Monday, April 6, 2015

The Beauty of Flowers

by Terri


As you may have noticed, our Monthly Focus for April is “flowers”. Who doesn’t love flowers? I’m sure there are other people like me who are obsessed with them but I’m also sure there isn’t anyone who doesn’t love them.

Flowers have been my favorite photography subject for some time now. Some of my favorite flowers to photograph are poppies and they are blooming early in the year when I'm hungry for some color. A quick stop at the nursery provides hours of fun shooting these beauties.



In late March, I usually head to Dallas Blooms at the Dallas Arboretum where there are more types and colors of tulips than I have ever seen anywhere!


Then back in the desert, I am shooting cactus blooms for as long as they last, which is never quite long enough.  


In late May, along come the peonies. No, we can’t grow them here in Arizona but Trader Joe’s is a great source for them for about 3-4 weeks and I am there every 4-5 days picking up another bunch.  And, of course, as always, I am taking their picture from every angle.  


And because of my love of flowers, a lot of the people I follow on Instagram are people who love flowers too.  A while back, I discovered some time-lapse videos of cactus in bloom on Instagram. Since cactus blooms are a passion of mine, I fell in love with these videos. At the time, the man who posted them had about 10 followers.  Today he has over 33,000!  He has many of his time-lapse videos posted there and you can find him on Instagram at echinopsisfreak.  He also has a wonderful (and extremely helpful to me) website where he identifies the different types of cactus that he shoots as well as gives great care advice. Because of him, I have more cactus blooms this spring than ever before.  You can find his website at echinopsis.com

If you’re curious about that strange word “echinopsis”, it is a type of blooming cactus. They come in many different colors and are my all-time favorites!  I asked him for permission to post one of his amazing videos here for your viewing pleasure.  I know you’ll be as amazed as I am every time I watch one.  Nature in all her glory!





So this month let’s focus on flowers. I want to see the Flickr gallery blooming with all the beauty that flowers bring to our lives.


8 comments:

Carol said...

Wow Terri - you really started something in the gallery! Its a bloomin' garden! These shots of yours are beautiful, and so is the time lapse. I think we are all so hungry for them this year! It should be a great month!

Dotti said...

What a superb time lapse video! I'm always so amazed by time lapse photography and your flowers are stunning as well. I'll have to plan a trip to Flickr today to look at our gallery. Bring on the blooms!

kelly said...

desert cactus flowers never cease to amaze me terri! can't wait to see flickr gallery explode with colorful blooms!

AFishGirl said...

I'll have to hit the florists. We are months away from any flowers, another 10 cm of snow coming tomorrow night. But it's lovely to see your flowers!

Anonymous said...

Love the combination of the soft flowers on the prickly cactus! Flowers are one of my favorites to photograph also and Im hoping to plant a cactus garden here in the Texas hill country! Your photos are breathtaking and the time lapsed video was great! Im so excited to see what April has in store for us! Thanks for sharing!

Linda said...

I love watching those echinopsis bloom! I always look forward to your flower pictures! Love this months Focus! There's no denying that flowers brighten the day.

Kim Stevens said...

oh I was so hoping to get more cactus blooms than just maybe two when we were there. I have a feeling all of our posts this month are going to echo each other, but who can get sick of flowers? We can't grow peonies here either, but I did find one at my nursery that it the only one we can grow here but I wasn't about to shell out nearly $120 for one plant in a 5 gallon container. Beautiful flowers Terri!!

heyjudephotography said...

The color and beauty of these flowers is just what I need right now. I love your cactus flower photos, and thank you for sharing the time lapse video - it was amazing! I really look forward to the FOL flickr stream this month!

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