Splayed

Posted on 5 March, 2010 by Eric

An orchid at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden:

For a photographer, one of the handy things about being married to a botanical fan is that when we travel, flowers are always involved. HTBG is particularly good in this regard, as it seems to have something in bloom no matter when you show up (at least, it’s been good for us the two times we’ve made it there). Just a few miles north of Hilo on the big island, it’s got a wonderful walking trail (some of it wheelchair accessible), and a wide variety of tropical plants.

FWIW, about all I did to this shot (out of the camera) was de-saturate the greens a bit so the flower would stand out a bit better.

Pink carny

Posted on 20 February, 2010 by Eric

OK, I’ll freely admit it. A side benefit of buying my wife flowers is that I get to play with them too. In a few spare moments, I did a little macro experimentation on some of the “survivors” of the crop I bought her for Valentines Day.

I like how the DOF worked out in this shot — gives it a semi-abstract feel.

Orthosiphon Stamineus Lamiaceae

Posted on 17 February, 2010 by Eric

A.K.A. Cat’s Whiskers:

Seen at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden (north of Hilo on the big island).

Remembrances

Posted on 10 February, 2010 by Eric

Another shot from the Yampa River Botanical Park; Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This one’s a bit more processed than the last one:

I basically turned up the blue saturation a bit and turned the green down to a similar degree — sort of a “poor man’s selective color,” because I didn’t like the look when I took away everything *but* the blue. The end result isn’t too gaudy, I don’t think…

Waterlogged

Posted on 4 February, 2010 by Eric

On a rain-soaked day, I saw these flowers in a garden in the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Park in Nova Scotia:

Even drooping, they’re still a nice looking group of flowers.

Danglers

Posted on 20 January, 2010 by Eric

I saw these orchids along the trail to Akaka Falls in Hawaii, and just had to grab a quick shot or two:

Handy spot they were in, hanging from a tree right next to the trail, but with the background vegetation about 100 yards distant. I almost cloned out the little bugs on the blooms, but left them in so this image wouldn’t look too “antiseptic” — but I’m still waffling on this point, so may have to revisit the image. What do you think?