Two more takes on Mexican hats
In 2020 I’ve made more portraits of Mexican hats (Ratibida columnifera) than in any previous year. In this vertical pair you can sense the different mood created by light clouds versus dark ones. I took the pictures in Great Hills Park on June 2nd, in both cases concentrating on flower heads with long brown central columns. The first view keeps reminding me of colorful hot air balloons over Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fortunately I didn’t even have to leave my neighborhood to see Mexican hats put on a show.
This post could serve as an add-on to the one called Hello Yellow that appeared in New Zealand earlier today.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Oh yes, these are bright and beautiful! In the top photo against the light blue, the Mexican hats look like they’re dancing.. what a happy photo!
Ms. Liz
July 5, 2020 at 4:55 AM
That’s just how I saw it: a happy photo. Your first sentence reminded me of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Things_Bright_and_Beautiful
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 7:16 AM
I love the first verse and the tune so it was probably in the back of my mind as I typed the words although I can’t exactly recall now.. anyway, I’m glad the words made you think of the song 🙂
Ms. Liz
July 5, 2020 at 2:06 PM
It seems likely that you were thinking subliminally of the song, especially since you’re partial to it.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 3:15 PM
The Mexican hats do seem to be flying in the first photo. And your photos in Hello Yellow certainly brightened our New Zealand winter. I take off my hat to you.
Gallivanta
July 5, 2020 at 7:26 AM
Then Texas will honorarily declare that the headware you doffed is a Mexican hat.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 10:29 AM
I am happy you had so many Mexican hat to show us this year. Unfortunately, only a few could be found in the pecan orchard this summer. That’s how it works I suppose. Some years we see plants flourish and then they disappear. Perhaps the conditions weren’t right for germination.
Littlesundog
July 5, 2020 at 7:34 AM
I think there must have been so few Mexican hats in your pecan orchard because they all came here. An early lesson I learned when I started photographing native plants two decades ago is that the same piece of land can look very different from one year to the next on the same date. Weather is a big part of it, but maybe plants are just as ornery as some people.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 10:32 AM
With all this exposure to the Mexican hat, I will have no trouble identifying this illustrious flower, if I get to see one.
Peter Klopp
July 5, 2020 at 8:48 AM
“Illustrious” is a good word for it. Let’s hope you see one—or one thousand.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 10:38 AM
I doff my hat at your hats. They all look like they’re dancing the hula. 🙂
Tina
July 5, 2020 at 9:20 AM
I’m not sure about the hula: wouldn’t it be the Mexican hat dance?
Before I got to your comment, I used doff in my reply to Gallivanta. Did you know that the word is a contraction of do off? Similarly, don is a contraction of do on.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 10:37 AM
That would certainly make more sense from a regional perspective. I didn’t see your earlier comment, so I ‘do off’ my hat to you, for your hula/ Mexican hat-dancing flowers.
Tina
July 5, 2020 at 1:26 PM
So in your prose you donned the word doff, and in your actions you doffed your dancing hat, whether Hawaiian or Mexican.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 3:05 PM
Lol–you win! 🙂
Tina
July 5, 2020 at 3:55 PM
I guess that makes me winsome.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 4:03 PM
Definitely a hat dance, especially the background flowers.
tomwhelan
July 5, 2020 at 9:47 AM
I can hear the music now….
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 10:39 AM
I propose a name change: Mexican Hat shall henceforth be known as flame flower.
tanjabrittonwriter
July 5, 2020 at 1:48 PM
I see why you’d advocate that change. However, the name “flame flower” is already taken:
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/kniphofia
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 3:10 PM
Oh no, Steve, I’m crushed. 😦
tanjabrittonwriter
July 5, 2020 at 5:08 PM
In that case you’ll have to get a crush on another name, or acquiesce to keeping the already colorful name Mexican hat.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 5:58 PM
They look delicious!!!! 😉
marina kanavaki
July 5, 2020 at 2:32 PM
Inedible in the standard sense, but certainly delicious for the eyes.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 3:11 PM
The first is wild and certainly the hat dance comes to mind.
Steve Gingold
July 5, 2020 at 2:45 PM
Give me wildness any time. I’d like to see the Mexican hat dance performed by people using hats in the likeness of this flower.
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 3:13 PM
Hats off to you for this great series–leave it to you not to be targeting us with a dull and sombre arrow!
krikitarts
July 5, 2020 at 5:35 PM
You can have an arrow(head), too, if you shoot back two years:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2018/08/26/delta-arrowhead/
Steve Schwartzman
July 5, 2020 at 6:04 PM
Your part of the state seems to have won the prize for flowers this year. The second photo is especially beautiful: a reminder of the abundance that can appear when conditions are right. I see what seems to be a dewdrop or raindrop on one ray flower; an early hour or a bit of cloud may have contributed to that overall gorgeous color.
shoreacres
July 6, 2020 at 7:48 AM
Yes, we had a pretty good spring for wildflowers, as you’ve been seeing here for months now. Mexican hats were in good supply, in addition to which I paid more attention to them than ever before. You’re the first commenter to single out the second picture, which I was especially happy with because of its dramatic look. You can see that in both portraits I did my usual thing of getting low and aiming somewhat upward. You’re correct about droplets on one of the rays; whether they were from dew or from rain, I don’t recall.
Steve Schwartzman
July 6, 2020 at 6:07 PM
These are fantastic. Beautiful. And with all of the eloquence in the comments above, I am hideously embarrassed to say that the first thought I had was, corn dog.
Michael Scandling
July 6, 2020 at 11:33 AM
I’ll take beautiful and fantastic, thanks. You have an ocean to play with; over here we have wildflowers.
Steve Schwartzman
July 6, 2020 at 6:08 PM
Oceans of wildflowers.
Michael Scandling
July 6, 2020 at 6:24 PM
A happy medium.
Steve Schwartzman
July 6, 2020 at 6:30 PM
Fantastically vivid images.
Regards Thom
Thom Hickey
July 7, 2020 at 11:54 AM
Definitely vivid—much to my satisfaction, and now yours.
Steve Schwartzman
July 7, 2020 at 1:15 PM
As an afterthought, I’m avid for vivid.
Steve Schwartzman
July 7, 2020 at 5:14 PM
Wow! These are wonderful … dancing flowers! Art, colour and beauty ..
Julie@frogpondfarm
July 9, 2020 at 3:22 AM
Thanks. I’ve been on a roll with Mexican hats this year. Some are still around and I can’t stop photographing them when I go out in nature.
Steve Schwartzman
July 9, 2020 at 6:18 AM
Don’t stop! 🙂
Julie@frogpondfarm
July 9, 2020 at 2:11 PM
As long as I keep finding interesting ones, I won’t.
Steve Schwartzman
July 9, 2020 at 2:28 PM