Thursday, December 19, 2019
Winter Monarchs

It's a wonderful time of year to catch the Monarchs overwintering. They love these Eucalyptus trees, even though they are not native to the area. Still they have made a wonderful sanctuary for these weary travelers who have come so far!

Friday, August 14, 2015
Montecito Golden Hour

The perfect end to an absolutely beautiful day. Sometimes the mist in the air does such wonderful things with the light as the sun dips low it seems almost magical. This particular evening the clouds were looking beautiful, but the sun was a little hidden behind them. Still a nice day for a drive to the nurseries in Carpenteria. But as the sun started to peek below the clouds, the light passing through the low mist on the water turned the most amazing shades of yellow and orange. As vibrant and beautiful as any south pacific island sunset. It's subtle in the photo, but the crepuscular rays created by the shadows of the trees on the hills were a sight to see.

Sunday, January 26, 2014
Backlit Monarchs

It's a wonderful time of year for a trip to the Coronado Butterfly Preserve. This was last weekend about two-thirty in the afternoon when the light was coming around behind them. But the light moves fast in their little gorge, only a few moments later the sun was gone from this cluster.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Venus Butterfly Twilight

Venus and the fading sunset colors over Butterfly Beach in Montecito California.

Thursday, April 4, 2013
Resting Monarchs

This is a shot from our beautiful Coronado Butterfly Preserve in Goleta. This year the butterfly population seemed a bit smaller than years past, but they are still an absoultely amazing sight.

Sunday, March 17, 2013
Ranunculus Dew Drops

Last night we we were wandering around the plant section of the local home improvement store and we found ourselves in the spring Annuals section. I'm a sucker for varigated flowers, especially red and yellow, and I really love Ranunculus. This one is a bit more subtle than most varigated flowers. From a distance the petals look orange, But the veins are more orange-red and the petals are yellow. Which makes for an amazing effect where they seem to change color depending upon the angle you look at them. And with so many petals the effect is even more pronounced. This morning my wife found him a nice spot in the back yard and gave him some water, then it was time for his photo shoot!

Monday, December 10, 2012
Backlit Monarchs

It's the time of year when the Monarch Butterflies return to their overwintering spot in Santa Barbara, the Coronado Butterfly Preserve. According to the experts the clusters of butterflies are small this year, although it's still early. Even so the experience is amazing. This is just one of the small clusters, but the position of the sun was perfect. What you can't see are the hundreds of butterflies fluttering around the grove. It's a wonderful spot that only exists because of the hard work of volunteers and donors who have protected it.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Monarch Profile

Monarch Butterfly [Danaus plexippus] on a Zinnia at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History's Butterflies alive. It took a bit of manuvering to get the profile shot I was looking for, and although there are many more opportunities at the Natural History Museum, it's still fun to try to get just the shot you're looking for.

Sunday, May 1, 2011
Poppies and Dasies Playing in the Sprinklers

I didn't intentionally put the water drops on these flowers when I was taking care of a friend's yard. But I did have my camera along for just such an occasion. I loved the way the light caught the huge drops of water. The beautiful curves of the drops complement the small ridges of the poppy petals nicely. And then the daisy decided he wanted to be in the picture and leaned in from the right and said CHEEEEESE. Ok, maybe I spend a little too much time in the garden, but I'm making up for a very busy year that saw my plants too neglected.

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.