The periscope plant

One of the plants living in our back room is an Amarillo. Maybe it's Amarillus. I don't know. I call it the periscope plant. It blooms once in a while.

I got to thinking about it the other day, and dug out the camera. Red is hard to photograph, and the room isn't that bright. It faces north, and I resolved to play with settings and use only natural light. The camera was on the tripod of course, and it took a few shots to dial in the settings. Here's the results. No idea what order blogger will put them in.

I've never been much of a flowers or a garden kind of guy. Yet when I look at these close up shots I am gaining a whole new appreciation for the intricacy and beauty of plants. I hadn't know these blossoms have subtly different textures and colours. This photo still doesn't really do the colour justice.

This is actually an HDR shot to capture both the dark of the centre, and the translucence of the edges of the blossom. It might just a hair too bright, making it look slightly orange rather than red.

This is one of the old blossoms from the last time it bloomed. I happen to think that old tired blossoms are just as beautiful, and even more interesting to photograph, than blossoms at the height of freshness.

One of the leaves. I was fascinated that the colour goes from green to brown along the leaf, rather than from the end inwards.

I just love this transition from bright green to bright red.

In real life, that top centre fuzzy thingie is 6 mm long. I spent a long time trying to get all these in focus, and didn't get it to happen.