With winter refusing to go away (and threat of more snow in March!!), I thought I’d share some pictures of a warming Azalea from last summer.
Azalea blossomsPeeking from a sea of red – Azalea bud
Azaleas belong to the Rhododendron family of plants that thrive in soils that are non-alkaline, which in the UK means special compost etc. The plants flower from late spring to early summer and lend a splash of much-needed colour in gardens.
Hibiscus is a great flower to photograph. The contrast between the green sepals and bracts, showy red petals (this particular variety), deep red pistils surrounded by bright yellow stamens make a great study in contrast especially against a dark background. You may not enjoy the botany below, but I’m sure you’ll agree that nature truly offers a marvelous spectacle in the microscopic.
Click on any picture to see a larger version!!
A fully open hibiscus flower
We all learned in school botany (well some of us!) about the various parts that make up a flower. Generally, flowers have 3 components –
Calyx – made up of sepals that protect the bud in infancy and form the base of the flower
A hibiscus bud showing bracts and the calyx (which are both modified leaves!)
Corolla – made up of showy petals that encase the reproductive organs
A hibiscus petal
Reproductive parts (Corolla, Stamen) that are in turn
Detail of a hibiscus stamen (male) and pistil (female)Close-up of the reproductive organs of a Hibiscus flower. The yellow stamens and the red pistils.
Stamen – that make up the male reproductive parts – in turn made up of the filament that holds up the pollen sac or anther. The anther releases pollen when open.
Detail of a Hibiscus flower stamen.Even closer. Glittering Hibiscus pollen on anthers held up by the filament – forming the stamen of the Hibiscus flower.
Pistil – The female reproductive parts of a flower. These are also made up of three components
Ovary – that finally forms the seed after fertilization
Style – a stalk above the ovary
Stigma – the farthest extend of the female part of the flower which receives the pollen for fertilization. This is usually sticky and allows pollen to attach.
The stigma of a Hibiscus flower, with pollen on them.
The pollen in the above picture look spherical, don’t they? But in the picture below, which is a crop of the above, you can see that the pollen grains are spiky, thereby allowing them to stick to the stigma surface.
100% crop of a stigma showing the real structure of pollen.
Well, that’s my botany lesson! Thanks for stopping by….
One of my pride and joy has been able to sustain an oriental hibiscus plant (indoors) through the vagaries of British weather, and in return I’m blessed with vibrant red hibiscus flowers 3-4 times in a month, sometimes more. Here is a study of a hibiscus flower in original (untouched or processed, exported from Lightroom), B&W rendition (processed in Silver Efex Pro), processed using Color Efex Pro filters to bring out detail.
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. 1/100, F32 External SB-600 flash used at right angles to ensure black background.Processed in NIK Silver Efex Pro. Orange Filter.Processed using NIK Color Efex Pro. Detail Extractor and Tonal Range corrections.
I like the picture as it was from the camera (untouched). Why process a picture if it doesn’t really add anything more to the photograph?
Thanks for stopping by, and please do leave a comment on what you think?
Technical Details
Nikon D7000 (Manual Mode), ISO200
SB600 Speedlight External Flash in Slave mode at right angles to lens
Sigma 105mm/f2.8 macro lens
1/100 sec, F32 to ensure picture sharpness and black background
Post-Processed (where done) using NIK Software LightRoom plugins.
NEMO is a science centre in the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is an iconic structure that is shaped like a ship, that also celebrates glorious dutch maritime history. The building has been designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano.
View from the pedestrian footbridge leading to the NEMO Science CentreAnother view of the iconic and futuristic structure. The roof of the museum offers panoramic views of Amsterdam and is a great place to relax with a cool drink.
All photographs have been post-processed by the use of NIK Color Efex Pro 4.0 filters to enhance contrast and detail. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view on Flickr.
A boat in choppy high tide North Sea waters at Sheringham in Norfolk. At low tide the sea recedes to well beyond the markers leaving a pleasant sandy beach.
Via Flickr:
A boat in choppy waters. Sheringham, Norfolk
Sheringham is a small picturesque town in North Norfolk. This picture shows the town towering over the sea defence walls protecting the town from flooding.
Gonville and Caius College – the fourth oldest college in Cambridge (Estd: 1348) has a very interesting six-sided sundial on one of the gates. The exact time I took this picture was 1:54PM GMT, and interestingly the sundial shows a time that is just an hour off.
Is this due to difference in local and GMT? Or was I looking at the wrong sundial? A later visit may answer that question.
Of the 31 constituent colleges that make up the University of Cambridge, none is more famous than the Trinity College. Apart from being the largest constituent college in Cambridge (or Oxford), members of the college have won more Nobel Prizes (32 of a total of 75 awarded to Cambridge University members) than any other institution in the world! The college itself is one of three royal colleges in Cambridge (St. Johns and Kings College being the other two). Trinity was established in 1546 by King Henry VIII of England, but it was under the leadership of Thomas Nevile, that the college was designed and built. The list of notable alumni of Trinity makes impressive reading, from Isaac Newton, Lord Tennyson, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr to Jawaharlal Nehru, Amartya Sen and Bertrand Russell, and definitely worth a visit on days the college is open to visitors.
The following pictures of Trinity College, were all shot in sets of three and then merged into HDR using HDR Efex Pro from NIK software.
The great court of Trinity College, CambridgeCentral fountain at the great court, Trinity College, Cambridgeante-chapel with marble statues of famous Trinity alumni.The Trinity College Chapel organ – built between 1693-1708Trinity college chapel with the eagle lectern (foreground) and stalls.Statue of Sir Isaac Newton, a prominent Trinity alumni. (non-HDR)
Technical Details
Nikon D7000
Tamron 18-250 f3.5/6.3 Lens
Adobe Lightroom 4.1 with HDR Efex Pro from NIK software
Juridicious 