THE LILY’S MANY FACES
They are a large and gorgeous group, the lilies. Fragrant, elegant, sturdy, and cleanly symmetrical.
A hothouse Asiatic lily from the store, this beauty is big.
The same lily from a different angle - desaturated, with noise (graininess) added.
This time I used a long exposure while zooming the lens and intentionally keeping everything out of focus.
And another grainy, softly colored rendition of the lily from behind.
Outdoors, the natural light on a rain-and-clouds-and-sun kind of day lays evenly across this botanic garden spider lily.
From above, little wild fawn lilies (Erythronium columbianum) on Echo Mountain in Western Washington nod their lovely heads musically.
Another wild fawn lily, Erythronium revolutum, is naturalized around a lawn at the Kruckenburg Botanical Garden in Seattle.
Lilium columbianum, the wild Tiger lily, growing here in the Snoqualmie National Forest. We took a short hike on the Lodge Lake Trail, where we met through hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail – that means they were intending on traveling all or most of the 2,650 mile long trail that stretches from Canada to Mexico. Lodge Lake Trail is a tiny portion of the PCT. Happily for the through hikers, wild berries were abundant that August day and civilization (re-supply, showers, beer!) was close. Happily for me, no one had bothered this beauty as it stood proud alongside the trail.
A Martagon lily at Bellevue Botanical Garden is ready for pollinating. This one smelled like a tangerine candy – fantastic!
A black and white study of spider lilies (Crinum asiaticum) at Snug Harbor Botanical Garden in Staten Island, New York City.
A poem -
The Lily
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat’ning horn:
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.
William Blake
and a proverb -
This Chinese proverb gets translated differently, but I’ll stick with this version because it goes so well with today’s post:
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
Lynn, I like what you’ve done with the second one: desaturated, with some added noise–a treatment which is a bit contrarian when approaching photographs of flowers. I have a hunch it would look great in a white frame with a wide white mat.
January 18, 2013 at 9:49 am
So nice to hear that you like that – I agree, it’s a little counter-intuitive, and I like to mix it up sometimes. And sure, I imagine that big white mat & a white frame would be nice – but expensive! I don’t print because it costs so much. Some day I will though…
January 19, 2013 at 10:13 am
Hi there. Love the photos. Anyone can point a camera at something close up but what you are doing is something way beyond that. Ste
January 19, 2013 at 5:11 am
Thank you so much – that’s great to hear!
January 19, 2013 at 10:11 am
Amazing photography. I loved the Spider Lily. Are all of these from the same Botanical Gardens?
January 19, 2013 at 11:48 am
Lovely photos, very evocative, especially the Crinum in B&W. Bellevue Botanical Garden is one of my favorite gardens ever; I’ve been there a few times and try to get there whenever I’m in the area. Wonderful post!
January 19, 2013 at 6:59 pm
Those lilies are so photogenic – I had a lot of fun with them. There are some great things to see at BBG. Let me know when you’re in the area again; it would be nice to meet.
January 19, 2013 at 7:56 pm
Oh, that would be fun! I have a lot of photos from BBG; maybe I will feature them in a post.
January 20, 2013 at 10:52 am
I like the desaturated lilies from the back best, plus the spider lily. These are great. By the way, I’ve been following you for some time, but discovered only today that you don’t show up in my reader, because I haven’t seen any of these. I didn’t know what I was missing–or even that I was missing anything.
January 20, 2013 at 1:33 pm
Thanks very much – I have no idea about the blog showing up in the reader – most technical details of blogging are opaque to me. At any rate, glad you’re here; I appreciate your coments. And you know I enjoy your photos very much.
January 20, 2013 at 1:54 pm
I’m sure it’s not anything you’re doing wrong. WordPress is flaky in countless ways. I’ll just have to remember to look directly instead of waiting for your posts to come to me.
January 20, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Some interesting experiments. I particularly like the B&W image. We generally associate lilies with colour. To remove the colour focuses attention on the form. It makes an excellent composition and is very effective.
January 21, 2013 at 8:59 am
Thank you Louis. THey are wonderful subjects, in color or not. I appreciate your thoughts.
January 22, 2013 at 10:53 am
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Lynn, these lilies are fabulous. I especially love the yellow one with the background out of focus.
February 13, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Thank you – glad you enjoyed them.
February 13, 2013 at 8:47 pm