Tag: macro photography

From The Book of the Lily by William Goldring:

“The history of lilies in English gardens is interesting, as it runs parallel with the history of geographical knowledge. Before far-off countries were known and explored, Lily culture in England was naturally restricted to the species native of Europe…. It was no doubt first cultivated in gardens of the royal and the rich, and it is quite possible that Elizabeth and her courtiers may have plucked flowers from the same stock from which has descended the common White Lily of today still… cherished by rich and poor alike.”

From The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture (Vol. 4) by Liberty Hyde Bailey:

“The various lilies are unequaled by any other plant in their unique combinations of beauty, gracefulness, and stately magnificence….”

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Hello!

Here are some variations on the lily photos in my previous two posts (see Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (1 of 4) and Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (2 of 4)), where I have removed the backgrounds (by “painting” them black).

Thanks for taking a look!

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From “Lilies” in Blue Iris: Poems and Essays by Mary Oliver:

… If I were a lily
I think I would wait all day
for the green face
of the hummingbird
to touch me.…

From “To Poetry” by Nazik al-Malaika in Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, edited by Reza Aslan:

I will roam Existence
I will gather the particles of your voice
   from cool springs
From the mountains of the north
Where even lilies whisper songs…

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Hello!

This is the second of four posts featuring Summer Sky Pink asiatic lilies from my garden. The first post is Summer Sky Pink (Very-Very Pink!) Asiatic Lilies (1 of 4).

For this post, I tried something completely new, different, and FANTASTIC! I rented a portable miniaturizer from a nearby hardware store, shrunk myself (and my camera) to the size of a honeybee, then gently flitted (yes, FLITTED!) from flower petal to flower petal to get some closeup shots of each blossom’s interior.

Ain’t technology GRAND!

Thanks for taking a look!

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From “Pink” by George Crabbe in The RHS Book of Flower Poetry and Prose by the Royal Horticultural Society:

This, this! Is Beauty; cast, I pray, your eyes
On this my Glory! See the Grace, the Size!
Was ever Stem so tall, so stout, so strong,
Exact in breadth, in just proportion, long;
These brilliant Hues are all distinct and clean,
No kindred Tint, no blending Streaks between….

From Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding by Noel Kingsbury:

“[If] a pink flower crosses with a white one, the progeny may show a variety of shades of pink.”

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Hello!

This supercalifragilisticexpialidocious lily is a newcomer to my garden this year, it having been adopted by The Gardener to replace one of last year’s Tiny Epic Asiatic Lilies that fell asleep during the winter and never woke up. “Summer Sky Pink” is a really good name for this variety: its pinkness is certainly reminiscent of that kind of pink-purple-magenta color that surrounds clouds at the horizon this time of year, especially before or after summertime thunderstorms.

Fresh from the garden center, it produced quite a few big blooms for about two weeks in early June. I learned it’s a cross between white Longliflorum (or Easter Lily) and pink or red asiatic lilies. It clearly retains the large, thick-to-the-touch blossom petals of the Easter Lily and, toward the center, yellow and orange highlights. You can see some Longliflorum in one of my earlier posts, Easter Sunday 2021: Yellow Daffodils and White Lilies.

Thanks for taking a look!

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From The Lilies by Henry Percival Spencer:

‘Tis passing strange this life of ours,
Nought in this world can we explain;
We are helpless as the flowers
Forced into life by April rain.

What reap we for our joy and pain
Except the hour in which it lives?
He who can fathom Loss and Gain
Can tell us what the Future gives.

The Lily comes, the Lily goes….

From Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perenyi:

“Sooner or later every gardener must face the fact that certain things are going to die on him. It is a temptation to be anthropomorphic about plants, to suspect that they do it to annoy. One knows, after all, that they lead lives of their own: plant the lily bulb in the center of the bed and watch it come up under a brick near the edge; pull up a sick little bush and throw it on the compost heap, and ten to one, it will obstinately revive.”

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Hello!

Here are a few more photos of my Tiny Epic Asiatic Lilies — some from the previous post along with a small handful of new ones (those whose backgrounds were very cluttered in the originals), all reprocessed on black.

Thanks for taking a look!

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From Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perenyi:

“Some lilies are more vigorous than others. The June-flowering Asiatics don’t care what you do to them. They can be cut quite close to the ground and still return in full force the following year. The others seem to know they are more beautiful and expensive… and to cut them severely is to court their oblivion.”

From The Garden Triumphant: Victorian Garden Taste by David Stuart:

“You would know by the scent of the lilies that summer was here.”

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The lilies in the galleries below — a variation of Tiny Epic Asiatic Lilies — are not actually tiny but they’re definitely epic. The flower petals unfold to the size of the open hand of a small person (me!), and with their striking colors and textures, they make great subjects for close-up photography. The petals are quite thick and silky to the touch, and you can almost feel tiny bumps where it looks like they’ve been sprinkled with cinnamon radiating from the center.

Unlike some lilies, these blooms lasted nearly a week — which gave me plenty of time to aim a macro lens at them and try different combinations of light and different camera settings before I settled on these photos. I’ve featured them here before (see, from last year, Epic Lilies (1 of 3), Epic Lilies (2 of 3), Epic Lilies (3 of 3)), so this time I concentrated on photographing just one or two isolated blooms and getting the focus, color, and textures as accurate as they appeared to me in the garden.

Thanks for taking a look!

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