In the remotest, least-favored spot of our property stands a clump of poppies; Lauren thinks the label on the packet said “California Poppies,” but I’ve grown those before and I don’t recall the out-of-this world colour shadings. Really remarkable, and they’re also highlighting a problem I’m having with the new camera.
Each bloom’s shaded with exquisite smoothness, darker near the center to brighter round the edges; and each is shaded differently from all the rest. For all the colour they’re shy things, folding up demurely for the night by supper-time, up here at 50° North latitude that means missing four hours of twilight.
Unreduced: enlarge at your peril.
These shots were taken under a cloudy sky. In sunshine, the colour overloads the S50 and the colours come out less dramatic. In fact, I’ve recently had the same thing happen on shots of white mock-orange blossoms, and of the moon. The moon in particular was irritating; I had it framed in tree branches and I got out the tripod and set up and took about 40 shots. In each, the moon was a brilliant gibbous featureless blob, with the lunar landscape, clear to the eye, lost. Have to study this one up some more.
