Sunday, December 20, 2009
Flowers unpainted
Click to view Black and White Flower gallery
While in college I read Ansel Adams' photography books and spent hours in bathrooms with tape around the doors to hide from light while I developed film and printed images. After I found steady work and could afford a real darkroom, time was too short to spend processing film and printing pictures. In fact, time was often too short to take pictures at all.
Decades later Canon, among others, makes cameras that produce images comparable to film, Epson manufactures desktop printers that use the same inks and paper as larger commercial units, and software such as Lightroom and Photoshop have replaced the darkroom for all but the most conservative photographic purists.
These technical advances along with the inevitability of retirement, led my return to photography where I marveled at the beauty of color images, first of flowers then of animals and scenic landscapes that I had neither the equipment nor skill to create when I first began making prints.
Nevertheless, I remain intrigued with the monochromatic shapes, textures, and patterns that characterize black and white photography and have posted a gallery of floral images in black and white rather than in color.
The image at the top of this post is, to my belief, that of a Star of Bethlehem, but I remain open to correction from any botanical-minded individual who has a different opinion.
Labels: Bethlehem Flower, black and white, flowers, photography
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Yellow roses - the flowers of romance
Although more than 100 species of rose grow wild, the most familiar are those growing at nurseries or on display at your local florist or food market. Roses are the classic, "I'm sorry honey, I forgot" gift. They are also one of the favorite flowers for home gardeners.
The roses here were resting on a pass-through shelf between my kitchen and dining room and caught my eye because of the warm light. More examples can be found at my rose gallery. Or, if you forgot someones special day, rose images can be ordered at my print florist.
Labels: flowers, roses, yellow
Monday, March 19, 2007
Tulips
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Tulips were growing in Turkey around AD 1000, nearly 600 years before they appeared in the Netherlands where they became so popular that a tulip "futures" market developed as money was exchanged on the outcome of planted bulbs developing into blossoms. One transaction included cattle and several tons of commodity plus cash for a single blossom.
If you enjoy tulips and are very fortunate, you can visit the Keukenhof Gardens near Amsterdam in April when millions and millions of tulip and crocus bulbs are in bloom.
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