A flash of gold
As we began our great Southwest trip on October 16th we noticed the many goldeneye bushes (Viguiera dentata) flowering along US 290 on the western side of Austin. No time to stop then, as we’d barely started on the 550 miles to El Paso, but nine days earlier I’d photographed some goldeneye flowers in my neighborhood. To get the picture shown here, I’d lain down and aimed up toward a flower head isolated against a patch of sky. There wasn’t a lot of light on the underside of the goldeneye bush so I added flash; the result was a bright flower head with a rich dark blue background around it. If you’d like a reminder of how yellowfully expansive a goldeneye colony can be, have a look back at a post from 2013.
As for the trip: I’ve spent a good part of the last few days sorting through thousands of pictures and haven’t finished organizing them yet, but the first of those photographs will put in an appearance next time. Woo hoo West!
© 2016 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
beautiful !!!
gwenniesgardenworld
November 18, 2016 at 6:41 AM
Simplicity can be a virtue.
Steve Schwartzman
November 18, 2016 at 9:31 AM
indeed ! less is more as they say….
gwenniesgardenworld
November 18, 2016 at 1:07 PM
“Indeed” indeed. I’ve pointed it out as number 14 in “About My Techniques”:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/about-technique/
Steve Schwartzman
November 18, 2016 at 1:52 PM
Mmm. That yellow and deep, dark blue is a gloriously happy contrast. Happy Friday, Steve! Cool front’s a-comin’…
Shannon
November 18, 2016 at 8:08 AM
I like your phrase “gloriously happy contrast,” Shannon.
The currently predicted weekend low of 37° in Austin is colder than anything I experienced on my recent trip, even at overnight altitudes around 7000 ft. The last two afternoons here brought us highs in the mid-80s.
Steve Schwartzman
November 18, 2016 at 9:36 AM
Not been much cooler here; been sleeping with windows open mugginess and all, though barred owl calls make it bearable. I am sooo welcoming the cooler temps! No emoticon here can adequately portray my enthusiasm…
Shannon
November 18, 2016 at 8:03 PM
Then happy cool to you. Maybe we’ll squeak out a bit of fall foliage after all.
Steve Schwartzman
November 18, 2016 at 10:59 PM
I thought of you when I heard the weather forecast this morning. There won’t be any freezing temperatures for us, but maybe you’ll have a chance to see some frostweed ice.
I can only imagine sorting through all your photos. Even combing through the stash from my trip has taken more time than I thought it would, although my higher proportion of bad-to-really-bad photos helped to speed the process along: an “advantage” I hope to forego in the future.
I’m looking forward to seeing your views of the West, but this bit of homegrown gold is beautiful in its simplicity.
shoreacres
November 18, 2016 at 8:31 AM
You prompted me to check the forecast and I found a weekend low of 37°. I’d say that’s borderline for some frostweed action. It seems iffy, but more importantly I’m not psychologically ready for frostweed ice pictures with my head so filled with images of saguaros and redwoods and the Pacific Ocean and boulders and mountains and deserts and sand dunes.
I appreciate the way you spoke of “bad-to-really-bad pictures.” Some of my own from the trip have made me wonder why I even bothered to take them. I’m willing to extrapolate and assume all photographers have their ups and downs, and not just with mountains.
Quantity isn’t quality, of course, but I figure if I take enough potentially good pictures there are bound to be some actually good ones among them. One consequence of that approach is that the laptop’s hard drive filled up half-way through the trip and I had to run out and buy another external hard drive.
Steve Schwartzman
November 18, 2016 at 9:55 AM
Beautiful! Love the simplicity!
David Moll
November 18, 2016 at 11:27 AM
Hi, David, and thanks. This is at the opposite end of the simple–complex scale compared to the wildflowers we saw on the prairie in the spring.
Steve Schwartzman
November 18, 2016 at 11:45 AM
I bet you had a great time .. Woohoo! Lovely shot Steve ..
Julie@frogpondfarm
November 23, 2016 at 11:34 AM
We did have a great time, and the woohoo West pictures have started appearing.
Steve Schwartzman
November 23, 2016 at 2:01 PM