Luminous Lily

Luminous Day Lily, photo by Harold Davis. View this photograph larger.

Luminous—emitting or reflecting usually steady, suffused, or glowing light. Surely this day lily from my side yard is luminous.

A few days ago I was hard at work on a programming project. I promised myself a photography, er sanity, break at around 4PM. The light in our front garden falls into deep shadow at this time of year between 4:30 and 5, so that would give me a half hour or so of photographic fun. But 4 o’clock came and went, 4:30 came and went, and even 5 came and went, and I was still hard at getting something to work. So no break for flower photography.

Later on I was whining to Phyllis about being chained to the computer and missing the light. She told me to have a look at our side yard, where the last rays of the setting sun elegantly lit this day lily.

As it turned out, I only had a couple of minutes to photograph the flower before the light disappeared. I did it in a very simple fashion, with my superb 200mm Nikon macro lens mounted on the tripod, the mirror locked up, and a remote cable. No extension tubes or other extreme macro funny business, just straight flower photos, unmanipulated in Photoshop except for RAW conversion and balancing the levels.

Note the little insect right below the center of the flower, and slightly to its right. Hard to see on the monitor screen even at the larger size, but he is very distinct (and cute) when I review the image at 100%. For the record, the screen rendering here is about 10%, and the larger size when you click the link might be 20%. These are large, 12MP photos.

There are a couple of closer photos of this luminous lily below. Meanwhile, I wanted to note that I am taking Julian to Yosemite and the Sierras. It’s great to have my eight-year-old enthusiastic about hiking and wild places (he says he wants to be a “mountain climber” or a “hiker” when he grows up). I also will be shooting some final photos for my Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite and the High Sierras. Here’s one of the photos from one of our trips together this last winter.

The good news: Julian and I will have fun, and I’ll come back with some good photos (I hope). Bad news: no new Photoblog 2.0 entries for a week or so!