Tulip

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iPhone 12 Pro Max with Camera+ 2 app in macro mode

Tulip blooming in my garden

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. (iPhone 12 Pro Max, Camera+ 2 app in macro mode)

Double Late Tulip ‘Orange Princess’

Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens

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iPhoneography: Genie in a bottle

Some of the tulips yesterday had missing petals, so I was able to photograph an angle that I wouldn’t normally see with a flower. This tulip had one petal missing and the wind blew the other petals together, forming this “genie in a bottle” effect.

This image was shot with my iPhone 7 Plus, and I used the Camera+ app in macro mode. The wind made captures hit or miss at the beginning of the session, so I’m happy I was able to get some shots like this one. I also got some shots with my new D850 and Nikkor 105mm micro lens.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Curl

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Tulip ‘Best White’

Tulip ‘Best White’, photographed at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA

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iPhoneography: Tulip

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. iPhone 6s / Snapseed

 

 

 

Tulip mania at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Same time, last year: Tulip trio

Originally posted 3.22.2011

Visit my updated botanical portfolio: http://www.cindydyer.zenfolio.com

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

White Tulip

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Rhymes with orange

Originally posted January 30, 2009

For several months now I’ve been trying to catalog my images better, bit by bit (there are thousands and thousands of photos). While organizing my garden photos folder I noticed that I have a plethora of orange-hued flowers so I put together this collage of all things orange-ish to brighten your winter day.

Tangerine. Coral. Day-glow orange. Push-up popsicle orange. Sunset. Pumpkin. 70s shag carpet orange (I did window display at a department store while in college and there was multi-shaded orange shag carpet in each window. Do you know how hard it is to design around that color scheme? I covered it up every chance I got—with a decorating budget of zilch, unfortunately. I asked for $5 once for a huge set of markers and my boss freaked out).

Orange peel. Safety orange. Salmon (did you know that the “l” in salmon is silent? The correct pronunciation is “sam-uhn.” Don’t believe me? Click here).

Frou-frou-big-bowed-bridesmaid-dress-apricot (yes, I had to wear one once upon a time).

Carrot. Persimmon. Vermilion. Orange-red. Rusty can orange. Burnt orange. Tomato. Panama Brown orange (the color Dad insists his old diesel VW Rabbit was—sorry, Dad, it was orange).

After a week of designing at the computer in a cold basement, pausing only to look out at winter gray skies (save for that remarkable sunset on Wednesday), I needed a jolt of color to inspire me. What better color than orange?

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Eye candy, batch #4

Sigh…culling through my archives, in preparation for my March/April 2012 exhibit, is making me want to photograph blooms and bugs right now.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

From the archives—missed this one!

Just found this composition in my March 2011 Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden archive—this shoot was particularly successful in the number of solid images I produced, so I see why I overlooked this one. This was a tulip growing in the conservatory; variety unknown. Enjoy!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Eye candy, batch #2

Pulled from the archives of my personal refrigerator magnet poetry, I give to you my handcrafted attempt #1:

January snow blanket melts
cold February moon gone
March winds a memory
a luscious light envelopes
tiny crocus petals whisper spring
most delicate green grass emerges
rain sweetens the earth
bird song filters down
from the impossibly blue blue sky
warm breezes weave through
a gorgeous tapestry of color

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Petals

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Light and curves

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Orange tulip

Photographed at Green Spring Gardens

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Kaleidoscope!

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Tulip trio

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Blushing

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Check out my newly-updated Zenfolio botanical gallery here.

Pink Tulip

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Pink sheep

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My favorite Polaroid transfer image..

I launched a “win free notecards” contest (but you had to submit a story as the entrance fee) in May of last year. I got a few interested folks who said they had a story to submit, but I didn’t get any bites. Nary a one.

Do you have an idea how many of these notecards I still have in my storeroom? (I used them as a promo years ago and still use them for that purpose, as well as for gift-giving—-even used them as favors for our guests at our wedding in October!) Take pity and submit a story so I could send you some. Have a heart!

If you’re interested, click here to read the contest rules & regulations. Shucks, I’ll take a page out of the Payless Shoes book (BOGO—Buy one, get one)) and make this a WOGTWO (Write one, get two) deal and throw in an extra dozen cards for the winner. I may get loopy and choose two or three winners. You just never know. Remember, if you don’t enter, you can’t win!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Tulip

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Rhymes with Orange

Why I feel the need to revisit orange: I’m working on final changes to a conference program for a client. The conference is next month in San Francisco. The client is working on conference signage and just asked if I knew what PMS (Pantone Matching System) ink color would be closest to the color of the Golden Gate Bridge. I googled “what PMS color is the Golden Gate Bridge?” Apparently the Golden Gate Bridge people have answered that question many times before. It’s PMS 173! See the background info in the two links below. Hmmm…Now I’m thinking I might change that red-colored bar at the bottom to something closer to PMS 173! I need a color pick-me-up—who doesn’t? So here you go!

http://goldengatebridge.org/research/factsGGBIntOrngPaint.php

http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/2903029/

________________________________________________

Original posting, January 30, 2009:

For several months now I’ve been trying to catalog my images better, bit by bit (there are thousands and thousands of photos). While organizing my garden photos folder I noticed that I have a plethora of orange-hued flowers so I put together this collage of all things orange-ish to brighten your winter day.

Tangerine. Coral. Day-glow orange. Push-up popsicle orange. Sunset. Pumpkin. 70s shag carpet orange (I did window display at a department store while in college and there was multi-shaded orange shag carpet in each window. Do you know how hard it is to design around that color scheme? I covered it up every chance I got—with a decorating budget of zilch, unfortunately. I asked for $5 once for a huge set of markers and my boss freaked out).

Orange peel. Safety orange. Salmon (did you know that the “l” in salmon is silent? The correct pronunciation is “sam-uhn.” Don’t believe me? Click here).

Frou-frou-big-bowed-bridesmaid-dress-apricot (yes, I had to wear one once upon a time). Carrot. Persimmon. Vermilion. Orange-red. Rusty can orange. Burnt orange. Tomato. Panama Brown orange (the color Dad insists his old diesel VW Rabbit was—sorry, Dad, it was ORANGE).

After a week of designing at the computer in a cold basement, pausing only to look out at winter gray skies (save for that remarkable sunset on Wednesday), I needed a jolt of color to inspire me. What better color than orange?

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bling bling

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Spot the bugs and win a prize!

I photographed this past-its-prime-time tulip bloom at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens on April 19. It had rained off and on all morning long so everything I photographed was cover in raindrops (a bonus!). Thank you to Sue, who held an umbrella over me and my beloved camera while I captured many of these images. Gardeners and photographers—neither will let rain deter them from their passions!

I was concentrating so hard on getting the raindrops in focus that I didn’t even notice any of the tiny green bugs seeking refuge from the rain on this tulip until I opened and enlarged it in Photoshop! I counted eight total. Do you see them? Some are more visible than others—in some cases you’ll see just a few legs poking out or just a dark green or brown speck.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden today…

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Pink overlooked

I found five pink stragglers in my archives. No more pinks for awhile. I’ll move on to another color, another subject. Promise.

I’m now taking requests for a color for the next collage. Anyone? 

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

This post is brought to you by the color pink.

I apologize in advance if this ginormous collage crashes your system. I realize I got a little carried away with my collection. Pink just plum took over. 

(Oh, and do be patient while the collage loads. It might take a little longer than usual, but I promise it is worth the wait.)

If your system does lock up, you could also blame my blogger friends (and my Dad):

Jan at www.ThanksFor2Day.blogspot.com
Heather at http://mommymirandamusings.blogspot.com/
GG at http://fishandfrog-turtleandblog.blogspot.com/ 
Dad at his eBay store here (which was apparently ransacked because there is nothing posted) 

Their recent comments gave me the impetus to post the colossal collage below.

“oooooooooohhh What a show, Cindy! I literally said that all the way through. Ooooh. Gorgeous. We’ve had some sunshine on and off the past few days. I think you need to get out of your basement more. Only 49 days until spring!!” — Jan

“Oh, man! You’re always taking my breath away like that, jeez!”   —Heather 

“Absolutely GORGEOUS! Your photo of the back of the day lily is particularly interesting. Have a wonderful weekend.”  — G G

“The begonia shot is: Beautiful! Astonishing! Unbelievable! Gorgeous! Breathtaking! Damn, that’s a purdy pitcher! Please put me on your e-mail announcement list for every workshop. I won’t be able to attend, but I’ll be there in spirit if I know when and where (I’ll need the schedules so I’ll know when and where to send my spirit).”  — Dad

I replied to Heather that I would soon be posting a rather long “pink collage” that could potentially crash her system. She replied, “bring it on!” So that’s the skinny and here we are.

Okay, the color pink wins by a long shot (so far) in the number of times it shows up in my garden photo archives. I thought orange was prevalent, but I was so, so wrong. I can only imagine how many times purple will show up—I tend to gravitate toward that color in my garden, even though I wouldn’t dare actually wear that color. Actually wearing that color or any shade of burgundy makes my skin itch. But that’s a whole ‘nuther topic. We artists are very sensitive to color, you know. 

Well…now that I have revealed this little-known (and useless) fact about me, I should also tell you that I will not drive a burgundy car—and my anxiety doubles if the interior is burgundy, too. I discovered this about myself about 20+ years ago. So just guess what color car I am inevitably assigned when I rent a car. Yep. Burgundy. Or red (which I don’t have as much an aversion to after driving a sporty little Jeep in California two years ago…red = acceptable…burgundy = don’t go there). It doesn’t matter if every car left on the lot is white. The rental agent will start walking, keys in hand, directly to the only burgundy car in the place. I kid you not. Ask my cousin Bill. (He recently confessed that he now asks for “anything but burgundy” and “no rental plates, please”—the second request came about after I read something about never-do-wells stealing from rental cars because they know they’re driven by tourists with some good loot in tow.) And if someone traveling with me is renting the car, they usually don’t care what color it is, but I always comment, ” betcha it’s going to be burgundy, mark my words.” Then the rental agent will lead us to only burgundy car in a sea of other colors. I kid you not. I’m jinxed. So now when I rent a car, I request “anything but burgundy, please.” This request is met with raised eyebrows more often than not. And I feel compelled to explain, “I’m an artist. I’m sensitive. No burgundy, please.” On one trip to San Diego, Michael went to rent the car while my friend Norma and I waited in the parking lot. It was late in the day and we said if burgundy is the only one available, then we’ll take it (but we won’t be happy about it). I said, “I just know it’s going to be burgundy.” Michael got the keys and met us across the parking lot and was laughing uncontrollably. But wait! Under the vapor lights…it could be…it just might be brown…yeah, it’s brown. We got out of the parking lot and saw the real color…yep, you guessed it. It was burgundy. Once again.

Now I must admit I don’t mind using it in my graphic design pieces. Burgundy has always been a nice corporate-y business color. And I don’t mind if other people wish to wear burgundy or drive a burgundy car. Just don’t ask me to ride with you. Especially if you’re wearing burgundy in your burgundy car with your burgundy seats. I will then offer to pick you up in my passive silver car with its quiet, unassaultive gray interior. I will not apologize for this particular peeve of mine. It is what it is.

Now back to pink. There is an off chance that I actually have something pink in my closet to wear. If not, I should. I do believe all women look good in pink (in particular shades depending on their skin tone and hair color), even if they don’t think so. I speak from experience as a portrait photographer. It’s a very flattering shade on women. And sometimes on men, too. There’s something youthful and joyful about the color pink, especially in the garden. And I love all the pinks in my garden—from pastel pink to just-look-at-me! magenta. 

Ever wonder where the preference of “pink for girls” and “blue for boys” came from? I found this on www.wikipedia.org:

“In Western culture, the practice of assigning pink to an individual gender began in the 1920s. From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because being related to red it was the more masculine and decided color, while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color, or related to the Virgin Mary. Since the 1940s, the societal norm apparently inverted so that pink became appropriate for girls and blue appropriate for boys, a practice that has continued in the 21st century.”

The use of the word for the color pink was first recorded in the late 17th century, describing the flowers of pinks—flowering plants in the genus Dianthus. 

Just 49 more days until spring, huh? Can it be? Oooh…now it’s just 48!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Like a kid in a candy store…

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Brookside Gardens

Jeff and I had a field trip to Brookside Gardens today. We joined Pat and Delores (coordinators) and other members from the Mount Vernon Garden Club. It was a beautiful spring day with ample photo opportunities. Thanks, Pat and Delores, for making us feel right at home with your group! Brookside Gardens is an award-winning 50-acre public display garden situated within Wheaton Regional Park in Wheaton, Maryland. Visit Brookside at http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/brookside/

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Swaths of color

My friend Tom and I went to Green Spring Gardens Friday morning to see what was in bloom. (http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/gsgp/) . He’s working on a proposal to landscape a neighbor’s front yard and wanted to get some inspiration. These are a few of the quick shots I got during the brief time we were there. Description: The star shaped flowers in the top photo are Spring Starflowers (Ipheion uniflorum) and are a very pale blue color. This perennial is grown from bulbs and blooms in mid-spring for 3-5 weeks. This plant naturalizes very swiftly, spreading by self-seeding and from bulb offsets. The second photo is a small cross-section of the beautiful rock garden in front of the visitor’s center at Green Springs. It’s one of my favorite parts of the park. This is a deep pink creeping phlox, surrounded by various sedums and other rock-loving plants. The third photo is obviously beautiful red tulips, and the fourth photo is of a large cluster of lovely lime-greenish Euphorbias, waving in the spring breeze.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Afternoon light

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Ah, spring!

Look what’s blooming in my garden now. I just love, love, love days (and photographic opportunities) like these! Sue calls the unusual pale blue grape hyacinth (center) “Lladro blue.” I thought that was a great description.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. www.cindydyer.com/GardenPhotos

Blooming in my garden…

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.