Opening wildflowers portrayed with light and shadows
An April 2nd morning walk through Springfield Neighborhood Park yielded abstract portraits of two opening wildflowers, the scarlet leatherflower (Clematis texensis) above and the buttercup (Ranunculus sp.) below, in both of which the contrast between dark and light created a colorful chiaroscuro. Clicking enlarges each view.
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In a social experiment, a couple friends and I went to a Pro-Palestine protest in NYC with just American flags. The protestors’ reactions were truly shocking. Two of our flags were lit on fire and one was stolen. They praised Osama Bin Laden and chanted “death to America” This is not just a fight for Israel. This is a fight for America!
You can watch David Lederer’s 3.6-minute video showing those things.
It’s appalling what some of the people in my country have turned into.
© 2024 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
ooh-
beth
April 27, 2024 at 6:10 AM
Yes!
Steve Schwartzman
April 27, 2024 at 7:00 AM
Really beautiful!
rabirius
April 27, 2024 at 7:00 AM
Thanks. I was very happy with these abstract portraits.
Steve Schwartzman
April 27, 2024 at 7:05 AM
Little Shop of Horrors popped into my head when I saw the top flower. Excellent macro, Steve!
circadianreflections
April 27, 2024 at 9:52 AM
For me it was the Little Shop of Flowers.
Steve Schwartzman
April 27, 2024 at 12:55 PM
😀
circadianreflections
April 27, 2024 at 3:17 PM
Abstracts such as this are very real in their beauty.
Wonderfully different perspectives of lovely blooms.
Wally Jones
April 27, 2024 at 3:48 PM
You’re right about the different perspectives. I’ve most often photographed scarlet leatherflower from the side, and buttercups when fully open and in bight sunlight.
Steve Schwartzman
April 27, 2024 at 4:05 PM
It’s always nice to see familiar flowers in a different light, and these images certainly accomplished that. Of course, the flowers are familiar mostly through photos; I’ve never seen the scarlet leatherflower except in the hill country, and the buttercup seems to be a species that I’ve found only around Eagle Lake and Gonzales/Monthalia. This pairing is interesting not only for the play of light and shadow, but also for the half-hidden stamens in both flowers.
shoreacres
April 28, 2024 at 6:46 AM
Good observation about the half-hidden stamens in both photographs. This post gave me the chance to be visually artsy with the portraits and verbally artsy with the word chiaroscuro. Your phrase “in a different light” would serve well as the name for a photographic exhibit or book; in fact a search online just now shows I’m hardly the first person to think of that. Too bad I didn’t think of it during my years of infrared photography.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 7:15 AM
There’s drama and excitement/anticipation in these lovely images. Sounds as if you had some very unwelcome drama at that protest…the world is getting crazy!
Ann Mackay
April 28, 2024 at 10:12 AM
If only we could revel in the first kind of drama and prevent the second.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 11:44 AM
Gads! I know better than to stop to read, but briefly stopped to read what I thought was a caption.
Just bout a week ago, I was assaulted by a young lady wearing a burqa. It was nothing too serious or offensive. She was merely concerned that my collection of a few turnip greens from my vegetable garden might deprive a few bees of a bit of the vegetation that they enjoy. Until she protested, I was not aware that she had been watching me in my personal and private garden from a nearby road. What annoyed me is that she was wearing a burqa AND speaking up in a manner that the ladies she emulates are not allowed to do. If she wants to emulate such a culture, then she should SHUT UP!
tonytomeo
April 28, 2024 at 12:39 PM
As you haven’t yet posted an account of that incident on your blog, it would be interesting to do so and see what reactions you get. Do you know anything about who she is and what other interactions with people she’s had?
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 12:59 PM
It would be irrelevant to my gardening blog. I have no idea who she is. I had not encountered her before. I am near Santa Cruz, where some activists go looking for trouble. I certainly do not know if that was her intention. I merely found her to be annoying.
tonytomeo
April 28, 2024 at 4:47 PM
I went for a decade focusing on nature photography here. Beginning with the craziness of 2020, I ultimately branched out into other things and started saying what I felt needed to be said. I understand why you prefer to stay with your original theme.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 5:53 PM
For a while, I wrote a separate blog about the homeless Community here. I kept the two separate. I suppose that I could establish another blog, but I find that if I write about what frustrates me, it frustrates me more.
tonytomeo
April 28, 2024 at 9:12 PM
Yup, that can happen.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 10:10 PM
The first photograph is truly a magnificent example of the interplay of shadow and light. Good job!
Alessandra Chaves
April 28, 2024 at 2:18 PM
Thanks. I was really happy with the chiaroscuro I achieved in the leatherflower portrait. That morning proved quite productive; it included the coral honeysuckle abstraction you saw here ten days ago.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 5:39 PM
That was sure a winning morning! I’m happy if I get one good photo out of an outing!
Alessandra Chaves
April 28, 2024 at 5:50 PM
Thanks. The scarlet leatherflower and the coral honeysuckle were partially entwined, so I got two great subjects in one stop along the trail.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 5:57 PM
I don’t really like to talk about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. That alone (not issuing an opinion) could get me in trouble but I really don’t think I know enough to have an opinion, take sides. Plus, one thing is being here with all comforts of a peaceful life as opposed to living in that region which has been in a war zone for so long. What do I know? Then I am here in this country paying taxes, voting and contributing to what this country is and to what it has been and is becoming. It would be hypocritical of me to burn flags and chant “death to America”. But that’s my values. It’s hard to watch what’s developing in the middle East because it’s likely to turn into a third world war, and also watch what’s happening in Ukraine and in so many other countries that don’t get the same attention and press. Life is so short and why can’t we stop fighting so much?
Alessandra Chaves
April 28, 2024 at 2:31 PM
One thing that particularly troubles me about all the protests is that they’re the product of decades of education—I would say miseducation—in which American schools have increasingly indoctrinated students with a nihilistic, oppressor-versus-oppressed, anti-American ideology. That worldview avoids talking about all the good things America has done. It purposely downplays or omits all the bad things other countries have done throughout history, like invading their neighbors and enslaving the people they conquered. That differing treatment is a blatant example of the double standards I’ve criticized in so many of my commentaries since 2020.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 5:48 PM
This comment reminds me of a funny thing that happened many years ago. I used to ride the light rail with a colleague who was both a British and a Kenyan citizen. One day there was a man protesting against how Great Britain had destroyed Kenya. My colleague stood up and started arguing with the guy “Kenya_she yelled_ has been independent since 1963 and you all haven’t gotten your act together and who exactly is to blame?”. They got into a heated argument. Of course the problem is more complex than that, but as a Brazilian citizen, I was educated to believe that the state of Brazil’s economy is a consequence of Portugal’s exploitative model of colonization. Well, we’ve been free from Portugal since 1822, and it’s certainly not popular to point out that our own inability to govern ourselves may have contributed to Brazil’s economical and social problems more than what Portugal did in 300 years. Go figure.
Alessandra Chaves
April 28, 2024 at 6:01 PM
Good examples. One would think that after two centuries of independence Brazil might finally feel responsible for itself.
By coincidence, Eve bought a bracelet yesterday at a local open-air weekend market, and the craftsman turned out to be from Kenya. I suspect he felt he was making out better here than he would be in Kenya. If we go to that market again and I see him there I’ll ask him.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2024 at 6:20 PM