, 2007

Liquidamber Bonsai Tree

This is a close up of one of our latest plants. It is a small cascading bonsai tree. Unfortunately the wires were a little tight, so I had to loosen them but not before I got a few cool shots!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Shadows of Paradise

O.K. if you got here from the "Banana Photos" page I am not going nuts or getting sloppy in my photo categorization. (well, at least not the second one anyway.) The Bird of Paradise is actually a member of the Banana [Musaceae] family. Strange but true!

But wait, it gets even stranger! Like bananas, Bird of Paradise are botanically considered herbs since they do not produce any woody stems. (That's right, even the biggest 25 foot banana tree is not really a tree at all.)

Well that is the botany lesson for the day. The photo is pretty nice too, if I do say so myself.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Candle Leaf Banana

We were wandering through a nice garden store last weekend when I saw this banana plant. The leaf growing out of the center really caught my attention. It looks just like a candle to me. The opening on the top is shaped just like the flame. The large open leaf made a great background.

banana ₄ | curl ₂ | leaf ₄₁ | Musaceae ₇ | spiral ₂

Saturday, October 7, 2006

Banana in the Rain

A few weeks ago we found two beautiful banana plants at the hardware store that were looking for a good home. They live right out front now. The other day it started to rain just as I was leaving the house and when I saw how the drops of water collected on the leaf I had to run back in and get my camera.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Mandevilla Buds

We've been setting up new misters in the yard for the plants and that made for some excellent photo opportunities.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

Red Lady

This morning I was playing in our little garden, and I found this little guy on one of our interesting plants. I don't recall ever seeing a Ladybug with no spots. The leaves it was exploring are on a small Plumeria tree (think of the sweet smelling flowers that most Hawaiian leis are made of) The tree has been with us for years but many times it has been fighting for life with no leaves at all. As you can see it is very happy now.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Blooming Passon

Having more fun in the back yard. This is a great vine, it has come back from the brink with a vengeance. We should have lots of butterfly habitat this fall. :-D

Sunday, June 4, 2006

Peach... err Tomato Fuzz

The sun was beautiful this evening. My wife and I were playing with our plants in the back yard when she pointed out a few new buds on this tomato plant. (the little round things in the upper right)

I'm so excited! I just love tomatoes Most of the ones you get in the store are tasteless. But this plant passes the first test, it smells just like my grandfathers garden. (that is the way I pick a good tomato) It was my job to help him find the ripe tomatoes on his plants when I was visiting.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Rain Bud

Not usually awake very early in the morning. But once in a while I catch the good morning light!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Ginkgo Leaves

The hound took us for a walk this evening. After much debate we talked her into taking a little different path through our neighborhood. We found a quiet little street that had a nice row of Ginkgo trees. Just as we were passing the last one the sun was peeking through some trees in the distance to create a nice scene.

I did seem to freak one person out who was driving by in a car however, I think she thought I was taking her picture.

Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Bougainvillea Sunlight

This is a nice Bougainvillea that was growing on the outside of our fence. We have been coaxing it up into an archway over our gate. It is starting to bloom like crazy and it is quite a site especially in the evenings when the light shines through it.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Chinese Toon Trees

This is a beautiful pink tree at Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens, in Santa Barbara. There was no name on it like most of the plants in the gardens, and every time we go lately we see people trying to figure out what it is. Thanks to the Internet we were able to track it down.

Apparently the bright pink foliage is a springtime thing. If you look closely at the plants you can see them starting to fade to green at places.

This plant is actually used as a vegetable and in traditional Chinese medicine. 'Course that would not be the woody parts. They use them as young shoots, or even smaller, like bean sprouts.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Spring Evening

The hound picked a nice time for a walk this evening. The light was beautiful. Finally a break from the rain and it actually felt like spring. For better or for worse the news anchors were excited about the fact that we should actually have three beautiful days in a row! Not exactly a long run for Southern California, but at this point I'll take what I can get!

Sunday, April 9, 2006

Palm Sunday

We decorated our Church yesterday for Palm Sunday. It was no small task to find nice palm fronds with all the crazy weather we've been having. March was the wettest one on record in California. Fortunately, when something needs to be done at our church it just happens. Someone always comes through.

Saturday, April 1, 2006

April Fools' Flowers

We had a nice walk today in Alice Keck Park Gardens. Been spending too much time in front of my computer and not enough time out enjoying life. (or behind my camera!)

Not sure what kind of flower this is though, my botanist will probably be able to tell me when she wakes up.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Ready for Spring!

Tomorrow is the first day of spring, doesn't feel like it right now (10:10 pm) but this was the scene just down the street this afternoon.

These trees are beautiful and in full bloom. They are some kind of Flowering Plum, not 100% sure which kind. There seem to be a lot of them!

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Drops of Passion

Well yesterday was a really gray rainy day. It was starting to bug me. Then I took my camera into the back yard. Rain can be a wonderful thing for a photographer!

Recently, our Passion Flower vines made an incredible come back. We originally got them to attract butterflies and they were almost wiped out by their own success! The resulting caterpillars LOVED them.

This is an extreme close-up of one of the tendrils the vine sends out to climb things. It seems to have an amazing grip!

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Bougainvillea Bracts Close-up

This is one of those plants like a Poinsettia. The red things are actually technically more like leaves than actual flowers, they are called "Bracts." The real flower is a small white bloom that comes out from the center of the groups of red leaves. You can see a couple of the buds in this photo.

Although they are not technically part of the flower the bracts serve an important role in the pollination of the plant. They act as kind of a beacon for pollinators that might otherwise miss the small white flowers as they fly by.

Daisies are another type of plant with a similar structure. What is commonly called a daisy flower is actually a cluster of small flowers (called the Capitulum) surrounded by bracts. In this image the bracts are white and the capitulum is yellow.

Bougainvillea ₈ | bract ₉ | flower ₃₁₃ | leaf ₄₁ | red ₂₃

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Ginkgo

I love these trees. I actually got some seeds once from my best friend for Christmas, but I was only able to nurse them along to about 6" tall. Given the right conditions they are supposed to grow to 70 to 80 feet and live for hundreds of years. They have remained virtually unchanged for 150 million years. Maybe next time we'll start with a little older tree. From what I read that would be a better idea anyway because most of the landscape trees you get are male, so they will not produce fruit. (they do this by grafting known male stock onto seedlings.) Apparently the fruit is not something you want to smell laying around on the ground.

Ginkgo biloba ₂ | leaf ₄₁ | tree ₄₇

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Serrated leaf

Extreme leaf closeup!

green ₃₅ | leaf ₄₁ | nature ₃ | serration ₁