Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Varigated Miniature Rose

Most of my recent work has been architecture and Santa Barbara city related. Most of those images take a bit logner to plan and execute so the photo of the day has fallen behind a bit lately.so I decided to spend some time last weekend looking through some of my older flower shots looking for interesting unpublished images.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sun Star Water Drops

Well it's officially fall. Can't believe it, but it's time to start to look for some good bulbs for the garden. This is one of my favorites, the Sun Star. It is a fairly new hybrid and I have not been able to find it as a bulb. But I'm going to keep looking!

Sunday, April 20, 2008
Sun Star Bloom

Well it's that time of year the Sun Stars are in bloom! This is a beautiful Orange hybrid related to a Star-of-Bethlehem. This particular flower was my first one. It took a rest last year, but it is back strong.

If you landed here looking for care and feeding of your new plant take a look at the Sun Star page. And my earlier shot from the first time this one bloomed. Most importantly, it's a perennial bulb, so No!... you did not kill it! It dies back every year down to the bulb. And pretty fast after it's done blooming! If you're looking for one, they are available as live plants now. Or you can get bulbs in the fall. I've had a few requests for sources of bulbs so I'll try to get some links online soon.

Monday, February 11, 2008
Ranunculus Close Up

It may not seem like it, but I have finally got off the sofa to start to take some pictures again. This was during a nice walk through a local nursery the other day.

I appreciate all your kind notes and thoughts over the last few weeks. Zoe's still a great inspiration. I think of her often when we are out and see something beautiful like this, or the amazing flowering pear trees that are covered in white blossoms right now. The kind of things that she would have got me out of the house to take pictures of. Now it's all up to Tweetums to get us out of the house once in a while! I wonder if he would like to go out for a walk? ...hmmm

Monday, November 26, 2007
Low Aperture Poppy

I've always liked playing with low aperture shots. I like the way the stem of this poppy goes out of focus fast. For comparison, the apple from Thanksgiving was about as tight (high) aperture as this lens gets. Which kept the nice texture of the skin in focus over the whole surface.

Sunday, November 25, 2007
Orange Gerbera Closeup

More beauty courtesy the Santa Barbara Farmers' Market.

Monday, May 28, 2007
Poppy Seed Pod

No, it's not upside down! Well, the photo's not anyway, the flower is.

This is the same flower from the Photo of the Day on the 20th. By the looks of things there will be poppies all over the place in our back yard next year.

I like the "cross section" look of the flower. And the ruffled edge of the petals too.

Sunday, May 27, 2007
Kalanchoe & Star

I was tinkering with using the Kalanchoe as a nice backdrop to get some shots of the green tipped Sun Star blossoms. In the end I was happiest with the shots that had them both in the mix. I really like the Kalanchoe in this shot because one of the flowers in the upper right has five petals. There are hundreds of blossoms and only two of them have five petals. The rest all have four.

Monday, May 21, 2007
Green Tipped Star

I mentioned this flower on the discussion at the bottom of the Sun Star keyword page. About a week ago we found it at a local grocery store. It is a little different than the others I've seen. Every other petal has a green tip. There are three petals that are on the outside of the bud and three on the inside. The outside ones have the green tips. It makes for a VERY interesting variant.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Creative Kalanchoe

I have always had a soft spot for these plants. They have amazing thick leathery leaves and when they bloom they are absolutely covered in flowers.

Recently there have been a more creative variety available. I found a "double" variety last year, and the coloring on this one is absolutely unique!

They make great subjects for creative photography lighting experiments too.

Monday, May 14, 2007
Glowing Sun Star

I have been playing with some creative lighting on my flowers lately. That's the reason that the photo of the day has been the flower of the day lately. :-D (Well, that and the fact that it's spring and there are some amazing plants out there that all seem to follow me home.) I\'m pretty happy with the results though, both in the back yard and my photos!

If you ended up here because you have one of these beauties and you are looking for care instructions, take a look at the main Sun Star page. There are more tips and discussion on the March 25, 2006 Sun Star too. If you find any of it helpful, or have questions that have not been answered there, drop us a note!

Saturday, August 19, 2006
Hibiscus

I have actually had quite a few people ask if I had pictures of Hibiscus. One of them at a show once even seemed quite irritated that I didn't.

I don't usually do shows anymore.

This Hibiscus is growing in a pot in front of a health food store in La Cumbre Plaza. It is a real beauty but I had to wait for just the right light.

Friday, August 18, 2006
Milk-Bee

In case you were wondering what the flower looked like that caught my attention in yesterday's photo. (I know it was just keeping you awake all night! :0) This is about 6" further up. And the bee? Well, she was nice enough to fly in right after I was done finishing up with yesterday's subject!

I actually got quite a few interesting shots of the bee working on these flowers. I picked this one because it shows her wings so nicely.

Monday, June 5, 2006
Lemanderin Blossom

This is another blossom from our tree in the back yard.

Sunday, May 21, 2006
Wet Lime Blossoms

I had just finished watering the plants in our back yard. I love what water does to close-up pictures. And I love the small freckles on the blossoms, they are a little more translucent than the rest of the petals, and you can really see that with the back lighting.

Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Cactus Feathers

Zoe took me for a walk today, as she has been known to do. We took a little different path than we normally do. We went past this beautiful Prickly Pear cactus up the street from us. It is about six feet tall and it is in a pot in front of a house near the street. It is pretty obvious by the health of the plant that the growth of the roots has not been slowed by the bottom of the pot!

I think the coloring on the petals makes them look like feathers.

Saturday, April 29, 2006
Sun Star Blossom

My Sun Star just opened up a third stalk of flowers. I've only had it for a few weeks but it has been blooming like crazy. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, as I was playing with my lens reversed for a good closeup, I noticed it is being attacked by small bugs. So it is taking a dish-soap bath in the sink now.

Thursday, April 27, 2006
Minerature Rose XCU

I've been experimenting with studio lighting. Until recently most of my photos have been available or natural light.

This is a miniature rose, the flower is about an inch and a half across. Which explains why the water drops look so big.

Saturday, March 25, 2006
Sun Star

This is one of the other flowers that followed us home from the store yesterday.

These guys caught my eye as we were going into the store. I love taking pictures of flowers so something vibrant and different like this is almost certainly going to come home with me! Does not seem to be a lot of information online about it though.

Saturday, March 4, 2006
Poppy Pollen

There are not may California Poppies blooming at the moment. But the ones that are sure do put on a nice show.

It was the pollen that attracted me to this particular flower.

Friday, February 3, 2006
Sunrise Daisy

This one looks like a beautiful sunrise.

Thursday, December 29, 2005
Julia Marigold

I like the way he matches the flower, almost like camouflage.

Monday, December 26, 2005
Birthday Sunset

This one was posted a little late. But, it is a belated birthday present for my best friend who is now (January 16th) my wife. Yesterday, she asked me what picture she got for her day. And, due to some major wedding preparations at that time I was getting behind on the photo of the day so she got to choose her own.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Bird of Paradise

My neighbor has a beautiful garden. It's amazing how many flowers you can get into a small space. (we only have a few feet to play with around the building.) This was snapped as I was taking the hound for a walk the other day.

My best friend was just wondering when Bird of Paradise bloom. I guess this answers that question. :-D