Noodling around with older photos and especially older, archived images that I’d overlooked in the past (as discussed in my last post) has been rewarding and fun. But it didn’t provide the same sense of discovery, and even adventure, that going out to find new photo subjects does. So, with perhaps a little sense of frustration from having to stay at home, I decided that to venture outside during our local shelter-in-place order to find something to photograph would be just the ticket. And so I traveled — to Baja Backyard.
For me, this meant spending more time than usual in one of the domains of my wife — our garden. I would be primarily taking photos of the flora (not fauna, since except for a few birds and squirrels there is not much fauna to photograph here). And while it also can mean trying my hand at closeup or even macro photography of the flora, I draw the line at images of insects (while I do admire the truly incredible images that some photographers can create from that subject matter, I’m honestly not interested in creating closeup images of bugs).
So the remainder of this post is about a few of the many flowers my wife has nurtured over the years in our yard, starting with the very flamboyant Bird of Paradise displayed at the top of this post. Since I was also sometimes experimenting with my version of macro photography, I “dissected” (photographically speaking) one of these flowers to see its parts in more detail in the following closeup images:
I also photographed a Fuchsia in two forms; a pre-flowering bud and one which had fully blossomed:
I managed to capture this image of a Camellia just before the end of its season:
And, here’s a lovelyWhite Rose:
Here are two flowers from the Trumpet plant:
Followed by (clockwise from top, left) flowers from a Snowball plant, a
vertical image of an Iris, and a single bloom from a Bougainvillea plant:
Finally, on the right, an image of what is not a bud or a flower but was a flower several weeks ago but is now a small beginning of what will be (one of many) Pear-Apples on our full-sized tree.
This whole adventure in Baja Backyard has been a hoot and encouraged me to consider a second expedition, this time to the far-reaches of Puerto Front Yard. Again, I am selecting just a few of the many plants sharing that space beginning with the buds on a Monkey Paw plant:
plant, and an example of just one of the many types of ferns planted in both Puerto and Baja.
Thank you for viewing this post; I hope you enjoyed this brief closeup tour of some of the local flora around our home. The good news, in California where I live, is that things are starting to carefully ease just a bit so that trails and public open spaces are beginning to open up (with still many appropriate restrictions regarding social separation, face masks, and personal hygiene). I’m hopeful for the future and looking forward to getting out and about safely with my camera again.
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