Nature
Nature provides the canvas, the subject and the paint. The photographer furnishes the frame. And the technological medium applied by the photographer sometimes enhances what nature provides and often diminishes it.You'll make your own judgements about this particular photo. All I can say is that this place is one of my favorite places on earth and my feelings affect what I see and do here. Every time.
Yes, another pink tulip, misted by God with morning dew.Or did the photographer use a spray bottle?
Sooner or later I will run out of plants I photographed last week. Or I will clairvoyantly sense your boredom. But until then, here's another plant.I will tell you that the photographic challenge with this plant was trying to establish a focal point. I was shooting at 2.8 so I would get fairly narrow depth of field. The thinking was that rather than have the you look at the whole plant, I wanted you to see the serrations, the texture and the soft purples and greens.
I am in California for a few days and because I am using my iPad and iPhone for work and connectivity, keeping up with this blog is a little more challenging - especially the photo editing. But I'll try to do my best.This photo was taken a few blocks from my aunt's house and it is like alot of green things I post - it is very green.But aside from that, I really like the luminescence of this photo. I probably took 40 photos of this plant and they are pretty redundant. But, as usual, my photography wasn't so much about what I got as it was that I was out seeing and seeking. And it was a perfect southern California morning, with temperatures heading into the high 70s. :-)
I was on the way home after a fairly successful photographic outing north of Watertown. And, once again, lost in thought, I had driven about 50 yards by this scene, which had registered subliminally, before I realized I had passed a photo opportunity.So I backed up and took a few photos. I love backlit thing that nature makes and the sun sets ablaze!
I've read that some scientists say there is no such thing as chaos - that Nature, in it's apparently random state, is really ordered and predictable. Smarter people than I will have to find order in today's jumble of berries and branches. And quite honestly, I don't mind a little chaos. . .
I was out walking along Iron Creek in the Blacks Hills a few years ago. It was early spring and most of the vegetation still had it's winter colors. But I encountered a small area that was green with new life. I think it was spring fed and that's why there was so much color.These ferns (?) were growing out of a rock wall. I likenthe depth the dew gives the photo. The mile or so along Mission Creek, where I have found so many photos, is one of favorite places on Earth.
The poet TS Eliot said that "April is the cruelest month" but I can't really agree with him on a day like today. There was a sliver of a moon in the east as the sun rose to a crystal clear dawn. There is the promise of warmth in the rising sun.After months of looking out at the monotone landscape of our back yard, I now see the hint of green. And, in these delicate, pale purple Snow Glories growing in my wife's garden, there is the promise of better things to come.
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We're not quite this far into spring yet - we'll have bleeding hearts in another month, I suppose. But I couldn't resist posting something green and flowering.
If you hadn't already figured it out, this is a cactus. Nature's design? Or an experiment in genetic engineering? Either way, what were they thinking!? Compare this cactus with "Thorny Problem."The botanical name for this plant is the Mammillaria vaupelli "Cristata." Sometimes it's called "brain cactus."
This is another photo from our recent trip to California. After I got done taking a few broad shots from the top of Mulholland Drive, I turned my camera towards some long grass that was illuminated by the strong morning sun.
This title is not at all descriptive of the subject of this photo. The title suggests how I felt when we visited California. The fact that I had never seen a plant like this (in the Norton Simon art park in Pasdena, California) suggests that I was a bit of an alien. Sorry, but I don't know what it is called.
As I was looking at my California photos to find something to post today, I decided that I think that everybody ought to visit the Los Angeles area. It seems so American to me: the sprawling megapolis, the wealth, the exotic cars, the Walk of Fame, the beautiful endless coast and the mixing of cultures, to name a few.
For a South Dakotan like me, California is like Japan: exotic and inviting. For what it's worth, incidentally, I also think that everybody ought to visit South Dakota - especially Californians.