The signs of an early spring have been quite apparent, but the first true sign of spring is always the Crocus. We’ve got crocuses popping up all over the place here a The Red Ranch. In addition to crocuses we already have blooming Daffodils and Iris Reticulata as well. Images of those to come very soon! The Hyacinths are popping out as well! In the meantime, enjoy these delicate beauties.
Awhile back, John-Paul Palescandolo, one of this site’s contributors went on a tour of some abandoned subway sections of New York City. Becoming a member of New York Transit Museum is a great opportunity for those who have further interest in this area of history.
John-Paul ended up with a wonderful original capture of the main archway of the Old City Hall station stop, with all of the vibrantly-colored tilework, except for one problem – there was a wooden ramp in view, something that he had no control over. Well, he did what any good photographer would do, which is try to get the best possible shot anyway.
Difficult lighting situation here – Canon EOS 5D using the Canon 24/1.4L @ ISO 400. Image was captured hand-held at about 1/15 sec.
After the RAW processing, we come away with an image that is technically quite good. Here you are:
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Happy Holidays from Eric & Kerry here at Kaz Arts Photography & The Fine Art Photo!
Our indoor Amaryllis bloomed right in time for our Christmas holiday, just as it was supposed to. The plant pictured here will bloom again in another couple of days and we have another Amaryllis bulb growing taller & taller each day. Enjoy!
Species: Amaryllis
Variety: Apple Blossom
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Dahlia season is coming to an end with the frost quickly approaching. After a long season of much flower production, you can see the last flower bud on this plant in the second image of today’s post.
There may be one or two other Dahlia plants that will still produce one more bloom or so before…the end. We shall see!
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Here to stay? Or Photography fad?
In case you didn’t hear about it last week, Lytro announced Spring 2012 availability of their breakthrough picture taking technology simply called, Lytro. Lytro operates based on a light field engine which captures “light traveling in every direction through every point in space” (The Science Inside | Lytro). What this means is that instead of just capturing light focused at a single distance plane (which is what a traditional camera lens does), Lytro can capture all vector direction and information of the rays of light visible in a scene.
What does this essentially allow for? The result of a Lytro digital image capture is called a “living picture”. A living picture refers to the fact that the image is interactive in its ability to change magnification and focus after the photo has been taken. This concept seems quite interesting. Try taking a look at some images in the Lytro picture gallery. The technology is fascinating. One has the ability to click on different parts of an image to render the focus wherever you want. You can also zoom into different planes of the image and still adjust the focus as desired.
I’ve known about this research for quite some time now, and have had the opportunity to read the Stanford PhD dissertation written by Lytros CEO Ren Ng. While I am not prepared to comment on the science of light ray theory, there are serious questions of technical photographic issues pertaining to the Lytro as well as the philosophical implications this technology has for photography as we have known it since the early 1800s…
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These guys just keep on blooming. They will probably keep on blooming until the season’s first frost hits us this coming weekend.
Looks like the growing season will finally be coming to an end. We’ve been quite fortunate this year to not get our first frost until the tail-end of October.
Pretty soon it will be time to take the show indoors!
Nasturtium
Nasturtium II
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These red Hybrid Tea roses had been blooming all summer, but I never stopped and took the time to photograph them. Not sure why. Luckily for me, they have continued their blooms right through October and there are still more buds setting. I hope they get to bloom before we have our first hard frost!
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The Gloriosa flower – known as so many other names to different regions of the world. Also referred to as flame lily, fire lily, gloriosa lily, glory lily, superb lily, climbing lily, creeping lily, and Rothschild Lily. A native of tropical Africa and Southeastern Asia. The Gloriosa is the national flower of Zimbabwe.
Today’s flower was not grown at The Red Ranch, but was supplied by Laura Clare Floral Design in Bernardsville, NJ. We will be working closely with this floral design studio in the coming months to showcase even more flowers and to introduce a series of classes for both flower arranging and floral photography – stay tuned!
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Dahlia, the Queen of the Fall. Dahlias are to Autumn what Peonies are to Spring. We have been growing a number of different types of Dahlia’s this year – from the smaller pom-pom variety right thru to the large dinner plate type (these are extraordinary!). We will have a few more Dahlia photos before the blooming season comes to a close and many more and different varieties will be cultivated next year.
The bloom featured in today’s post has been my wife’s favorite Dahlia thus far. The way the colors transition on these petals is just breath-taking. Also, something new for this post: Instead of the color version and the black & white version of this flower being the same image, they were made from different ‘poses’ of the flower. I have a variety of poses from each in the editing room, but this is the first time two different poses will be published. I will continue to explore this idea with the rest of the blooms for this year and of course it will be something addressed when it comes time to putting together the fine art coffee table book for this project.
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Today we have a Canna flower as our feature bloom. Interestingly, the name Canna originates from the Celtic word for a cane or reed. The Canna is a native plant to the New World (southern USA thru northern Argentina) and is a relative to the banana plant based on its foliage structure. The Canna has so many industrial and agricultural uses – far too many to list here, but you can check the Wiki page on it!
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