Category: Photographer

Night Blooming Cereus VIII

reaction to cold temperature

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Our “Night Blooming Cereus” is blooming earlier in 2021, blooms opened twice during nights of early August. I put the name in quotes because during the course of writing the first seven posts ( I through VII ) I learned this is NOT a member of the genus Cereus, it is actually an epiphyte of the Epiphyllum genus.

For those familiar with the early history of New York City and Hudson Valley it is easy to see why a common name of the plant is “Dutchman’s Pipe Cactus.”

  • Emerging flower buds of a Epiphyllum cactus.
  • Emerging flower buds of a Epiphyllum cactus.
  • Developing flower stalk of a Epiphyllum cactus.
Click me for another Night Blooming Cereus Cereus flower post.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum”, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Zion Narrows VII

highwater?

MichaelStephenWills

Mysterious alcoves through cross-bedded Navajo Sandstone, 15 feet, or more, above the streambed. I use mysterious in the sense I wished the formations were mysterious, standing there with nowhere to climb, witnessing the effects of floods that high above. The location is The Narrows just above Orderville Canyon junction, Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Zion Narrows VII

laying around in The Narrows

MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

This polished basalt, the product of volcanic eruptions and eons-long weathering, is common on the Virgin River bed. Zion National Park, of The Narrows just above Orderville Canyon junction.

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Zion Narrows VI

long and narrow

MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

I combined two 50 mm exposures for this view of an interesting rock and beetling canyon walls. Upstream from here it is a day’s walk to reach ground safe from flash floods, downstream at least one hour. Narrows of Zion National Park, Utah

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Yellow Hibiscus IV

anthers and stamens

MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

Evening breezes brought to a halt my series of hibiscus bloom photographs, that bloom faded and shriveled, to be replaced by another. I captured the images of this post on a very quiet summer evening. This bloom was facing up closer to vertical that the previous.

A key identification for all 300 species of hibiscus is the long stamen tube. I have yet to see a local insect interacting with the stamen, always they are in the flower throat. In the tropics, pollination is thought to proceed from large butterflies and birds.

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  • ISO 100, 1/10 sec at f / 14
  • ISO 100, 1/6 sec at f / 14

Here are three macro photographs of this bloom, all from the Canon 100 “macro” lens. I learned by experience to tamp down the diaphragm to the smallest setting, f / 32 for this lens. The different aspects were achieved by moving the lens objective closer to the bloom. This is a “fixed” lens, it has one focal length.

  • ISO 100, 1.0 sec at f / 32
  • ISO 100, 1.3 sec at f / 32
  • ISO 100, 1.3 sec at f / 32
References

Wikipedia – “hibiscus.”

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Yellow Hibiscus III

anthers and stamens

MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Nyctinasty (flower response to light: opening with or closing without light) in hibiscus plants is a mechanism to protect against adverse conditions such as cool temperatures that can be damaging. Through a lack of light stimulus and circadian rhythms the plant is able to trigger the molecular movement of ions to allow for the closing of the flower.

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  • ISO 100, 1.3 sec at f / 29

Here are three macro photographs of this bloom, all from the Canon 100 “macro” lens. I start with the shutter diaphragm open at 4.0 (“F-stop”), a little narrower at 4.5 and a bit more at 9.0. For this lens the maximum opening is at 2.8, the narrowest is 32. As the opening narrows (F-stop increases) the exposure time needed to capture enough light lengthens and the range of the image in focus increases.

  • ISO 100, 1/30 sec at f / 4.0
  • ISO 100, 1/25 sec at f / 4.5
  • ISO 100, 1/6 sec at f / 9.0
References

Wikipedia – “hibiscus.”

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Zion Narrows V

narrow and tall

MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

This long exposure blurs the two distant human figures looking downstream toward junction of Orderville Canyon, around corner. Narrows of Zion National Park, Utah

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Yellow Hibiscus II

flower and buds

MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

This is a perennial, commonly known simply as “hibiscus”, or less widely known as rose mallow. Other names include hardy hibiscus, rose of sharon, and tropical hibiscus.

The hibiscus flower is traditionally worn by Tahitian and Hawaiian girls. If the flower is worn behind the left ear, the woman is married or has a boyfriend. If the flower is worn on the right, she is single or openly available for a relationship.

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  • ISO 800, 1//8 sec at f / 32
Here are the three photographs of this bloom, all from the Canon 100 “macro” lens. Two with “sweat bees” and one without.
  • ISO 800, 1//8 sec at f / 32
  • ISO 800, 1//8 sec at f / 32
  • ISO 800, 1//8 sec at f / 32
References

Wikipedia – “hibiscus.”

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Zion Narrows IV

cross-bedding

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Careful attention to hidden boulders is essential when hiking the Narrows of Zion National Park, Utah

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Yellow Hibiscus I

flower, buds, bee

MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Yellow hibiscus, the state flower of Hawaii was recorded in ancient Greece. In the photograph is captured several unopened buds, behind the flower, and a bee in the flower throat, attracted by nectar there. It is a small bee, of the Halictidae family, that lives alone in a ground nest and also called a “sweat bee,” from being attracted to perspiration.

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  • ISO 800, 1//8 sec at f / 32
References

Wikipedia – “sweat bee” and “hibiscus.”