Flower/Nature Pictures You Are Proud Of

[Hokkaido Brit]

Let's post our favourite flower or nature pictures that we feel we did a good job of capturing!

It's winter here, so these are mostly frozen or decayed in some way but still very pleasing to my eye....


First is this dried up hydrangea on a cold, sunny afternoon.


A gingko leaf in my garden - I like the "bokeh" at the back (the unfocused light patterns)


An udo seed head with a few seeds still attached. (Not sure what you call that in English - it's a bit of a weed)

I will stop here because I'm still nervous about whether the pics will show up or not! I'll add more if you show me yours!!

[Giles]

Here are a few:


An emu -- fortunately on the other side of a fence from me, as they can attack you.


A butterfly in Franklin Park Conservatory, Columbus, Ohio


A macro of inside a large flower.

[jarbabyj]

I'm not a "photographer" but I"m trying to learn how to get good shots out of my Canon SD 1000 there's not a lot of ISO/Flash adjustment you can do on that camera, but I get some good macro shots in natural light.

I took this one in my mom's backyard. Japanese maples are one of my favorite trees.


Obviously this rose has been photoshopped. It was the last bloom in my mom's garden in November last year and I just thought it was tremendously sad. So I muted it and made it look a little 'faded'



I wish I'd gotten a little more of the pumpkins in the background to give this picture a little more "depth of field" as they say.

[3acres]

a tick



and some iris last spring

[Biggirl]

Prospect Park Ravine



Some of my Gerbera daisies from last year




Bus stop hydrangeas

[featherlou]

Asiatic lily "Lollypop" from my front bed last summer - I've had it as my desktop all winter long. These lilies are very cool - they bloom white, and pink up as they age.


Our spruce trees in our front yard one frosty morning -

I've noticed that the winter light here is interesting - even at noon on a cloudy day, the light doesn't get any less blue and moody than that.

[bambi hassenpfeffer]

Taken in St Augustine, FL:

There were a whole bunch of these around, but most in direct sunlight. I poked around until I found one in the shade. The reason? Everything in the frame except the itself looks like it's had its saturation turned down, and the flower itself looks slightly muted. I like how those two things combine to really pull the flower out of the background. In the direct sunlight, the pink-to-yellow gradation was really much more severe. The lower lighting makes it more gentle.


Butterflies on the ground in Lake June-in-Winter Sand Scrub State Park in Lake Placid, FL.

[Dragon]

I have a couple like this:

Picture is a link to full size.

[XJETGIRLX]

[Biggirl]

JET, what's the name of that very first flower you posted? Looks very tropical and exotic.

[XJETGIRLX]

JET, what's the name of that very first flower you posted? Looks very tropical and exotic.

It's a passion flower, but around here we call them maypops. They're pretty common in this area (N. Florida).

Edited to add: That one was in my mom's back yard

[yawndave]

Baby pine tree, Zion National Park:

[Art Rock]

Click for the Flickr pages with larger versions.

[chacoguy]

It's an arch in Antelope Slot canyon near Page, AZ.

[Dragon]

Ohhhh Very good....

[PapSett]

I have no pictures to add, but GOD these are some gorgeous pics...

[Hokkaido Brit]

Lovely pictures all!

I'm going to add some more of mine.


A bee on a dahlia.


A gorgeous pink rose with hints of yellowy-green.


A rather evil-looking abutilon.


The cutest little frog, who positioned himself perfectly on a leaf for me.

[sistercoyote]

I have others, but I'm quite pleased with these four I just took using the macro and super-macro settings on my camera, which I hadn't previously known how to access:





Oh, and this one, which I'm really pleased by because the bee wasn't there when I composed the shot.

[david86blue]

San Diego's backyard

[troubleagain]

One of several hundred I particularly enjoy. (Look carefully....)

More from the same place.




xjetgirlx, those maypops are all over my whole freakin' yard. I pull 'em up and mow 'em down alla time. I let the ones growing by the fence stay, though, because they're so pretty. I mostly have the purple ones like in your picture, but I did have a white one last summer:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleagain/2535169496/sizes/m/in/set-72157605307755252/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleaga ... 307755252/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleaga ... 307755252/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleaga ... 307755252/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleaga ... 441254540/

[Art Rock]

A recent shot (click for full):

[Papaw]

[troubleagain]

Beautiful, Papaw!

[Dragon]

What she said.

[SmartAleq]

Here are some late summer blackberries--look good enough to eat, don't they? As a matter of fact, I think I DID eat these, right after I took the picture!



Trillium season, just a couple weeks ago:

[sublight]

One of the trees in front of my apartment happened to be blooming. Does anyone know what kind of tree this is?

[yawndave]

Barrel cactus, Eastern Mojave Preserve

[Biggirl]

I'm proud not because I took a good picture (flowers always take great pictures) but that I grew it myself.

Tahiti Daffodil

[sistercoyote]

That's really pretty, BEG.

I just uploaded some stuff to flickr but I'm not feeling inclined to code to post them here. So click the link if you want to see them.

[Papaw]

Red Hibiscus taken Easter Sunday.

[SmartAleq]

I had some fun with the camera in the garden this morning--the rosemary is blooming and this makes the bees all happy--thumbnails link to larger images.

[featherlou]

I'm fairly proud of my picture of crocuses this spring - crocuses are fairly elusive, and you don't find them every year.



(So fuzzy!)

[sistercoyote]

Okay, less lazy today.

I have no idea what kind of plant this is.

[Monstera deliciosa]

I'm fairly proud of my picture of crocuses this spring - crocuses are fairly elusive, and you don't find them every year.



(So fuzzy!)

That's a nice photo, but I don't think those are crocuses. They look like Pasque Flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris or Anemone pulsatilla, depending on which botanist you ask.)

I'm not especially proud of this pic, but here are my purple Pulsatillas from a few years ago.

[Papaw]

"Beautiful, Papaw!"
Thanks!

[Papaw]

Bottle Brush Bush

[troubleagain]

*I* want a bottlebrush bush. I'm going to have to visit the local nursery to see if they have any.

I'm proud of this one, not so much for the quality of the photograph itself, but because this is one of the pot of cosmos I grew from seed!




http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleaga ... 273355590/

[featherlou]

I'm fairly proud of my picture of crocuses this spring - crocuses are fairly elusive, and you don't find them every year.



(So fuzzy!)

That's a nice photo, but I don't think those are crocuses. They look like Pasque Flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris or Anemone pulsatilla, depending on which botanist you ask.)

I'm not especially proud of this pic, but here are my purple Pulsatillas from a few years ago.

And here we have the reason that botanists use the latin names. My picture shows what is known as the crocus across the Canadian prairies; to find out that it is actually a pasqueflower variety wouldn't surprise me much - I have what was purchased as a pasqueflower in my yard, and it looks more like your picture than mine, but I can certainly see the similarities. Your pulsatillas are gorgeous, by the way.

Ah, here we go - the prairie crocus, also known as pasqueflower, prairie smoke, and its proper name, Anemone patens multifida.

[Clayton_e]

Ok.. don't know what I'm doing wrong.. "It was not possible to determine the dimensions of the image"

so link

Taken last spring/early summer.. somewhere in there, macro setting, photoshopped later heavily (was very light light green, almost gray green).

[Monstera deliciosa]

I'm fairly proud of my picture of crocuses this spring - crocuses are fairly elusive, and you don't find them every year.



(So fuzzy!)

That's a nice photo, but I don't think those are crocuses. They look like Pasque Flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris or Anemone pulsatilla, depending on which botanist you ask.)

I'm not especially proud of this pic, but here are my purple Pulsatillas from a few years ago.

And here we have the reason that botanists use the latin names. My picture shows what is known as the crocus across the Canadian prairies; to find out that it is actually a pasqueflower variety wouldn't surprise me much - I have what was purchased as a pasqueflower in my yard, and it looks more like your picture than mine, but I can certainly see the similarities. Your pulsatillas are gorgeous, by the way.

Ah, here we go - the prairie crocus, also known as pasqueflower, prairie smoke, and its proper name, Anemone patens multifida.

I agree about the latin names. Trouble is, Crocus is a formal latin genus name, for several species of early spring and fall blooming bulbs. All the more reason it shouldn't be used as a common name.

And apparently Pulsatilla patens is an alternate name for prairie crocus. It is clear from their appearance, as well as the confusion among botanists as to what genus they should belong to, that P. vulgaris (aka A. pulsatilla) and A. patens multifida (aka P. patens) are close relatives.

Plant nerdishness aside, thank you for the compliment. I do love my Pulsatillas. I've got a couple of red-flowering ones, too. They all bloom here in northern Illinois after the actual Crocuses have petered out, but before most of the other bulbs start.

[troubleagain]

I'm proud of this one not because of the quality of the photo, but because I grew this from seed! And it actually lived and bloomed!




http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleaga ... 273355590/

[featherlou]

Are you going to keep posting that until someone tells you how pretty it is, trouble? It's very pretty.

[featherlou]

Here are my pasqueflowers - just starting out.



A close-up of some chilly lilac leaves just budding out -



This is spring in Calgary in a nutshell - lilac leaves budding out and fresh snow on the ground. I'm always amazed at the hardiness of plants here - they'll get their new growth nipped, they'll get their flowers nipped, and they'll either come back from it and/or put out new leaves and flowers, or just move on and try again next year.

[troubleagain]

Are you going to keep posting that until someone tells you how pretty it is, trouble? It's very pretty.

Awww, shit! I tried to post it that day and it said there was a problem, so I assumed it didn't go, and I was too impatient to try it again that day.

[sistercoyote]

I took these two at my parents' place this weekend, and I'm really thrilled by both of them. I wish I'd had them for the composition lesson.

[featherlou]

Those are wonderful, sistercoyote. I remember when we were starting to get spring here, and I had high hopes that I'd be having green things and flowering thing some day. Oh, I think it's started snowing again.

[sistercoyote]

Thanks!

This isn't my garden - it belongs to my parents. Most of my stuff is still in "is it safe yet?" mode.

[troubleagain]

Okay, so here's a moss rose (click any of them for bigger)

And a dahlia

And some asiatic lilies








http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleagain/3478021350/sizes/s/in/set-72157616273355590/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleaga ... 273355590/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/troubleaga ... 273355590/

[yawndave]

I like this because it's a plant and butterfly all rolled into one:

[troubleagain]

Ooooh!