Macro at the Fullerton Arboretum
February 9, 2011 | By Nick Carver
We have a great arboretum out here in Orange County on the campus of Cal State Fullerton called, you guessed it, the Fullerton Arboretum. A student of mine and I went there yesterday for a lesson in lieu of our usual beach landscape sessions and had a great time doing some close-up work with the variety of plants. The weather was working in our favor for once with lots of clouds to block out the sun and send us some nice, diffused light.
We started off shooting the daffodils towards the center of the park. There were a lot of blooms out and it's only February. Can't wait to see what this place looks like this Spring.
The arboretum has a fantastic desert section, too, where we concentrated on the patterns and colors found in the unique flora. This first plant is called Parry's Agave (agave parryi).
I couldn't find the name of these yellow flowers, but I really loved the look of them. For the horizontal shot, I placed myself so that a blue plant in the background would line up just behind the flowers. This blue gave some great color contrast with the yellow for a more interesting shot.
Last of all, I photographed this desert succulent known as Blue Finger (senecio mandraliscae). Very aptly named, Blue Finger has a gorgeous blue coloring that really stands out amongst the other desert plant life. I think it's my favorite shot from the day...
