Can you say svelte? (Alternate title: the return of rain-lilies)
We had some rain in Austin on September 4th and 7th, so by the 9th a fair number of rain-lilies (Cooperia drummondii) had come out. I photographed this one (and many another) where Perry Lane dead-ends on the west side of Mopac near 45th St.
© 2014 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Beauteous! D
Pairodox Farm
September 17, 2014 at 5:56 AM
That’s a good word for these, so I’m always happy to see them return.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 7:51 AM
Very sleek and svelte.
Gallivanta
September 17, 2014 at 6:14 AM
You can use the initial letters of sleek and svelte to make those of the photographer, who is neither sleek nor svelte but who sometimes slides about to get a picture and occasionally sleuths out the identity of a subject.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 7:57 AM
Indeed, I like the way you made such a sleek watermark on the svelte flower. The Ladybird Wildflower centre says that the rain lily is an evening lily. Is your sky so blue towards evening?
Gallivanta
September 17, 2014 at 9:00 AM
It’s possible they first open in the evening (I don’t know from experience, though there’s no reason to doubt the Wildflower Center), but I took this picture at about 11 in the morning (standard time), and that accounts for the bright blue sky.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 9:45 AM
Beautiful 🙂
owfotografik
September 17, 2014 at 8:11 AM
These delicate flowers are, no doubt about it.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 8:16 AM
Once upon a time, I’d never seen a rain lily. They were everywhere, but invisible to me. Then, I saw many photographs of them, learned about them, and my eyes were opened.
I was driving across the Kemah-Seabrook bridge into Kemah last week when I looked over to the right and saw one rain lily blooming between the highway and the old railroad tracks. I didn’t quite trust my eyes, so I drove around the corner, parked, and walked over to the tracks. It was a rain lily, and I’d spotted it from about twenty feet away, at twenty-five miles per hour.
Good old Annie Dillard. She was the one who said it: “The lover can see, and the knowlegeable.”
shoreacres
September 17, 2014 at 8:32 AM
Here in Austin we’ve had several recent rainfalls, and though they haven’t been heavy, they’ve been enough to trigger the flowering of some more rain-lilies just as the ones from the time of today’s picture had largely disappeared. Yesterday afternoon I was driving an elderly friend around on some errands and we passed a property with some newly sprung rain-lilies on it, which I pointed out to her (her eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be). She grew up in the north-central part of the United States and said she never knew rain-lilies till she came to Texas. The same was true for me, too, of course, having grown up in the Northeast, and true as well for a transplant from Iowa. Now that you’ve grown accustomed to them, it’s not surprising that you’d pick one out as you drove past it, even at some distance and some speed.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 9:38 AM
It looks so “Happy”!
zannyro
September 17, 2014 at 9:02 AM
Even if it isn’t in its own right, it has that effect on beholders.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 9:24 AM
🙂
zannyro
September 17, 2014 at 5:57 PM
Stunning. So simplistic but very elegant. 😀
Raewyn's Photos
September 17, 2014 at 12:23 PM
You might call this minimalist in its composition but much more than minimal in its effect.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 1:05 PM
Cool looking flower!
photoleaper
September 17, 2014 at 4:24 PM
Yes, it’s one of our prettiest and I look up to it.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 4:46 PM
Fine composition. Great photo!
Truels
September 17, 2014 at 4:40 PM
Thanks and thanks again.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 6:30 PM
From your chosen angle, I’d have to describe this beauty as majestic.
Steve Gingold
September 17, 2014 at 4:52 PM
I can live with majestic, Steve. That upward angle certainly aggrandizes the subject.
Steve Schwartzman
September 17, 2014 at 6:31 PM
Why would it be mad?
Steve Gingold
September 17, 2014 at 6:58 PM
I don’t know, but I’m just mad about rain-lilies.
Steve Schwartzman
September 18, 2014 at 6:50 AM
As would I be were I fortunate enough to have some near me.
Steve Gingold
September 18, 2014 at 7:09 AM
I noticed yesterday that continuing bouts of rain have even brought out a second round of rain-lilies just as the first round had largely shriveled.
Steve Schwartzman
September 18, 2014 at 7:21 AM
Were you belly-botanizing for this great shot? There is something magical about rain lilies. I could almost pick up and move there, just for them 🙂
melissabluefineart
October 4, 2014 at 12:28 AM
Come on down! I just realized that “down” works in both senses. I do spend a lot of time sitting and lying on the ground, no doubt about it, and that’s why I carry a mat with me when I go out photographing in nature.
Steve Schwartzman
October 4, 2014 at 10:54 PM
I never think to bring a mat, so I end up pretty muddy by the time I get home.
melissabluefineart
October 5, 2014 at 10:36 AM
I’ve trained myself pretty well: I always have a “haz-mat” in my car and I take it with me whenever I wander away from the car to take pictures.
Steve Schwartzman
October 5, 2014 at 11:24 AM