It’s all in the Details
Can you tell what this flower is?
The small details of life are what make our moments on this planet the most interesting. So much of the time, we fly through our days without noticing the way the leaves overhead sway in the breeze, or the gilt of the sun as it slants through the pine trees in the late afternoon. In my photography, I have lately been seeing new worlds and galaxies in the details of the natural world.
To see the world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour… — William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
Can you tell, from the details, what flower this is? These are all the same flower type, just different colors, and in different phases of life.
Here’s a clue… When I was younger, my great-aunt Sally, who was like a second grandma, and also a bit of a guru, to me, lived in Oceanside, California, about an hour or so south of my home. Sally loved for me to drive her through the commercial fields of these flowers, which washed over the hillsides near her. Sally, a biology and physical education teacher, managed to travel the world, and inspired me to do the same. She also loved to take photos, and specialized in an old technology — 3D photos, where you looked at two slides through a viewer which merged the pictures and made them come alive. She just adored these flowers.
Have you guessed yet? This one is just a baby.
And another little one….
Notice the differences in the color variation of the stamen (at the center). Just like people, no two flowers are exactly the same.
This one reminded me of the whirls of the Milky Way spinning around a black hole.
And, this is the same flower, zoomed out a bit.
Have you figured out what these are yet? Here are more photos of the full flowers, dancing in the soft spring breeze and the golden sunlight of my garden.
And this is the flower that we started with:
These enchanting blooms are all Ranunculus.
I hope you enjoyed this photo-story. You might also like:
Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.