Living in the Moment

Freckles

Working with live flowers and natural light in a house full of helpful kitties truly emphasizes two things.  1) Live in the moment.  Act on impulse, on instinct, on inspiration, instead of listening to the little dictatorial voice that says "Concentrate on the subject you're working with now.  You can take shots of that other flower later..."  And 2) to not take anything too seriously.

I found a bunch of peony tulips at Whole Foods earlier this week and snatched them up.  Buying flowers in wrapped bunches occasionally yields up fun surprises.  Sometimes bundled in with the standard flowers are blooms of a different color, shade, and pattern.  And such was the case this time.  It took a couple of days for them to open, and when they did I had this amazing peony tulip in shades of purple and pink.  It simply said "Freckles" which is what I named the shot.

Aftermath

With tulips I always like to wait for them to open as much as possible.  It makes the shot more interesting and gives it depth.  It also allows the light to play with the petals.  The downside to waiting is that a tulip at is fullest opening is also at its most fragile, right before the petals fall.

One minute you have an intact flower at its peak...

And the next you've been visited by a helpful curious kitty and you have this...  A pile of petals and a lot of squeaking.

And if I'd listened to the dictorial voice instead of being impulsive and swapping flower subjects I'd've missed the shot entirely.

Link to the higher resolution photo ::

• Freckles

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Pretending To Be Butterflies

Climbing Lilies & Buddha

Sometimes inspiration strikes out of the blue.  Lunch at WaterCourse on 17th on a Saturday afternoon led to  finding stopping at a florist's just down the way.  Babylon Floral.  And among the multitude of other cool things there they had a flower in the cooler that I've been looking for for months and months.  The climbing lily, which I've only seen in Instagram posts from the Far East and in plastic form.  I'd actually resorted to buying the flower in bulb form six months ago and have been waiting for them to come up in the yard.  Anyways, patience has never really been one of my, ah, virtues and here they were. 

Butterfly In Red

Even with this afternoon's cloud cover the lilies glowed.  And sometimes flowers pretend to be other things.  They were butterflies with glowing wings against the sea of green that is the tree in the backyard.

Link to the higher resolution photos ::

Butterfly In Red

Climbing Lilies & Buddha

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Tiny Swamp-Dwelling Iris

Iris Neomarcia Longifolia

I know storms in spring are normal for Colorado, but the clouds this morning are incredibly frustrating.  The problem with using only natural light for my photos is clouds first thing in the morning are a sighing offense.  The traitorous thought of "Gee I could've slept in" pops up.  (A morning person I am not.)

I picked this particular plant up from Tagawa Gardens a couple weeks ago.  The label on the pot calls it "Iris Neomarica Longifolia".  I call it "The Tiny Swamp-Dwelling Iris That Only Blooms For A Single Day".  Granted I didn't know the "blooms for a single day" part when I bought it.  I just liked the tiny speckled iris flowers.  Surprise and not in a good way when I brought it home and the next day there were no more flowers.  Here's the link to the Wiki article on the plant. 

Anyways, finally after weeks of waiting, I figured out how much water and light it requires.  Finally a flower... That will last for a single day before dying...  And its cloudy...  Argh!  Maybe if I hide it in the basement for the day, where its dark and cool, maybe the flower will last until tomorrow morning's sun...

 

visit  Samantha Byrnes' online gallery