Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: April 2010
The dogwood trees have stopped blooming here, but they are still blooming beautifully in my photos.
I’ve got an odd relationship with flowers. I’m actually not too fond of them. Their prettiness is just pretty and little else, and I prefer the fine lines of the non-flowering decorative plants. But I love taking pictures of them. Flowers make great subjects, especially for the close-up photography I enjoy doing. They naturally have dynamic colors and shapes, and unlike certain other subjects, aren’t going to run or fly off while I’m adjusting the settings on the camera.
I am fond of flowering trees, though the ones that have more blooms than anything else do get a little much. Dogwoods tend to fall in the sweet spot for me, with enough blooms to add an interesting color mix without going over the top. And they tend to bloom when the leaves are all in,unlike a lot of trees, which adds to the potential compositions.
I do seem to be warming up to flowers as I take more and more photos of them, though. Though my love will always be for the odd-shaped ones such as Lady’s Slippers and Bleeding Hearts, and especially the oddballs like pitcher plants. I’m not the type to be wooed by a dozen roses (though roses do make decent drawing subjects, with their petal patterns), but with, say, a potted plant to decorate my room. They’d have to be resilient, to handle the dim lighting conditions I keep in my living places, which eliminates pretty much all of the flowering plants, but well, such is life.
