Crossing flower stalks of Verbena xutha
Here’s a photograph from a year ago today in Pflugerville’s Northeast Metro Park showing two crossing flower stalks of Verbena xutha, known as gulf vervain.
If you’re interested in photography as a craft, you’ll find that points 1, 2, 4, 6 and 18 in About My Techniques apply to this photograph.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
‘X’ marks the spot. Someone was bound to say it. Beautiful lighting against that nice dark background, Steve.
Steve Gingold
July 28, 2015 at 5:23 AM
Or, at least a variant. What crossed my mind was “X marks the stalk.”
shoreacres
July 28, 2015 at 6:20 AM
Variants are okay: different strokes for different stalks.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2015 at 7:03 AM
Y X ? Which is to say I wondered why Y couldn’t mark a spot as well, but writing three strokes (assuming a capital Y rather than a lower-case y) is harder than writing two strokes.
Yes, I used my familiar (to me) technique of a bright subject against a dark (but always natural) background.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2015 at 7:02 AM
Charming and ballerina-like.
Gallivanta
July 28, 2015 at 5:35 AM
That’s not something I would’ve thought of. I wonder if anyone has ever choreographed a piece with dancers costumed as flowers.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2015 at 7:04 AM
I have checked some clips of the Waltz of the Flowers but the dancers are not dressed as actual flowers
Gallivanta
July 28, 2015 at 7:44 AM
Maybe this is an opportunity for you to make your name as Gallivanta the Floral Choreographer.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2015 at 8:00 AM
Hmmm……no need…..I have found some floral dancers in Fantasia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzCUEQxOT3U&list=RDtzCUEQxOT3U#t=412
Gallivanta
July 29, 2015 at 5:13 AM
Good find: animation comes to the rescue.
Steve Schwartzman
July 29, 2015 at 7:36 AM
That is a good way to remember the species name 🙂
melissabluefineart
July 28, 2015 at 9:20 AM
Yes, it’s a good Xample.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2015 at 12:06 PM
Heheheheh…, xeriscape
melissabluefineart
July 30, 2015 at 9:54 AM
There’s zero escape here from playing around with language.
Steve Schwartzman
July 30, 2015 at 9:57 AM
Ha! Yeah. Did you correct my spelling? I couldn’t seem to remember how the word is supposed to look but hadn’t had my coffee yet.
melissabluefineart
July 30, 2015 at 10:48 PM
Yeah. It was a case of presto change-o, or i before e except after c, or something like that.
Steve Schwartzman
July 30, 2015 at 10:55 PM
I thought as much.
melissabluefineart
July 30, 2015 at 10:56 PM
Comments on this blog are remarkably free of mistakes.
Steve Schwartzman
July 30, 2015 at 11:05 PM
Fingers crossed – great shot. Love your Xample of brilliant composition.
Raewyn's Photos
July 28, 2015 at 2:34 PM
Thanks for your fingers crossed.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2015 at 2:38 PM
another wow from me.
sedge808
July 28, 2015 at 10:20 PM
And another “appreciate it” from me.
Steve Schwartzman
July 28, 2015 at 10:48 PM
[…] That’s right: the little (quarter-inch, or 6mm) flowers known as bluets, Stenaria nigricans var. nigricans, aren’t normally blue but rather pale violet, pale pink, or almost completely white. The ones here, photographed during the same June 2nd session off Naruna Way in northeast Austin that brought you the previous picture, were growing with some more-colorful prairie verbena, Glandularia bipinnatifida. Notice how different this verbena inflorescence is from that of the Verbena xutha that appeared here recently. […]
Bluets aren’t blue | Portraits of Wildflowers
August 4, 2015 at 5:06 AM
[…] native verbenas that are common in central Texas, prairie verbena and slender vervain, as well as one that I only occasionally come across. Making its debut here today is yet another: gray vervain, Verbena canescens. While it’s […]
Another verbena | Portraits of Wildflowers
June 19, 2016 at 4:53 AM