Striped Victorian Polyanthus Primrose

PRIMULA "STRIPED VICTORIANS," CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 28, 2010

Pentax K20D
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro
1/250 sec. f11
ISO 400

We all know what "following the primrose path" means, but why this flower was chosen for the idiom is murky. Only Shakespeare, the lover of flower imagery who coined the phrase, knows. In any case, this particular variety of primrose once was a common sight in 19th century English cottage gardens, hence its name.

Bright Gem Tulip

TULIPA BATALINII "BRIGHT GEM," CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 28, 2010

Pentax K20D
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro
1/250 sec. f11
ISO 200

This native of high-country Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkestan graced new concrete flower boxes in the Chicago Botanic Garden's Heritage Garden yesterday. The petals are described as small and delicate, opening wide to the midday sun and closing to a traditional bulbous shape in the evening. The splash of crimson on one petal is particularly striking.

Grosse Point Light

GROSSE POINT LIGHTHOUSE, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 26, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 55mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 400

Probably the most photographed structure in my home town is this lighthouse, built in 1873 and still in service as a private aid to navigation. It was the first lighthouse on the Great Lakes to be granted National Historic Landmark status and probably has launched more postcards than any other in the Midwest.

Beach on a blustery day

LIGHTHOUSE BEACH, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 26, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 87.5mm
1/2000 sec. f8
ISO 400

What does this fellow have in mind, anyway? The photo is much less alarming when you realize that the telephoto lens foreshortens the view and makes it seem that he is much closer to the edge of Lake Michigan than he really is. The day was sunny but cold and blustery, and the man almost immediately turned and retraced his steps.

Tulip

TULIP (UNKNOWN VARIETY), EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 26, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/350 sec. f8
ISO 400

I have no idea what variety of tulip this is, but on the way home from a photo shoot in a nearby park I stopped by a neighbor's front yard to capture it, because the westering sun illuminated the crimson petals from inside in striking fashion.

Aurora Crown Imperial

AURORA CROWN IMPERIAL (FRITILLARIA IMPERIALIS), CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 20, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 190mm
1/180 sec. f6.7
ISO 100

This stately, soccer-ball-sized upside-down bloom belongs to the lily family and is native to the Himalayas. I'd never seen anything quite like it and during a recent visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden just had to capture it for my digital botany collection.

Pride-of-Madeira

PRIDE-OF-MADEIRA
(ECHIUM CANDICANS),
CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN,
GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 20, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300mm
at 135mm
1/125 sec. f6.7
ISO 100

This member of the borage family, originally from the Canary Islands, is a woody perennial that can grow up to eight feet tall, with 20-inch-long clusters of tiny 1/2-inch blooms. It's often found in southern California. Large beds of Pride-of-Madeira greeted me this morning in front of the Botanic Garden's visitor center.



Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300mm at 55mm
1/90 sec. f6.7
ISO 100

Caspian Tern

CASPIAN TERN, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 20, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/500 sec. f8
ISO 100

Took a while (and the help of the Cornell Bird Lab) to identify this tern. For a while I couldn't decide whether this was an Arctic Tern, a Common Tern or a Caspian Tern. Arctics, according to the books, have a pale belly, a longish tail and an uniformly orange bill. Commons have duskier underparts, shortish tails, dark-tipped bills and dark-edged wingtips. Caspians are marked by large orange bills and large dark areas on the wingtips -- both smoking guns for this photo. It was the first time I'd seen a member of this graceful seabird family at the Botanic Garden.

Caboose

UNION PACIFIC MAINTENANCE OF WAY CABOOSE, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, APRIL 15, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 70mm
1/500 sec. f11
ISO 400

The last cabooses disappeared from American freight trains by the middle 1980s, but lots of remnants are preserved (sometimes as motel cabins) or derelict in lonely rail yards. Rarely is one seen in actual use on a railroad, and this rusty former Chicago & North Western bay-window caboose is still working as a rolling tool shed for the maintenance of way department of the Union Pacific, which swallowed the old C&NW in 1995. I shot her on a siding along the UP's Chicago-Kenosha North Line in Evanston, Illinois.

Aladdin's Sun

ASIATIC UPFACING HYBRID LILY, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 4, 2010

Pentax K20D
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro
1/180 sec. f9.5
ISO 200

It looks like a tulip while it's opening, but when the petals of the Asiatic Upfacing Hybrid Lily are fully extended, it's an utterly different bloom. This one is called the "Aladdin's Sun" variety, and it's an early spring feature at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Daffodils

DAFFODILS, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 1, 2010

Pentax K20D
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro
1/250 sec. f8
ISO 400

"in time of daffodils(who know/ the goal of living is to grow)/ forgetting why,remember how," wrote e.e. cummings. I thought of those lines when spotting this pretty yellow clump, one of the earliest spring blooms at the Chicago Botanic Garden on the first day of April.

Magnolia bud and bloom

JAPANESE WILLOW-LEAF MAGNOLIA BUD, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 1, 2010

Pentax K20D
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro
1/750 sec. f8
ISO 400


JAPANESE WILLOW-LEAF MAGNOLIA BLOOM, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 4, 2010

Pentax K20D
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro
1/2000 sec. f8
ISO 400

On April 1 a golf-ball-sized bud was struggling to emerge from its furry carapace to become a large Magnolia salicifolia flower. When I returned three days later the bud had bloomed into baseball size, releasing its fragrance into the air. Spring has truly arrived.

Robin

AMERICAN ROBIN, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 1, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/500 sec. f8
ISO 400

Robins are tough birds for me to photograph, common as they may be. They're so damn busy, busy, busy, searching out the early worm, that they almost never tarry in one place long enough for me to draw a bead upon. This one stopped on a branch for just the right length of time.

Red-tailed Hawk

JUVENILE RED-TAILED HAWK, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 1, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 120mm
1/90 sec. f11
ISO 400


JUVENILE RED-TAILED HAWK, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, APRIL 1, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-DA 55-300 at 300mm
1/60 sec. f11
ISO 400

At first I thought this was a juvenile bald eagle, a bird I've been trying to photograph for four years in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and I identified it as such in the original blogpost. Not an eagle, said a visitor to this blog, but a hawk of some kind. Further investigation reveals that it is indeed a hawk, a juvenile red-tail.

Crocus No. 2

SPRING CROCUS (CROCUS VERNUS), EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, MARCH 31, 2010

Pentax *ist DS
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro
1/250 sec. f11
ISO 400

Crocuses of all varieties are springing up willy-nilly in the neighborhood as temperatures rise into the 70s. A brisk breeze set the blooms to bobbing and weaving, requiring both a high shutter speed and autofocus to capture a sharp image.

Crocus No. 1

SPRING CROCUS (CROCUS VERNUS), EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, MARCH 30, 2010

Pentax *ist DS
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro with Kenko 1.5x teleconverter
1/90 f16
ISO 400

In this part of the Midwest the cheery little crocus is generally the first flowering perennial to peek up from last year's dead leaves. For this shot just up the block from my house I used a 1.5x teleconverter (and a tripod plus cable release) to help the macro lens get a larger image of the flower without my having to bend over and strain my creaky back.