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The blue-purple blossom of the Canterbury Bells or Campanula against the yellow background immediately drew my attention as purple and yellow are opposite colors on the color wheel. Shallow depth of field creates this palette of blended color that sets off the in focus blossom.
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Rudebeckias, commonly called Black-eyed Susans are prolific perennial favorites in gardens everywhere. I love the intensity and contrast of their colors.
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Painters frequently paint in layers, as did I in this broad landscape.
Before me was this luxurious carpet…layer upon layer of rich colors and textures that spread as far as my eye could see. Many images in this portfolio were taken during a weeklong wildflower photography workshop in Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado with Alan Rokach in 1997 that nurtured and fertilized my ideas and vision. Mt Crested Butte was ablaze with a carpet of columbine and the burst of delicate blooms contrasted greatly with the mountain backdrop. Playing with juxtaposition, selective focus and point of view, I made the blooms dominate the foreground and melt into the distant mountain.
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Selectively focusing on the mountain in the distance turned the foreground flowers into transparent shapes of cellophane.
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These Wild Gaillardia or Indian Blanket grew in the sand at Carolina Beach, North Carolina. I photographed them leaning over a walkway that traversed the dunes. Focusing on the blooms and setting my camera for shallow depth of field blew out the background. Throughout the years this image continues to be a perennial favorite.
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Indian Paintbrush, Castilleja, was discovered during the wildflower photography workshop with Allen Rokach in Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado way back in July 1997. The white hairs of the plant are Nature’s neon…according to me. This glorious location and Allen’s love of teaching and sharing photography inspired my creative vision.
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Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado was a beautiful place to photograph wildflowers. Also called Mule’s Ear, Wyethia amplexicaulis, the vivid yellow looked like butter and through my viewfinder and I wanted to slather it all over the mountainside.
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Following a heavy downpour the sun’s emergence was fresh and entrancing. These two fragile columbine blossoms caught my eye and held their own against the surrounding aspen forest.
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There is this magnificent Magnolia stellata, Royal Star Magnolia Tree in Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Oakdale, Long Island and every Spring I return to photograph it. My polarizer filter was on the macro lens and I aimed through the branches into the sky to create the stained-glass-like background. Every year I go back to see if I can top this image that was shot with film in the 1990’s….and it hasn’t happened yet.
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In the cactus greenhouse of Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, Long Island’s premier public arboretum and historic site located in Oyster Bay, New York, I espied the orange blossom and blew out the background as it was a concrete wall and I couldn’t move it or change my position.
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There is a private garden in Wilmington, North Carolina that I have had the continued joy of photographing. Next to Giverny, it is my favorite place and in mid-March it is ablaze with thousands of tulips. I used NIK software to create this delicate vignette.
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Bay Shore Beautification has planted a memorial garden that I visited soon after it opened and focused on this grouping. The unity of color and pattern and dark background
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Monet’s garden is full of so many surprises. At first sight it is a mass of color and then careful visual combing discovers individual bursts of perfection selected with well-planned background makes visual confection.
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The hills of Provence were carpeted in lavender and choosing subjects to focus upon was both daunting and dazzling.
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The cluster of golden wheat shot into the air like a cowlick of unruly hair in a scalp of lavender and absorbed my attention.
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The intensity of the yellow, orange and green against the purple ground cover provided a vibrant palette. The problem was that this flowerbed was under a hutch of lovebirds and every time I moved my tripod and camera bag, the doves went berserk. I didn’t want to disturb them but wanted to photograph more.
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The colors of the garden through patterns of raindrops on the fogged-up window provided a great backdrop for the dried wheat…all that remained from a flower arrangement discarded days earlier.
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It was such a dismal morning. The snow that had previously fallen had begun to look dirty…and then it began to rain. The raindrops falling on the window created an exciting filter…and all of a sudden, the sun came out in my brain! I ran for my camera and tripod and with the spark of creative vision photographed a series of beautiful gloom….and I did it all through my dining room window.
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Driving through Provence in search of lavender was a photographic adventure. I loved the contrast of sharp and soft-focus as well as that of the of the white against the purple.
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Monet planned and planted his garden in Giverny to provide a continuous source of visual inspiration…and it continues to inspire. James Priest, the chef jardinière of Giverny, in a New York Times interview soon after his arrival in this new position, remarked that the garden itself is the work of art because it is a consumate source of inspiration to countless artists and garden lovers who visit and sojourn here. I have visited on four separate and lengthy stays and each visit has me yearning for more.
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The trellis merged with the vine and I love how its color accentuates the fiery fringe of the ball-shaped feathered fruit.
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This is another of my images created in Mt. Crested Butte. Please note that this photograph was shot with film and was created in camera. I used an extension tube on my 28-135 lens, got down on my belly after lowering the tripod and opening my lens for a shallow depth of field. I focused on selected lupine in mid-ground allowing the foreground as well as the background to be blown out. It gives my image an ethereal air of mystery as well as an impressionistic feel.
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I had never seen pitcher plants and they were gorgeous and dramatic and exotic. But the best was the background of delphiniums that created this dense blue background that set off the reds and yellows of these dramatic plants. This image was photographed at the main greenhouse at Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, Long Island’s premier public arboretum and historic site located in Oyster Bay, New York.
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Coreopsis Grandiflora-While this petite blossom hangs out in masses I isolated one to stand out from its crowd. The lawn and shrubbery occupying the background merge into green with yellow background of surrounding blooms.
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