The year's first water lily

click photo to enlarge

It's a truism believed by many photographers (and ignored or disbelieved by even more) that your best photographs are usually shots of subjects with which you are deeply familiar. Many respected photographers specialise in places, subjects or genres and are acclaimed for their work within their self-imposed limits. I tend to be a generalist in all areas of my life, including photography. However, I do deliberately take many photographs of my immediate locality and know from years of experience that this is a rewarding and creative approach to picture making. Only by walking familiar routes repeatedly at different times of day and year, in different kinds of weather, do you see all the potential photographs that surround you.

My garden pond and the annual cycle of growth, maturity and decay displayed by its water lilies is a subject that I return to several times a year. As I've said elsewhere, I especially like the photographs that I've taken in spring and autumn over those when the beautiful yellow and white flowers are blooming. But that's not to say that I don't take shots of them. This year I watched the first leaves appear, then the stalks and buds emerge under water and slowly extend until they broke through into the air. The first bloom opened properly on June 4th and I took a few shots of it.

The main photograph is the obvious image of this subject showing the characteristic flower in its watery context. However, I'd earlier taken the morning shot against the light, after rain, before the petals were fully open. I think I prefer this one. For completeness I've included a photograph taken only three weeks earlier on May 14th when buds and blooms were nowhere to be seen, and the leaves had the characteristic brown that they exhibit when they are newly appeared.

photograph and text © T. Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 228mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Water lilies and femmes fatale

click photo to enlarge
The femme fatale with her beguiling beauty is something of a cliche. A classic example in art is "The Beguiling of Merlin" by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), the Pre-Raphaelite painter and designer. This well-known piece shows the femme fatale, Nimue, luring the powerless Merlin. In religion, history, literature and film this figure abounds too, in women such as of Salome, Delilah, Cleopatra and Mae West.

The other day it occurred to me that there are flowers with something of the femme fatale about them. I was photographing rhododendrons in the Yorkshire Dales. These were introduced into England from Asia by the Victorians because of their large and beautiful flowers. Their exotic beauty resulted in them being planted in far too many locations and receiving too little management, with the consequence that they now constitute a weed in many woods throughout the country.

The same is true of a number of water plants including the beautiful water lily. Some lakes and pond have been choked by these lovely plants that were introduced by well-meaning people seeking to add a little colour and elevate the appearance of nondescript stretches of water.

This year my small pond has fourteen water lily flowers in bloom, as many as I've seen at one time. However, once the display has finished we will be cutting back the plants otherwise they will cover the whole of the surface of the water with their round leaves. I took this photograph of one of the flowers after a short, sharp shower had cleared to reveal broken clouds and a little blue sky. The water droplets and the reflected blue seemed to set off the perfect flower very nicely.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 140mm macro (280mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On