Flower Photos



It’s only in the past few years that I have started photographing a lot of flowers.

The variety of colors and shapes and textures have always appealed to me, but in a unique way. In contrast to my love for the West (which is in part because of its eternal nature, the epochal battles of wind and water and stone and sun), I have always appreciated the fact that flowers are so ephemeral. So intricate, so delicate, so short-lived. I love honeysuckle and jasmine, for example, and have planted them around my house. But I wouldn’t love them as much if their fragrant blossoms were there all year. Their ethereal nature seems to make them that much more fragrant. So, too, with discovering desert wildflowers, or with the steady, determined emergence of a hyacinth or amaryllis.

In 2007 I became especially intrigued with close-up photography, after buying a cheap macro lens in San Francisco. I didn’t use tripods or cable releases; I just stuck the camera in manual focus, took a deep breath, and slowly moved in until things seemed to be in focus. What amazing results! The orchid shots, in particular, reveal a level of detail that was simply not visible with the naked eye.