Late one April afternoon these backlit Hepatica on the gorge wall above the South Rim Trail of Treman Gorge posed for their portraits.
Personable Wildflowers
With wishes for a Blessed Easter 2021
Category: Flowers
Hepatica
Early Spring Beauties
Most every year since 2002 I’ve photographed these personable beauties, the first wildflowers to bloom as early as late February through the snows.
Click me for “Finger Lakes Memories”, a fine art photography gallery.
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Woody Peony Series
Effect of f-stop
May 2019 Pam and I visited the New York State historical site of Olana, the former home of Fredrick Church of the Hudson River School of painting. Off the walk was a small planting of flowers, among them a type of “woody” peony in full bloom on Memorial Day weekend, well before the “herbaceous” type that is setting flower buds at that time. These were a striking reddish hue.
On returning home we were pleased to find our own “woody” peonies of the same hue in full bloom as well. On Memorial Day I used the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USB lens and a tripod to capture the following two macros of the flower center with the lens aperture fully open (f 2.8) and at its smallest (f 32).
Question for readers: Which do you prefer, and why?
Click either photograph for a larger version.
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Hepatica, Fillmore Glen
Hepatica from April 2007
Back in 2007 I used a 100 mm Canon Macro lens on a Kodak slr along with a Sony DSC-F828 variable lens for this mix of macro and habitat captures presented as a gallery so you can flip back and forth among the larger images. Click any image to bring up a larger version.
Click for my “Finger Lakes Memories” Fine Art Photography Gallery.
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Wildflowers Late Winter / Early Spring 3
With the thermometer in the 40’s on March 12 these crocus were open, under the same magnolia tree as the buttercups from the 10th. The blooms close during cold snaps much as you see in the first post.
Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
A tripod held the composition steady and the timer was set to 2 seconds for extra stability. With the leaf body worn away by time, the remaining veining turns the form lacy.
Here is a slideshow today’s and previous wildflowers.
Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Night Blooming Cereus VII
reaction to cold temperature
For the final post of this series on Cereus blooms, of the four buds two failed to fully open after the weather turned cold in late September/Early October. Here is the failed bloom from the same opening bud featured in the last Cereus posting.
Click me for another Cereus flower post.
References
Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Night Blooming Cereus VI
soon to open
Here is a continuation of the previous Cereus posting, the ultimate macros of a bloom on the edge of opening.
Click me for another Cereus flower post.
References
Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Night Blooming Cereus V
evening preparation
Almost bursting open, the third of four flower buds of our Night Blooming Cereus caught one October evening just before opening. The black background is repurposed anit-weed ground cover material.
Here is a series of flash photographs at varying apertures and angles. The white rods are emerging anthers, the pollen-containing tips of long stamens seen in my previous postings of the open flowers.
Click me for another Cereus flower post.
References
Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Night Blooming Cereus IV
What is this plant?
Bloom #2 of this season. Two more in the wings. I broke out the flash and the Canon 100 mm “macro” lens for this series taken an hour after sunrise before this one-night-only bloom wilted.
Click me for another flower post, “Another Woody Peony.”
References
Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Night Blooming Cereus III
Source of popular name?
In an earlier posts the popular name of this plant, “Night Blooming Cereus” was introduced as incorrect, still there must be some truth in the name, I believe it is found in the developing flower stalk and bud.
“Cereus” is from the Greek word for candle. Don’t these developing flower stalks, resemble a candle and the bud a flame?
Click image for a larger version.
Here’s the flower from an earlier bloom this season.
Click me for another flower post, “Another Woody Peony.”
References
Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 