Before planting the beast of a cactus in a pot along our front porch, I photographed the plant in its black, plastic pot indoors using my Leica Monochrom M11 with…
The Split Rock Plant (Pleiospilos nelli) looks for all the world like it is made of small stones, each one dabbed with dots (see the black and white images at…
To make these portraits of an up-close-and-personal Western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) frond beginning to unfurl, I used my 135mm lens on a bellows. This is the same setup I…
The Gazania, commonly known as the African Daisy, is a highly heliotropic flower. This means that it opens in direct sunshine, and closes back up in the evening (or on…
I found the magnificent Columbia River gorge somewhat diminished (in gestalt if not in topography) since my previous visit years ago. Maybe this had to do with the time of…
I spent a few days on the Oregon coast in a model photography workshop. I primarily worked in black and white with my Leica Monochrom M11 using an orange filter.…
I’ve enjoyed photographing today at the Portland Japanese Garden. The garden bills itself as the most beautiful Japanese garden outside of Japan. This may well be true, and it may…
Yesterday I built a small spiral in our garden below a specimen Japanese maple tree. I constructed the spiral using small rocks as the border for an aggregation of miniature…
Yesterday I decided that my Serpentine Sunflower (Helianthus bolanderi) was getting a bit "long in the tooth" (insert favorite joke about serpents and teeth here). Indoors, I deconstructed the sunflower…
To make these images, I turned the center column of my tripod upside down. Safely getting my camera into the now-upside-down ARCA-style clamp took a measure of care and dexterity.…
Noted photographer and botanical artist Harold Davis shares a visit with his garden. This is the garden that he uses as source material for many of his light box images…
For this black and white image made with my Leica Monochrom M11 I experimented with different color filters. The basic setup was photographing with the camera on a tripod straight…
I'm pleased to announce that a visit to the just-opened New Art Museum on Naoshima Island in the Seto Inland Sea has been added to our Off-the-Beaten Track Japan photography…
Heading home from Japan in a long day of travel, I’ve had a chance to glance through some of the many photos I’ve made on this trip. What’s different this…
It will likely come as no surprise to my friends and those who follow me that this trip to Japan I am very observant of stone works: paths, walls, and…
Engetsukyu (Moon Bridge) in Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens in central Tokyo is said to have been designed by Zhu Shun Shui, a Chinese Confucian scholar of the 1600s. It’s called “Engetsukyu…
I am traveling in Japan through the end of the month, and by the time I get back most of the poppies in my garden will have bloomed and faded.…
MS-Optics is the company belonging to Sadayasu Miyazaki. Miyazaki-san, now an octogenarian, worked out of small office near Tokyo, and for a "retirement job" hand-assembled (and individually numbered) lens in…