Painted Tongue – Salpiglossis

On a recent trip to Longwood Gardens, I spotted some very unusual plants called Painted Tongue (Salpiglossis Grandiflora). The plants were at least 3 feet tall, with lots of flowers. The flowers came in many colors, most with veins in a contrasting color.

Painted Tongues are an annual plant that originated in Chile. It was very popular in the late 19th century with Victorian-era gardeners.

Here are some of the Painted Tongue flowers I photographed at Longwood Gardens.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Photography Links – May 29, 2009

A few interesting links we found this week

Copyright Law and Copyright Information has a post on Copyright for Artists.

Photo Business News & Forum has a posts on PicScout Delusions of Grandeur and  Marketing with Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and MySpace

Black Star Rising has a post on When Covering Protests It Pays to Do Your Research

Art Wolfe has a post at Luminous Landscape on how he photographed some Night Fishermen

Jim Goldstein has posts on Why Social Media Matters to Photographers and a follow up post The Birds and the Bees of Social Media Connectivity

Gary Crabbe has a post on Should I Work for Free

Sean Locke has post in response to an article on GMA about stock photography

Digitial Photography School has tips on How to Photograph Baseball

Crested Dwarf Irises – Iris Cristata

Crested Dwarf Iris (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

One of my favorite spring wildflowers is the Crested Dwarf Iris (iris cristata). I first photographed some crested dwarf irises a couple of years ago along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Since then, I’ve been trying to get some better photos of them. This year, I finally managed to get some photos of Crested Dwarf Irises that I’m really happy with. All the photos are from my trip to Tennessee earlier this spring.

The first two photos are from the Laurel-Snow Pocket Wilderness area outside of Dayton, TN. This was the first morning of my trip and it was so nice to see them little irises blooming.

These three were growing on a ledge on a rock face.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

A couple of days later, I found a large patch of crested dwarf irises along the side of the Porter’s Creek Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My guess is there were at least 200 dwarf irises in this particular patch.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The irises were in fantastic shape so I was able to photograph the fine details of the flower.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

My final photo was taken near the trailhead for the Old Settlers Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I loved the way the few Star Chickweed (stellaria pubera) flowers were grouped among the crested dwarf irises at the base of the tree.

Crested Dwarf Iris and Star Chickweed (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I’m already looking foward to next spring so that I can see and photograph more crested dwarf irises.

Pink Peonies

A couple of weeks ago I spent a wonderful day photographing at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond. I’d been to Lewis Ginter a few times before, but only when there wasn’t much blooming outdoors. On this trip – the gardens were in full bloom – and it was spectacular.

The first set of flowers I photographed were three varieties of peonies. The soft pink petals had wonderfully intricate curves to them.

Pink Peony (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Bev Peony (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Archangel Peony (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The peonies were just one of the types of flowers I photographed on the day I visited Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. The trip would have been amazing if they had been the only flowers I photographed.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is located at 1800 Lakeside Avenue in Richmond, VA. The garden is open from 9 AM to 5 PM daily. Their conservatory is absolutely wonderful and they have a new butterfly exhibit that just opened for the summer.

BeautifulFlowerPictures.com

I’ve just launched my new website – BeautifulFlowerPictures.com – featuring my flower photographs.

Crested Dwarf Iris and Star Chickweed (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The site is set up with a Paypal shopping cart to make it easier to purchase my photos. It has also information about upcoming art and craft shows where I”ll be selling my photos.

Please stop by and take a look at my site.

Some Osteospermums

On recent trips to Longwood Gardens, I’ve photographed several types of osteospermums or African Daisies. Osteospermums are members of the Aster family – and look like other members of that family. They have daisy-like petals.

What is wonderful about the osteospermums I’ve seen at Longwood Gardens and at local nursuries is all the wonderful color variations that are available.

Here are a few of the one’s I’ve photographed recently.

I love the shape of the petals on the Sunscape Osteopermum (namugua cultivator).

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The petals of the  Orange Symphony Osteospermum remind me of the color of orange sherbet.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The underside of the petals of the Sparkler Osteospermum are silver!

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

These Lemon Symphony Osteopermums were planted next to a plant with purple leaves  which provide a wonderful contrasting backdrop for the yellow flowers.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

And finally the Oste Whiteytwo Osteopermums (ecklonis cultivator) which are just a simply beautiful white flower.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Photography Links – May 22, 2009

Lots of links this week – hope you find them interesting . . .

Photocritic has a post on Abolish Automatic Settings

Copyright Law and Copyright Information has a post on Copyright Infringement and Critical Time Frames Related to Registration

Marc Silber has a post with a video about Ansel Adams’ famous Moon and Half Dome Photo

Photo Business News & Forum has a post on Smithsonian Folklife Festival Mis-Steps

Yanik’s Photo School has a post on the Top 12 Firefox Add-ons for Photographers

Photofocus has Tips for Today’s Travel Photographers

Virtual Photography Studio has 10 Ways to Help Break Photographer’s Block

PhotoAttorney has When You Definitely Need a Model Release

Scott Kelby is organizing a 2nd Worldwide Photowalk on July 18th.

DC Shutterbugs has info about the various July 18th Photowalks in our area.

Shawn Duffy is hosting another Night Photowalk in DC on June 13. He also posted a copy of his talk on Night Photography to his blog.

Plagiarism Today has A Warning for DMCA Filers

New Media Photographer has 31 things You are not doing (for your photo business)

A Few More Hibiscuses – Hibiscus rosa sinensis

A few months ago, I posted some photos of several hibiscus flowers I photographed over the winter. Recently, I’ve edited a few more photos of some spectacular hibicus flowers.

All of these photos were taken at Longwood Gardens.

First is the Fifth Dimension Hibiscus. The first time I photographed this flower, the petals were a striking silver and yellow.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

On a more recent visit, the flowers on the Fifth Dimension Hibiscus plant were orange, pink and silver. Both versions of the Fifth Dimension Hibiscus are spectacular.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Another very striking hibiscus blossom was the Kiss and Tell Hibiscus. The deep red color of the petals on this flower is amazing.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

And finally, the Erin Rachel Hibiscus, with petals of a slightly softer shade of pink and peach.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The hibiscus blossoms at Longwood Gardens are always spectacular. It seems that every time I visit, I discover another new gorgeous variety of this wonderful flower.

Bearded Irises at Brookside Gardens

Last week, I spent about an hour photographing Bearded Irises at Brookside Gardens – between the raindrops. The flowers were gorgeous, with great diffuse light provided by the cloudy sky. The only problem was – the occasional sprinkles that turned to a downpour.

Even with the weather – I came back with some wonderful photos of bearded irises.

The first cultivator I photographed was Monet’s Blue – the flowers are a lovely shade of light blue.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Then I found a wonderful deep purple iris to photograph – Grape Adventure.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Finally – Immortality – a white bearded Iris. I spent a fair amount of time with the Immortality Iris – I loved the play of shadows and light in the petals of the white flower.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I’m hoping to photograph more bearded irises in the next couple of weeks. They are one of my favorite late spring flowers.

Tower of Jewels and Pride of Madeira – a Pair of Echiums

On a recent visit to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, I spotted some very unusally shaped plants – they looked like towers with all sorts of curved spokes or branches coming out at the bottom. Needless to say, I had to head over and photograph them!

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

It turns out that these fascinating plants are called Tower of Jewels (echium wildpretii). They are a member of the borage family, and grow in the Canary islands.

As I looked at the Towers of Jewels, I was amazed at the way the flowers and leaves curved around the plants.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The details of the Tower of Jewels were amazing – little red and pink flowers with white tips, small green leaves and longer light green curved leaves.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

That same morning, I photographed another member of the Echium genus. The Pride of Madeira (echium candicans) had clusters of little blue flowers seemingly moving upward in a never ending spiral.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The Tower of Jewels and Pride of Madeira are among the most incredible flowers I’ve photographed so far at Longwood Gardens. I never know quite what to expect or what I’ll find to photograph at Longwood – I just know there will be something spectacular.