Butterfly Flowers – Schizanthus wisetonensis

I recently photographed some Butterfly Flowers – Schizanthus wisetonensis – at the Garden Elements display at Brookside Gardens. On my first visit to the display, there were Butterfly flowers throughout the conservatory. By my next visit, they were being replaced with other flowers.

Schizanthus are annuals known for their fringed flowers. They are also know as Poor Man’s Orchids and Fringe flowers. I just loved the shape of the flowers and all the wonderful colors they were showing at Brookside.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Viola

One of the sure signs that spring is almost here is when all the varieties of pansies and violas start appearing in local gardens. When I visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden a couple of weeks ago, there were violas all over the place. Here are a few of the varieties I photographed that afternoon.

Some purple violas – not sure which variety these are.

Purple Viola (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Some Sorbet Yesterday Today Tomorrow Babyface Viola (OK who comes up with some of these names???)

Sorbet Yesterday Today Tomorrow Babyface Viola (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Sorbet Yesterday Today Tomorrow Babyface Viola (c) 2009 Patty Hankis

And finally a very dramatic set of viola – the Angel Tiger Eye Viola.

Angel Tiger Eye Viola (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Angel Tiger Eye Viola (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

New Photos on Our Website – March 24

I’ve just added four new photos to our Hankins-Lawrence Images website. The new photos include

Night Fire Hibiscus

Night Fire Hibiscus (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

and Blue Poppies

Blue Poppies (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

All the new photographs will be available printed on canvas at our shows this spring.

Hope you enjoy taking a look at the new photos.

Craftsmen’s Classic Art and Craft Show, Chantilly, VA – March 27-29, 2009

Come Celebrate Spring at the at the Craftsmen’s Classic Arts and Crafts Festival at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly Virginia weekend.

I’ll have several new flower photographs available this weekend.

We’re offering a special offer this weekend – available only at the Craftsmen’s Classic. For each $50 of photography you purchase from Hankins-Lawrence Images, take $10 off your total purchase. So you can take $ 10 off a purchase of $ 50 or more, $20 off a purchase of $ 100 or more, etc. This offer cannot be combined with any other special offers from Hankins-Lawrence Images.

Show hours are Friday March 27 10 AM – 6 PM,  Saturday March 28 10 AM – 6 PM,  and Sunday March 29 10 AM – 5 PM.

We’ll be in booth 2309

Directions to the Dulles Expo Center, discount admission tickets and additional information are available on the show website.

I hope to see you in Chantilly this weekend.

Blue Poppies

Not long ago, I received an email from Longwood Gardens letting me know that their Blue Poppies would be on display in the Conservatory starting on March 13. Last week, I drove up to see and photograph them. They were spectacular.

The blue poppies at Longwood are Meconopsis Lingholm. What distinguishes the Lingholm Poppies from other blue poppies is that they are fertile.

Here are a few of my photos of the Blue Poppies.

Blue Poppies (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Blue Poppies II (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I’m not sure how long the Blue Poppies will be on display at Longwood Gardens. The Orchid show runs through the end of this month, so they may be there for the rest of the orchid show. If you’ve got time to head up to Longwood Gardens in the next week or so, it’s worth going just to see the blue poppies!

Clivia Miniata – Flame Lily

On a recent visit to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond, I photographed two varieties of Clivia Miniata. The signs at Lewis Ginter referred to the flowers as Flame Lily – online sites refer to them as Bush Lilies.

The first set of blossoms I photographed were a bright orange cluster of flowers atop one of the plants.

Clivia Miniata (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Then I spotted this cascade of orange blossoms on another plant.

Orange Flame Lilies  (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Across the walkway, there was another Clivia Miniata plant – the citrina variety with lovely yellow blossoms.

Clivia Miniata Citrina (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Clivia Miniata Citrina (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Photography Links – March 20, 2009

Lots of links this week – hope you find some of the interesting or useful.

Paul Burwell has Top Ten Annoying Things to Say to a Wildlife Photographer.

The Photog Formula has 13 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Taking the Picture

Art Wolfe has Seeing Like a Painter at the Luminous-Landscape.

Bob Krist has Think Globally Shoot Locally at Photoshop Insider.

A Photo Editor has a warning about A Gallery Will Exhibit Your Work if You Pay Them

TWIPPhoto has 10 Quick Tips to Negotiating Fair Prices for your Photographs

National Parks Traveller has info about Spring Blooms in the Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah NP and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Digital Photography School has How Flickr Can Make You a Better Photographer.

EpicEdits has Concert Photography Tips from a Newbie

Yanik’s Photo School has 8 Steps to Choosing Lenses for your DSLR

Shades of Purple

One of the great features of the current Garden Elements display at Brookside Gardens is all the wonderful flowers in varying shades of purple. Throughout the conservatories, everywhere you look, is another wonderful shape and color of purple.

Here are a few of the ones I photographed on my recent visit.

Poetry Blue Nemesia (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Marine Bells – Browallia Speciosa (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Perfume Deep Purple Flowering Tobacco (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Blue Bells – Browallia Speciosa (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Blue Bells – Browallia Speciosa (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Dreams Midnight Petunia (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Freesia

On my recent trip to Brookside Gardens, I photographed a couple of gorgeous varieties of Freesia. Freesia are a member of the Iridaceae family and are native to Africa

The first variety I photographed was Blue Bayou – with wonderful purple flowers.

Blue Bayou Freesia (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Blue Bayou Freesia (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The second type of Freesia I photographed was Yvonne – with flowers in lovely shades of yellow.

Yvonne Freesia (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The freesia were part of the Garden Elements display currently on exhibit in the Conservatory at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland.

Nighttime DC Photowalk II

On last Saturday night’s DC Photowalk, Bill brought two cameras with him. Since it was going dark for the entire photowalk, he didn’t bring his usual photowalk camera – the Graflex SLR with Fuji Instant Film. Instead, he brought a digital SLR and a Zeiss Ikon Twin Lens Reflex Camera. These are his photos from the digital camera -  we’re planning on posting the film photos once we get it developed and see what turns out.

For Bill’s first two photos, he experimented with hand-holding and moving his camera to get different effects with the light. The first photo is of a bicyclist riding across the mall – a long exposure combined with hand holding the camera conveys the motion of the bicyle wheels.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

The second photograph is of the Rosslyn skyline taken from the Memorial Bridge. By hand-holding the camera and deliberately moving it diagonally, the static skyline became streaks of light.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

Once we reached the Virginia side of the Memorial Bridge, Bill took some photos that are related to the ones I posted on Sunday. While I tried to capture static silhouttes of the photographers along the shore, Bill’s photo captures the motions people moved around to take their photos.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

Like most of the rest of us on the photowalk, Bill did take a photograph of the Memorial Bridge leading across the river to the Lincoln Memorial. Most of us (including me) photographed the scene from the right-hand side of the Bridge. Bill waiting to take his photograph until we had passed under the bridge and took his from the left-hand side of the Memorial Bridge.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

Once we crossed back to DC, Bill spotted some people standing along the side of the Lincoln Memorial. The lights on the Memorial caused them to cast some interesting shadows.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

Bill’s final photo from the photowalk was taken at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. His photo captures a vistor to the Wall searching for a name.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

Several photographers on the photowalk including Shawn Duffy, Mark Anderson, Marc Benton, Sherri Benton, Mike Palmer, and Dan Glass have started posting their photos on their blogs.  There are also lots more photos in the DC Nighttime Photowalk Flickr group. I love seeing how the other photographers on the photowalk captured the same sights Bill and I were photographing.