Bloomin’ Portraits

We also got to see a number of different flowers on our travels thru Big Cypress National Park.  I didn’t have a flower book with me, so I don’t know what the formal names are of these blooms, but I do know one thing – they were certainly pretty!

Huge Air Ferns

We saw these flowering plants all over the place down at Big Cypress.  I overheard one of the park rangers telling a person that they were sort of air ferns, as they rooted somehow on the branches of trees and didn’t need soil in which to grow. 

Air Fern Bloom

When we did the boardwalk stroll thru the cypress strand, I was able to get a bit of a closer and better image of the bloom of the air ferns.  Love the red!

Campground Bloom

I tend to love blooms like this – small, delicate and oh, so happy looking!  I know it’s not a daisy, but perhaps it’s in the family somehow….

Pondside Blooms

These sort of reminded me of snapdragon blooms.  This bunch were growing low to the ground, but I did see them along a roadside, too, and they were more of the height and structure of snapdragons.  Regardless of what they are, they are pretty1

Inner Glow

Altho these were all over the place down in Big Cypress, I took this image in our campground.  It was growing near the pond in the center of the campground (and where we later spotted a gator!!), and the light was just wonderful in this image.  Could it be in the morning glory or petunia family?

Pretty Purple Bloom

We saw a few of these as well, altho this one was taken in the swampy waters along the boardwalk thru the cypress strand.  It looks so delicate, it’s difficult to remember it lives where the gators do!

Enjoy!



Flowers in the Garden in Ollantaytambo

We stayed overnight in Ollantaytambo, and then were to catch a train to take us to Agua Calientes (the town at the base of Machu Picchu).  In the morning, before we left for the train station, I wandered around the hotel garden and enjoyed the blooms……

Hydrangea

Bright Pink Blooms

Bright Blooms

Orange

Apricot Petals

Enjoy!

Lunch in a Garden

On the way from Pisac to our next stop, we had lunch in a lovely little resort inn that hadn’t quite opened yet for business.  However, their restaurant was open, and after lunch, I wandered thru the gardens they had there.  I don’t know the names of any of these flowers, so I’ll just post the images and let you take a virtual walk with me…

Hanging Beauty

Happy Colors

Pink and Purple

Brilliant Yellow

Luscious Red

 

 Enjoy!



 

Blooming Beauties at Puka Pukara

Flowers were popping up all over the ruins.  Take a look at a few of them…

Spot of Color

I think these flowers are in the daisy family.  I really liked the contrast between the roughness of the stones of the ruins and the gentleness of the flowers.

Delicate Violets

Here are some delicate looking violets growing wild along the base of the ruin walls.  Again, such delicate beauty among such rough ruins.

Perfect

Here’s another daisy image, from a ground level perspective!

Enjoy!

Flowers of Puerto Egas – Santiago Island – Galapagos Islands

On our walk this morning, we also saw a few different flowers.

Morning Glory

I really liked this little flower.  Check out the tone on tone pattern – I love the subtle texture it creates.

Muyoyo Bloom

Here’s a flower that I’d never seen before.  I don’t know how to pronounce it, but according to my Galapagos book, it’s a muyoyo flower.  I love the fluted, almost lacy look of the petals on the flower.  Of course, the bright yellow really brightens up the area where it’s located.

Beach Morning Glory

I think this is a slightly different variety from the first image above.  It does look very similar, but the shading, especially on the very outer edges of the petals seemed to be different.  In any event, it’s a very pretty bloom!

Enjoy!



Plant Life – Prince Philip’s Steps – Genovesa Island, Galapagos

In addition to the very cool birds on Genovesa Island, there were some really pretty flowers and interesting cactus.

Lava Cactus

It seemed odd to me that we’d see cactus while visiting these islands on the equator.  After all, I’ve always thought of cactus as being products of the desert climates.  Well, I guess one learns something new every day!  This is lava cactus, and it was growing right up out of the lava field we hiked next to.  I loved the way the morning light played over the cactus.

Goat’s Head

These little blooms could be found along the ground on and around the path we hiked along.  They reminded me of some woodland wildflowers I might have seen in the Midwest……altho we were about as far from the Midwest as we could possibly be!

White Hared Tournefortia

These are really tiny little blooms that I saw in a few different places on our hike.  I knew I’d have a hard time getting close enough to take a close-up of just one bloom, so I settled for capturing the bunch of them!  I really like the way the green leaves offset the blooms.

Arrow Leaf Morning Glory

We were up really early for this hike, and were rewarded by getting to see this version of a Morning Glory!  I love the fluted petals, and the way it looks so delicate in contrast with the lava rock beneath it.

Scorpion Weed

The flowers on this weed are really, really tiny.  I wondered where the name came from, and then I realized that the shape that the blooms formed looked sort of like the pinchers of a scorpion – ugh.  Oh, well, the flower is really pretty, even if I can’t say the same for its namesake!

Enjoy!

 



Talkeetna Blooms

We took a day trip out to the quirky little town of Talkeetna, and altho I was taken with the cool signs I saw there (that’s another posting!), the flowers blooming throughout town were also quite the sight.  Take a look –

 

Isn’t this a beautiful sunflower?  I truly love all the detail that is in this bloom.  Funny how the simplest thing – like a basic sunflower – can really contain such complex beauty.

 

The lilies were just incredibly vibrant!  I just had to fill the frame with their luscious color!

 

Aren’t these blooms lovely?  The bright pink and green in the background are so complementary.

 

This is my favorite image of all of them.  The breeze had picked up and the flowers just waved back and forth slowly.  I was very lucky to capture this image clearly and yet, have the grace of the breeze blowing reflected as well.

Enjoy!

Flower Garden Mixed Media

I've started building inventory for my online shop (which I'll open later this year), and here are some mixed media pieces that I'll be offering, combining not only my love of paper, but my first love of photography!  Take a look - 

 

The first piece, above, is called "Relax".  The foundation for this piece is a photo of a flower that I altered, using a filter that makes it look like it's painted.  Add papers, both machine prepared and hand made, and this is the result!  The relaxing feeling of this piece resulted in its name.

 

For the second piece, I again started with a flower photo, altered to look like a drawing with crayons.  Add the same types of paper resulted in this light, bright piece, focusing on the "Beauty" of the flower.

 

This last piece starts with a photo of a sunflower made to look like an oil painting.  I love sunflowers and they really seem to spark my imagination in a very good way.  So, of course, the name of this piece had to be "Imagine".

 

Enjoy!

New Photo Software !

I'm very excited!  Take a look at some new "plug in" software (it plugs into my Photoshop Elements software) that I found out about in a photo magazine that I get......

The above image was taken when we were on vacation this past August.  This is one of several pastel filters that can be used - it makes the image look like a pastel painting.  I really love this effect on this flower image.

Here's an image I took a few days ago while taking a morning walk thru the airpark.  This filter is a "hard pastel" filter and really looks like a painting, particularly if you click on this to enlarge it!

 

This last image if of an old barn in Grand Teton National Park (they are in the back ground). This filter/effect creates a watercolor painting.  I really like this software, and Jeff just told me that he'll get this for me for my birthday (in addition to a trip to Jamaica - what a guy!!)

 

Enjoy!!



Misty Driving

One of the days we were camping, we drove around the area surrounding Bandelier National Monument.  It was a sort of misty day, and the further up the mountains we went, the more misty it became....of course, at that point we were driving in the clouds!

We got stuck behind this car just moseying along a dirt road.  After a while, I realized that the car on the road would make a great surreal shot, after I played with it with my HDR (High Dynamic Range) software to get it to look a bit funky.  Here's the fun result!

I couldn't resist taking this image of probably the last bloom of the season.  Because we were doing the cloud driving, there were lovely raindrops on the petals. 

Several years ago, there was a wildfire that tore thru this area.  I really love this image of the floor of the forest because it reflects how resilient Mother Earth can be.

 

Enjoy!

Inspired in the Pine Woods

This past weekend, we went on a quick camping trip to a national forest campground around Mt. Taylor, near Grants, NM.  Here are some images that I captured in our explorations, and some quotes that just seemed to fit each one......

As we walked thru the campground, there was a lovely little trail that crossed this bridge.  I played with this image to make it look like a painting.

Ponderosa pines were all over the campground.  I couldn't resist standing under one and just shooting up!

I know this dried bloom must be a weed of some sort, but I thought it was pretty on its own anyway.

Sometimes, if we hurry too much, we miss so much.  Not only do we need to stop and smell the flowers, for some we must stop just to see them.

When I lived in the suburbs of Chicago, people asked me why I didn't live in the city.  I used to tell them it was because I needed to have the illusion of space.  Well, now what I have is no illusions - it really is space!

 

Enjoy!

In Search of a Slot Canyon

Last weekend, we were camping at Abiquiu, New Mexico, near where Georgia O'Keefe lived and created for many years.  The first day we were here, we explored a dirt road and a trail that lead to a small slot canyon.  Take a look ......

The above shot is of The Pedernal, a mountain that Georgia O'Keefe frequently painted, and where her ashes were scattered when she died.  I love the golden yellow blooms that are in the foreground and the lovely blue sky.

As we made our way along what we thought was a trail (we found out later it wasn't, and the trail was MUCH easier going!!), we came across a number of these pretty blooming cacti.  The colors were just so bright and pretty!

 As we hiked along, I glanced up and noticed the contrast of the desert colors - the rusty red of the cliffs we hiked along, green of the trees growing alongside (and actually IN the rocks) and the blue, blue sky.  How could I resist taking this shot?

Here are Jeff and Miki at the beginning of the slot canyon.  The canyon is really quite narrow and sort of undulating because of the water that tends to flow down this canyon when the winter snow melts off or the monsoon rainstorms occur.  It's very smooth and somewhat slippery because of that, and not because of any wetness on the canyon floor (at least not now!).  You get an idea of the smoothness of the canyon floor from the image below.

The image below just sort of illustrates to me how determined life must be in order to survive in the harsh desert climate.  I just really like this image.



Enjoy!!