Location: United States
I am interested in fine art photography, and have been since I was about 13 years old. I am now retired from a career as a pathologist, in which documentary photography was important. This included much macro work, as well as microphotography and even electron microscopic photography. Now in retirement, I enjoy photographing subjects from nature ranging from scenery to macro photography of small flower structures. Now the focus is on pictures that are beautiful, rather than those which demonstrate an important point. Nevertheless, I am still interested in using photography to better understand the natural world around me. I now live in Salt Lake City, Utah, a place brimming over with interesting subjects for photography. From mountains to flowers.
This is a portfolio dealing with flowers seen close up. Many are true macros. Orchids are prominent because they are so beautiful and interesting. Many of the flowers shown here were grown in my own home, but many were seen at flower shows, in nurseries, or in nature.
This is a fine example of a common orchid. There are things about this image, and many orchid images, that suggest something sexual, but this is just a flower, and why it should convey a sense of sex is unclear to me. What we are looking at here are the structures that are involved in inducing an insect to pollenate this plant. This is not a simple process, and the anatomic details are not simple. But they are interesting and attractive.
This was an orchid growing in a greenhouse in the botanic garden of Edinburgh.
This orchid has an interesting anatomy which lends itself to metaphor. That is, it suggests something that it is not. It is for the viewer to think about.
This is an orchid I've had for many years, but whose identity I have forgotten. Various experts have been unable to identify it other than to say it is an orchid. This is a very small flower, and the details seen in this photo were not evident to the naked eye.
This is a rather common orchid that serves as a house plant, even by people with little experience with orchids. I see this flower as a suggesting things that it is not, and as such is very appealing to me.
There are many varieties of Phalaenopsis, and this is one I like very much, perhaps because I see much metaphorical content in its flower.
This is a remarkable flower. One might even ask if it really is a flower. This is another example of an orchid flower that is rich in possible metaphor content.
This is a small detail of a stanhopea flower.
This honeysuckle plant was growing as weed on a fence in my backyard. The positioning of the anthers suggested to me the positions that might be assumed by a ballet dancer.
This monotone image shows the flower bud the day before it began opening.
This plant is native to northern California, where i found it growing in a small garden. I selected a flower that I interpret as showing outreaching arms, and in order to show that feature it had to be photographed at eye level. That is, I had to kneel on the ground and hold the camera at flower level.
This is one of the most photographed flowers, but I have not previously seen this particular approach. This is actually a "pink calla lily," and the pink color is not uniformly distributed. I was able to take advantage of that fact during the conversion to black and white and causing the variation in color to show up in the manner seen here.
“Blackberry Lily Seed Capsules”
The blackberry lily is not common in my experience, but it is a beautiful in flower and in seed. I had to look at a lot of these seed clusters to find the one you see here.
This milkweed plant was growing in my front yard in Jackson, Mississippi (I no longer live there). It produced copious clusters of flowers, each one of which was rather small. Perhaps a quarter to a third of an inch. This posed some problems because small movements of the plant made it difficult to photograph something so small, but after many tries I got this image.
This is a common plant, often seen in supermarkets and nurseries. This one was in a greenhouse in the Edinburgh botanic garden.
This fern plant was in greenhouse among a number of luxuriously growing ferns. The particular leaf featured here was just the right length and curvature for the composition I was looking for.
Places of transition. Primarily entrances and walkways.
This shows a carefully planned entrance to a home in the prosperous north California town of Burlingame.
“Passage in La Ghriba Pilgrim Quarters”
On the island of Jerba, in Tunisia, is the ancient synagogue of La Ghriba, which hosts many pilgrims for a religious event.
A single woman leaving the well known cave known as "The Ear of Dionysius", with a rich history, in the Archeological Park of Syracuse, Sicily.
“Entrance to an Old Office Building, Columbus, Ohio”
An old, but beautiful building in Columbus, Ohio, with ann imposing entrance.
Little girl, waiting at entrance to her home, for mother to arrive.
A street passes through an archway, intersecting with another street and a stairway to yet another one.
“Cattleya”
“Lady Slipper”
“Disa diores”
“Epidendrum Orchid”
“House Orchid”
“Phalaenopsis Big Eyes”
“Phalaenopsis Interior”
“Stanhopea graveolens”
“Stanhopea graveolens Detail”
“Honeysuckle Dancing”
“Flower Bud of Asian Lily”
“Mariposa Lily at Eyelevel”
“Calla Lily”
“Single Milkweed Flower”
“Spathyphyllum”
“Fern Leaves”
“Bologna Entrance Sweeper”
“Burlingame Entrance”
“Leaving the Cave”
“Verona Courtyard”
“Waiting in Tozeur Doorway”
“Acre Street Intersection”
