Another South Dakota picture — this one from a little damp fen tucked away in a much drier Custer State Park:
I have no idea what these little blue flowers are, but each bloom is at best an inch across.
Bluekeh
Category Archives: Flora
Lindsey’s shadow
When we were in Houston a few months back, one of the places we wandered through was the Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens.
Funny thing — I took this shot of a waterlilly (Nymphaea x “Lindsey Woods”), but didn’t notice the shadow that looks like a face in profile until I was doing a little post-processing work on the shot this morning. Kinda’ spooky…
Echinacea, 7/09/11
My first decent shot using an old Polaroid SX-70 camera I bought off eBay, and some Impossible Project film:
Long-story-short, now that the Impossible Project folks are producing both color and black and white film for SX-70 cameras, I thought I’d take the plunge and start experimenting with low-fi analog photography.
Here’s a shot of echinacea in our front yard, taken with my used / new (to me) SX-70 Alpha 1 SE and Impossible Project PX 70 Color Shade film.
I think it’s going to take a while to get a hang of this — the camera works just fine, but the film is a bit… tricky. In particular, it’s REALLY light sensitive for a minute or so after it comes out of the camera — and it’s prone to over-exposure too.
Oh, and did I mention film costs about $3 per exposure? Definitely gives one cause for reflection before pushing the shutter release. Once I get this down to a more-nearly-repeatable thing, I’ll do a writeup on this film and the whole process of using it.
Foraging
Seen in the Colorado Springs Utilities’ Xeriscape Demonstration Garden:
Time to climb back down
Two women start their descent of Structure I (as seen from Structure II) at the ancient Maya (no, not Mayan) ruins of Calakmul, México:
Structure I (a.k.a. Pyramid I) is the highest at Calakmul (by virtue of its being built on a small hill), but not the tallest. Its neighbor Structure II (a.k.a. Pyramid II) is the tallest at the site, and the largest (in bulk) too — standing about 50 meters / 160 feet tall (these numbers vary depending on the source you’re looking at). Structure I is just a few meters shorter than Structure II, meanwhile Structure II’s base is some 120 meters (390 feet) square.
Translation: they’re both really big…
Palenque’s Palace
Shot with a long lens from the Temple of the Cross, about 1/4 mile away:
You might think I framed this shot the way I did to heighten the contrast between the structure and its background — but actually, I was avoiding a line of tourists just off the bottom of the shot!
Margaret Mary
A “Margaret Mary” Water Lily, seen at the Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens in Houston, Texas:
Taken with an Oly E-PL2, and the “kit” lens.
A reminder of last spring
Seen along the National Mall in Washington, D.C.:
Now we’re just waiting for spring to show up in Colorado…
Lavender and green
Seen at the Yampa River Botanic Park in Steamboat Springs, Colorado:
Sunburst
I saw this at the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center; Great Falls, Montana:
It’s a really good museum, and the grounds have been turned into a beautiful display of native flowers. Well worth a look, if you should find yourself in the neighborhood.