I was looking back at some of the flower photos I’ve taken this year – and realized that there were several photos of various Asiatic Lilies that I’ve never gotten around to posting. I just love all the colors that these lilies come in. Here are a few of the pink ones I’ve photographed in the past few months.

Samur Lily

Samur Lily (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Canaletto Lily

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Baywatch Lily

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Renoir Lilies surrounded by yarrow

Renoir Lilies (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

And finally the Presidente Lily – I know – I’ve posted this one before – but it’s my favorite pink lily

Presidente Lily (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Fish Peppers (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Lots of  links this week

Mediaite has a post on We Keep Finding Historically Significant Photos. Will Our Grandchildren?

Photofocus has  posts on Things You Can Do With A Polarizer and  Watermarking Your Images

Digital Photography School has a 90 Year Old Example of Forced Perspective

Jeff Revell has One From The Mailbag – How Do You Know What F Stop to Use?

ReadWriteWeb has a post on a US/International Copyright Treaty Leaked

On the same topic – Photo Business news & Forum has ACTA – Sounds Too Good To Be True

Plagiarism Today has information about the Firebowl Controversy

The issue of sexism in photography arose on a couple of blogs – beginning with Shedding Light on the Gender Gap from the Strobist blog with a response from Visual Perspective Photo Sexism We’re Women Still Playing in a Men’s World

Black Star Rising has A Photo Credit Doesn’t Pay The Rent.

PDN has an article about Toyota Aplogizes for Using Flickr Photos in SUV Ad

Not long ago, I discovered a couple of types of Toad Lilies at Green Spring Gardens. About a week later, I was photographing at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond and found another variety of toad lily – the Thojen Toad Lily (tricyrtis).

Like the other toad lilies I’ve photographed – the structure of the flowers of the Thojen Toad Lily is incredible. Here’s a close up view of one of the blossoms to give you a sense of amazing structure.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

And here are a couple of photographs of  a cluster of Thojen Toad Liles growing  along a stem.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I found the Thojen Toad Lilies along the Woodland Walk in early October. There were several of the toad lilies growing in the area. So if you’re at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in the early fall – be sure to keep an eye out for the Thojen Toad Lileis.

Posted in Flowers Tagged: flower, photo, photography, thojen, toad lily, tricyrtis

Night Fire Hibiscus (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Night Fire Hibiscus is the November 2009 BeautifulFlowerPictures.com Photo of Month.  When I spotted this hibiscus – with it’s amazing shades of purple and red – I knew I had to photograph it. This is my favorite photograph of the Night Fire Hibiscus – focusing on the wonderful colors, details and textures of the flower.

Until November 30 2009,  SAVE 20% off the regular prices for Night Fire Hibiscus. The photograph is available in two sizes of gallery-wrapped canvases.

Save $ 20 on the 12X15″ Canvas – regular price $ 100 – November Photo of the Month Price – $ 80.00

Save $ $ 73 on the 20X26″ Canvas – regular price $ 365 – November Photo of the Month Price – $ 292.00

Free shipping to U.S. Addresses for either size photograph.

As with all photographs from BeautifulFlowerPictures.com, Night Fire Hibiscus comes with my Unconditional Happiness Guarantee. You have one year to decide that it is the perfect photograph for you. If it’s not, just return it (in original condition) for a full refund.

Last week, I spent a morning photographing at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge outside of Rock Hall, Maryland. I wasn’t sure what to expect at this time of year. I ended up having a wonderful time – photographing some colorful leaves and several flowers. One of the wildflowers I photographed was Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota). I’ve been wanting to photograph Queen Anne’s Lace for a while – just hadn’t found the right plant in the right light. On Friday morning, I found it.

I only spotted this one Queen Anne’s Lace plant still flowering along the Bayview-Butterfly Trail. But it was in a perfect location, on an overcast day. So I spent about 30 minutes photographing the plant from different angles.

My first photos were from above – a typical angle for photographing Queen Anne’s Lace.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

As I was photographing it from above, I noticed just how detailed and intricate the flower of the Queen Anne’s Lace really is. So I decided to try a few closer in photos – from a few different angles. I’m really happy with some of the photos I took – they really show the intricate beauty of the Queen Anne’s Lace.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Now that I’ve taken a closer look at Queen Anne’s Lace – I’ll definitely be looking for more of it photograph next year.

Posted in Flowers, Wildflowers Tagged: daucus carota, eastern neck national wildlife refuge, flower, maryland, photo, photography, queen anne's lace, rock hall, wildflower

In addition to the Cornucopia displayp, and all the wonderful carved pumpkins, I also photographed several other groups of pumpkins on a recent trip to Longwood Gardens. Located throughout the gardens, each display contained multiple varieties of pumpkins, squashes and gourdes of every imaginable shape and size.

This grouping was located near the rose garden. I don’t know about you – but I’d love to know just how much the pumpkin on the right weighs.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Here’s a detailed photo of some of pumpkins in this display. I liked the combination of the orange pumpkin, the yellow chrysanthemums and the hay.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Here are a few of the pumpkins on display near the Idea Garden.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

A group of pumpkins piled up against the bales of hay in the Children’s Garden.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

And finally, some from a display near the Conservatory. I really liked the contrast in colors between the two similarly shaped pumpkins.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I really enjoyed photographing the pumpkin displays a t Longwood Gardens this year – and can’t wait to see what they come up with next year.

Posted in Photo Locations Tagged: gourd, longwood gardens, photo, photography, pumpkin, squash

Bread Poppy (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

A few links this week

Guy Tal has Masters Don’t Tweak

DIYPhotography has Band your Cables for Orderly Photography Travel

Newsweek has a slideshow of Prokudin-Gorskii’s Color Photos of Russia from 1907 to 1915

Jim Goldstein is holding a Lens Rental Giveaway from BorrowLenses.com

DPS has 5 Tips for Photographing Children

And another link to the most effective DMCA takedown notice I’ve found - Using the DMCA Takedown Notice to Battle Copyright Infringment – the info on identifying where blogs are hosted really helped this week. I’ve been dealing with someone who has posted 60 of my posts on his blog without permission.

As you’ve probably noticed, there have been lots of changes to this blog over the past few months.

Several months ago, Bill and I realized that our photography was going in two different directions – and that we were both getting frustrated trying to merge our photos into one collection that worked well together on our website and at shows.  So we decided it was time for our photographs to go their separate ways. For those of you who know us – don’t worry – our marriage is fine – it’s just our photos that have separated.

Eyeliner Lily (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I realized that flowers are what I love to photograph. I’m fascinated by all the colors, shapes, textures and varieties. I’m discovering all the wonderful wildflower and their native environments. This year, I’ve made numerous trips to local botanical gardens and parks, as well as traveling literally up and down the East Coast from Maine to Florida to the Smoky Mountains to photograph the wildflowers. I’ve never been happier in my life than I am these days photographing flowers.

In May, I launched my new website BeautifulFlowerPictures.com and began doing shows with just my flower photographs. All of my photographs are presented as gallery wrapped canvases. They allow you to create an indoor garden that will bloom year round in your home. Some of my photos are also available as notecards. I will be showing my photographs at two more shows this year – the Craftsmen’s Classic Art & Craft Show in Richmond, VA on November 6-8 and the Fairfax Holiday show in Fairfax, VA on November 21-22.

Zabriskie Dawn (c) 2009 William Lawrence

Bill has always been a grand landscape photographer at heart. He loves to show the subject of his photography in the context of its environment. He creates photographs with sweeping expanses of sky and earth to accentuate the beauty of the scene. He prefers to use his large format camera. It allows him to slow down and see more clearly and deeply into the interrelationships of all the elements in the scene.

This past weekend, Bill launched his new blog – Lawrence’s View and introduced his first new photograph Zabriskie Dawn. His new photographs will be presented as limited editions of no more than 100. His work will be be printed on Hahnemuhle Photorag 308 gsm paper. He planning on introducing his photographs on his new blog, as well as sharing his thoughts on photography. You can subscribe to his blog by email or in a reader using his RSS feed.

Bill’s new photographs (and a few of his older ones) will be available at the Fairfax Holiday Show in Fairfax, VA on November 21-22.

Since Bill now his own blog, and I’ve been posting mainly my photography here for the past few months – I renamed this blog this morning to Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog. The change doesn’t affect subscriptions by either email or RSS feed. They should continue to work just as they always have. You can access my blog at the current URL of http://hankinslawrenceimages.wordpress.com/ or through it’s new name of BeautifulFlowerpicturesBlog.com I’ll still be posting my flower photographs, an occasional landscape photo, and my regular Friday links posts.

Bill and I have always appreciated all the enouragement and support we’ve gotten from our readers for our photography. We invite you to come along on our photographic journeys as we share our work through our Beautiful Flowers Pictures and Lawrence’s View blogs.

Posted in News

While exploring the Conservatory at Longwood Gardens on a recent visit, I was amazed to come across some Fragrant Ladies’ Tresses (Spiranthes odorata) growing beneath the ferns. Ladies’ Tresses are a native orchid, which I’ve never seen growing indoors. They are a fall blooming orchid – that can grow from Eastern Canada and south along the East Coast of the US.

This first photo – taken in the Longwood Conservatory – shows the plants with some blossoms flowering, and some not yet open. It gives a nice view of the structure of the plant.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Later the same day, as I was photographing some of the leaves in Pierce’s Woods at Longwood Gardens, I spotted a few Fragrant Ladies’ Tresses growing under some trees and along the stream. As I looked more closely – I discovered there were several groups and even a few large patches of the native orchids growing in the same area. Here are some of my favorite photos of the Fragrant Ladies’ Tresses.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

A few closeup photos showing details of the plants

Two stalks with a full set of blossoms

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

One of the blossoms

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

View from above showing the spiral stalk and flower pattern

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

As I was photographing one last set of Ladies’ Tresses, a large bee flew over and started exploring the plants. One of the Longwood’s educational themes this year has been pollinators – this bee certainly was paying attention and was busy polinating the flowers while searching for nectar.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Finding and photographing the Fragrant Ladies’ Tresses was definitely one of the highlights of my visit to Longwood Gardens. Now that I know what they look like, and where they’re likely to be growing, I’ll keep my eye out for more of these wonderful native orchids.