High visibility flowers

click photo to enlarge
I can't remember the first thing that I saw painted with fluorescent paint, but it may have been part of a military training aircraft. What I do remember is that from the initial orange the palette of achingly bright colours gradually expanded to include yellow, green and pink. Similarly, the uses to which these eye-catching colours were put spread widely to fire engines, safety jackets, warning signs, the tips of barrels on toy guns, and then into everyday lettering, clothing, posters and much else. For a number of years the police have routinely worn high visibility jackets in a very acid yellow colour. Other emergency services, as well as utilility workers, builders and drivers have also adopted jackets in these colours, usually through the belief that being very visible will reduce the risk of injury as they go about their work.

I was wondering recently how widespread the use of fluorescent colours has to become before we cease to notice them. I'm hoping we have some way to go yet because my wife and I frequently wear bright yellow jackets when cycling. I suppose that question is similar to the one about permanent headlights on road vehicles. In some countries it is mandatory to have them on at all times for safety reasons, and proponents of this strategy maintain that it reduces the number of collisions. But, I wonder, does there come a point where the increased visibilty of cars with headlights (or road maintenance workers with fluorescent jackets) is lost as their ubiquity makes them part of the normal scene? And if that is so, is there a case for restricting the use of these colours to those who will clearly benefit from them? I think I'm probably seeing a problem where none exists, but I'd be interested to know if any research has been done into this issue.

We're currently planting up a newly created mixed border, using shrubs and perennials from elsewhere in the garden, along with some plants that we've bought. It was when I was planting a few primulas that the above thought occurred to me. This flower now comes in an amazing variety of colours, including some that verge on the fluorescent, making them "high visibility flowers"! Today's photograph shows the centre of a white primula bloom that has an almost Day Glo orange centre. The colours that we added to the border are, in the main, different from those that we already have, pictures of which I've posted before here and here.

Afterthought Fluorescent must surely be one of the most commonly mispelled words. I've even seen it on paint manufacturers' and distributors' websites written as "flourescent".

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Primula supernova

click photo to enlarge
I've never been a big fan of primulas. They always seemed too showy, artificial even, forcing themselves on you with their bright hues and improbable colour combinations. They suffered too, in my eyes, from their connection with the primrose, a beautiful, delicately coloured, unassuming flower, a harbinger of spring, against which the primula looked like the brassy, unsubtle cousin. But, just as my taste in colours is changing as I get older, so too is my appreciation of flowers. Where once I wouldn't have seen any virtues in the primula I can now appreciate how they add a glow to a dark corner, or brightness to a window box or planter (though I still don't think they touch the spots that the primrose does.)

Today, after the early morning frost had melted I went into the garden to see if I could get some shots of the daffodils and narcissi that have opened in the past week. I did, but none of them were any better than I've captured before, or offered anything that you haven't seen before. So, I continued my rounds and came upon some burgundy-coloured primulas under a willow tree. Now, considering that I don't particularly like burgundy coloured flowers in general, feeling that they don't supply enough contrast with the soil, and taking into account my feelings towards primulas, it's surprising that I stopped to photograph them. But stop I did, and am quite pleased with the outcome. The beads of water left by the frost help the image, as does the reflected sky in each one. However, what makes the image for me is the colour combination and the overall darkness of the shot - the centre of the flower-head is like a supernova against the duskiness of star-flecked space.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm macro (70mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/125 seconds
ISO: 400
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Looking for colour

click photo to enlarge
Today, despite the weather forecasters' predictions the day was sunny, bright and warm. Coming after one of the coldest periods in recent years, with its accompanying days of dark grey skies, it was a welcome change. Sitting on my bench in the garden I could almost imagine it was the end of March rather than late February.

So, motivated by the clarity, colour and brightness of everything I cast around for something colourful to photograph. The winter-flowering heather was showing fine white and purple hues, but the sun and shadows falling on it didn't help the composition. The clumps of snowdrops under the trees by the stream looked cheerful, but white and green wasn't showy enough for me. Nor were the odd yellow pansies that had survived the frost and snow. A passing tortoiseshell butterfly that also thought it was later in the year, and had awakened from it torpor, wouldn't settle long enough for me to get a decent shot, though I did photograph a small group of ladybirds huddled together on a conifer. However, as I passed the front porch I noticed, through the frosted glass, blue, yellow and red. I went inside and found a daffodil, geraniums and a primula in flower. The latter's blue/purple petals and its white-fringed yellow "eye" offered the vivid and vivacious colours that I craved, and so I took this close-up image. No doubt there will be further dull, dank weather, frosts, and maybe the odd light fall of snow, but today I'm not thinking about that, I've got my eye on spring.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm macro (70mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f11
Shutter Speed: 1 second
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On