Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Weekly Photo (Week 21) – Gardenia Blossom

Gardenia Blossom

Our gardenia bush is now in full bloom. Usually that does not happen until June, but everything is rushing the seasons this year.

Gardenia blossoms are gorgeous, fragrant white flowers, but hey last just a short time. Photographing them has been a challenge for me. Our gardenia gets dappled sunshine in the morning, by early afternoon it is mostly in the shade. So the combination of light and blossom development has to be just right. Wait an hour for better light and the blossom will already show yellowed edges or it sprawls all over. The difficulties for me don’t end there. My camera has trouble focusing on the all white blossoms, and the depth of field is rather shallow for these nice big flowers even at small apertures. With my aging eyes I can’t focus manually. So it is usually one in a dozen at best.

Here is todays effort, taken early in the morning.

Gardenia Blossom

At post time, in the late afternoon, this blossom is well beyond prime. No retakes for these volatile gems.

Then there are the little problems uploading to Picasaweb, or is that the former Picasaweb, setting the access with the new sharing method, and linking to the photo. Hope it works for you. (Leave me a comment if it doesn’t, please.)

.:.

© 2012 Ludwig Keck

5 comments:

  1. Hi Ludwig, we are waiting for our gardenia to bloom. It's a young plant we bought last year and has signs of blooms pending. Hopefully,MIT will wait until we return from a trip to Lancaster, PA this week for daughter's wedding. Your bloom, even though a bit past prime, still looks lovely. Hope to be able to get photos of ours to post.

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  2. Looking forward to seeing yours!
    P.S. "past prime" - yep, that's me.

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  3. Good point. The best times are still to come!
    Picked up the paper early this morning, there was beautiful sun light on a fresh blossom, so I rushed in, dropped the paper, got my camera, went outside - the light had already passed the blossom. Now, in the afternoon, the flower is all yellowed and well past its prime. Teaches us that we need to appreciate that our times are passing at a much slower pace.

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