untitled flowers 1 (Indian Hawthorne)

Posted by danthro (Suburbia, United States) on 11 March 2008 in Plants & Nature and Portfolio.

EARLY SPRING FLOWERS SERIES 1 of ? (probably about 16 or so, but will likely be interrupted several times beginning next week)
(these are all from 2008)

WINNER OF THE DAY: Harold Greer from Greer Gardens and the Azalea Society of America. I contacted them to see if Kevin's guess was right, but it's not an azalea, it appears to be a Rhaphiolepis indica (found a photo here). Thanks also to David from the Azalea Society for suggesting flowering quince! (If you disagree, please let me know.) I'm already learning so much about flowers!

first person who can correctly tell me what kind of flower this is wins (a thank you and a link to your blog is the best i can do for a prize). i don't know the answer (horrible with flower names) which is why i would like to find out.

from looking at some of your blogs i can tell that not everyone is so fortunate to have flowers blooming in their parts of the world now and many are itching for spring time, so i decided to walk around and photograph different flowers. i haven't had a chance to do much of any processing on these aside from a few minutes in picasa but i figured this would also be good to leave you with while i'm away thursday to sunday on a trip. hope you enjoy them!

any tips on photographing flowers? composition is especially much harder than it looks in nature and i already noticed some of the bright reds seem to get a sort of glare on them and some of the lighter ones got washed out. apologies in advance if some of them didn't come out very sharp, etc. there are some i might normally have thrown out but i also wanted to find out what these different flowers are called.

Comments, feedback, criticism, suggestions, etc. are always appreciated. Thanks!
Image too large? Click the 'small' link in the bottom right corner for a smaller view.

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Comments (17)

Oeilonirique from France

Love these shiny colors anouncing the spring

11 Mar 2008 1:22am

Sujit Sudhi from Hyderabad, India

Beautiful flowers. Great color.

11 Mar 2008 1:35am

Saeed from Tehran, Iran

Nioce shot. vivid colors.

11 Mar 2008 1:44am

Scarabaeus from Manchester, United Kingdom

Nice macro, the strong lighting really makes the colour stand out.

11 Mar 2008 3:15am

@Scarabaeus: thanks, Scarabaeus!

mckun from China

Thank you very much for your detailed describing of the photo processing.
I used think picasa was a toy to make picture,but now i have to face it serious.
Thanks again!

11 Mar 2008 6:23am

@mckun: thank you, mckun! you might have been right about picasa. i sort of started out using picasa before i started using photoshop because photoshop seemed so overwhelming. then, when i got to the point that there would be something i really wanted to be able to do to the photo that picasa couldn't do, i became motivated to learn how to do it in photoshop. i'm pretty sure there's nothing picasa does that photoshop can't do, but if you want something done to the photo that picasa can do, picasa does it a lot faster and more automated.

vera from Philippines

already the spring??? fantastic shot of hopeless

11 Mar 2008 9:03am

Kevin from OrganicPIX.com from DFW, Texas, United States

This is beautiful, my answer would be is some type of azalea.
Azaleas are a flowering shrub in a variety of colors and blooms. The azaleas I am familiar with only bloom for 2 to 4 weeks, but when they are blooming they are absolutely gorgeous.

11 Mar 2008 9:26am

@Kevin from OrganicPIX.com: thank you! and thanks for guessing. unfortunately, this one doesn't seem to be an azalea (I contacted the American Azalea Society to check). on the plus side, while i was on their website i saw a photo that looked a lot like the flower i'll have up in two days, so you're already the "winner" for two days from now!

vu@granby - Wolfgang Prigge from Canada

The only flowers we get are ice crystals on the window panes, but we'll get there eventually...

11 Mar 2008 10:14am

@vu@granby - Wolfgang Prigge: cool. don't think i've ever had an ice crystal on my window pane, bet they're beautiful too.

Purple Bear from Charlotte, NC, United States

I believe that this is a flowering quince. It is not an azalea. Compare it to the flowering quince Chaenomeles japonica 'Cameo' at the Monrovia website: http://www.distinctivelybetter.biz/PlantInf.nsf/709359cd399269ec8825684d0078b8fd/6902abd14b45f9d28825684d0071143a!OpenDocument

11 Mar 2008 12:38pm

Michael from Wuppertal, Germany

Great shot, perhaps rhododendron?

11 Mar 2008 12:41pm

yiannis krikis from thessaloniki, Greece

excellent colors

11 Mar 2008 1:36pm

Shazeen Samad from MAle, Maldives

Beautiful shot... Cheers!

11 Mar 2008 5:26pm

@Shazeen Samad: thanks a lot! especially coming from someone with great skill with a camera!

standley from brou-sur-chantereine, France

Superb composition. Great lighting!

11 Mar 2008 5:32pm

Ron from Saint Louis, United States

Well, I see I'm too late to enter a guess…but I wouldn't have known. Indian Hawthorne doesn't survive in winters in zone 6. I do like those leathery leaves, and you've captured it well. Thanks for the Suburbia glimpse of Spring.

11 Mar 2008 5:54pm

@Ron: Thanks Ron. Wow you actually know what zone you're in. I didn't even know what zones were until earlier today when I was looking at the azalea society website. Anyway, don't worry, there'll be plenty more flowers for you to guess at -- just hope you don't get tired of them ;)