While Alan and I were out in the pastures today taking photos of wildflowers, the donkeys decided to come "help" us. I'm THRILLED I was able to capture this photo of Fitz as he walked through an area of Bluebonnets.
Even though I'm the photographer, I think I'm still allowed to say that THIS is the CUTEST donkey photo! Fitz is deceivingly adorable here. In reality, he's is a wild animal full of spunk!
Maybe I can find a magazine to take this photo as a cover -- I think it'd be perfect! =)
Texas wildflowers have started to bloom, and I'm going to capture what I can while they're out this year and share photos of them here on my blog. So, Alan and I went out to the pastures today and I took a few shots of the Texas Bluebonnets (the Texas state flower) which have started to fill the fields and ditches along roadways.
In other places in the US, this flower is called Lupin. Lupin grows wild in northeastern Washington too, which is where I was raised, and has always been one of my favorite wildflowers. There are very large domestic varieties of Lupin too, available in all kinds of colors.
Here in Texas, Bluebonnets can be seen as single plants scattered here and there, or grow in huge thickets large enough to cover fields. Regardless of how many you see at once, they really are quite beautiful! They grow in our pastures and oddly enough, the cows and donkeys don't bother to eat them.
Alan and I also found this little yellow daisy plant in the pasture surrounded by Bluebonnets. The blooms on this plant are about the size of a penny.
I like how they grow in a small cluster of blooms, making them seem much larger than they really are. It isn't a very large plant in general. These blooms were only about ten inches from the ground, and sat at the very tip top of the stems.
I'm looking forward to the other wildflowers that will bloom here on the farm as well -- Mexican Hats, Indian Blankets, and Indian Paintbrush are just a few of my favorites that will bloom soon. Can't wait!
I love photographing flowers. When I lived in Oregon one of my favorite things to do was spend early spring afternoons going from field to field taking photos.
I was fortunate as a photographer to have access to some of the large commercial growing greenhouses in the Willamette Valley. It allowed me to get a jump on my floral photography before fields were in bloom. Some of my favorite flower photos were taken in greenhouses, long before flowers could be seen in the fields -- and while the flowers were still protected from insects and weather. Greenhouses provide the ideal lighting for photography as well. Filtered sunlight makes for eye-poppin' colors!
This photograph is only a small portion of a HUGE flat of tulips that was grown in a greenhouse north of Eugene, Oregon. The day I took this photo, workers were harvesting the budding flowers to be sold in local shops. One tulip, the Early Bloomer in this photo, looked so out of place on the flat of buds - but looked so perfectly placed at the same time.
Photographing in greenhouses before flowers were seen in the fields always made me feel like I had a sneak peak on spring. If it doesn't feel quite like spring yet where you live, enjoy this sneak peek of spring from me, to you.
We're having a sunny day here today, which made me wish for flowers. BIG, sunny yellow flowers!
So, I poked around in some of my photo files and found this photo of a sunflower I took on a farm near Hood River, Oregon a couple of summers ago while on a day-trip with my friend Sharon.
Rasmussen Farms raises fresh produce, fruit, flowers, and pumpkins!! Towards the end of the summer every year they have Van Gogh Days, which celebrates the many varieties of sunflowers grown on the farm.
People can walk through the giant sunflower fields and hand-pick flowers, and enjoy the view of Mt Hood and surrounding valleys. They welcome painters, and photo groups too.
Sharon and I had a great time. If you're in the area, I recommend visiting their farm. There are nice vineyards in the area too, if wine is your thing. In fact, I think there's even a dinner/wine train that circles the valley -- worth looking into, I'm sure!
I'm going to have to plant some sunflowers here on the farm this year... seeing lovely flowers every day - what a treat!
I took this photo this morning of one of the roses Alan gave me for Valentine's Day. A little bit of morning light was coming through the kitchen window, and made just the edges of the rose petals glow. I thought it looked very pretty, and worthy of a photo!
For those of you who like knowing the technical info behind photos:
Canon Mark II; Canon 100mm Macro lens; 2.8; ISO1600; handheld at 1/90; Exposure Comp -.5; low natural light.
As I sit here waiting and wishing and w.a.i.t.i.n.g some more for my Stampin' Up! catalogs I thought I would take a peek through some of my photographs that I haven't taken time to publish yet. I also came across some that I've been meaning to have printed as greeting cards. This is one of those images.
Every year an Oregon farm that's located just off the eastern side of Mt Hood holds a Sunflower Festival. Last summer my friend Sharon and I drove the three hours it takes to get to the farm to see the blooms and experience the farm.
While the farm and field display was not exactly what I was expecting, what was there was nothing short of beautiful!
I took this photograph that day on the farm while Sharon helped keep the tall plants from swaying in the wind.
A beautiful day. Now I just need to get busy and publish some cards!
