Geranium robertianum

I found it in my garden.

Small,

but beautiful.

Commonly known as Herb Robert, Red Robin, Death come quickly. I am curious to know why it's called "Death come quickly" as it is also used as a healing herb. Can anyone tell me?


Wikipedia says:
In traditional herbalism, Herb Robert was used as a remedy for toothache and nosebleeds.^{[citation needed]} Freshly picked leaves have an odor resembling burning tires when crushed, and if they are rubbed on the body the smell is said to repel mosquitoes. The active ingredients are tannins, bitters, and essential oils.

Blue Anemone

It looks like a blue version of Anemone nemorosa, but the number of petals are twice as many as the Nemorosa. However I think it is an Anemone.

The equipment used for the pictures are:

Nikon D700 with Hoodman angleviewer, Sigma 150mm Macro

Tripod, diffuser to create shade

ISO200, f/5.6 - 7.1, manual focus

And when the sun doesn't shine, it closes like this.

Late spring

Spring is late this year.

It started so good with new best ever temperature in March,

but April has been very cold.

It's a kind of interesting to dive into my archive from earlier years, just to find that at the same time of the 

year more flowers and insects had appeared. This confirms that spring is later this year.

However I also find that within a few weeks in May we may expect to find that spring will explode in 

green leaves and wonderful colors and accompanied by also higher temperature a wealth of insects will 

appear.

Easter tulips / Påske tulipaner

My wife bought a bouquet of tulips for the Easter holiday. I love the colors of these beautiful flowers in strong yellow and green. And I thought that they would be ideal to create pictures from.

My first photos turned out to be quite dull and boring, and inspired by other photographers I frequently follow on different blogs I decided to try making a more abstract look. This turned out to be quite challenging, and I am not sure I managed to accomplish what I had in mind. Anyway, - this was some of the pictures my shooting resulted in.

They are not meant to be razor sharp. I have deliberately used out-of-focus and motion blur. I was more concerned about colors and shapes and light and shadows. At the same time I did not want a look that abstract that you cannot imagine what the object really is.

Photo of The Day & Photo of The Week

I am happy to see that my photo called "Linselus" or "Lens Bug" was selected to be Photo of The Day a few days ago in the Flickr group called "Creative Moments In Our Time".

"Linselus" or "Lens Bug" is an expression in Norwegian used on someone sticking their head forward to be in a shot or on tv when someone is interviewed etc. In this case I was photographing a Bluebell. I did not notice the wasp until I was editing the picture.

Is there a word for it in English?

My photo made it even to achieve the award for Photo of The Week!

Endelig skjer det noe / At last

Endelig åpenbarte en ny og for meg ukjent blomst seg i vår hage. Jeg ser at det gror og at knopper ligger klare og bare venter på at sola skal gi tilstrekkelig varme til at de kan åpne seg. Og i dag skjedde det endelig.

Bare temperaturen nå kommer noen grader høyere og blir mer stabil, så eksploderer naturen!

PS.: Har fått tips om at blomsten er en Anemone. Og den var bitte liten og så lett å overse.

ooOoo

At last flowers are appearing. Small wonders unfold due to higher temperature.

The flower is a blue Anemone.

Finding your way in this blog

This blog has become quite large and it can be difficult to find your way. If you are looking for something in particular, you may search for specific content. I will try to put relevant tags on each page that I post.

The blog will also suggest you visit other pages by showing small thumbnails on the bottom of a page. By clicking on the thumbnail you will get directly to that page. This will look like this:

I have written some pages to share my experiences within the art of macrophotographing. These pages have all been given the tag "Guide".

You find the tags on the right hand side of the page at the bottom. As you can see there are 30 pages that all are of a "Guide" character. Click on "Guide" and all sort of "How to" pages will be shown. They are all in Norwegian, but I will be happy to bring them in English if you tell me to do so. Just post a comment or send me a mail.

Winner of the Blue Flower Contest

I happily discovered recently that I had become the winner of the Blue Flower Contest on the Flickr website called  MACRO IN STYLE.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/_macro_in_style/

I was not aware that I participated in such a contest, but having posted this picture on this website I guess the picture has been included automatically.

Anyway, - I am of course happy to see that my photos are appreciated by others.

Tistel fra i fjor i år

Det meste er fortsatt brunt her hos oss,

men da kan selv en tistel fra i fjor bli et fint motiv også i år.

ooOoo

The nature is still very brown here around us,

but even an old road tistel may appear as a nice object to photograph.

ooOoo

I am very happy to see that my blog have visitors outside Norway. Though most of them are from Scandinavia, the blog also have visitors from:
USA, Germany, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom, Latvia, Canada, Russia and Ukraine.

Consequently I will try to make my blog available also in English.

If there are old articles of special interest to you that you would like to read in English, please feel free to tell me and I will make them available in English.

If you know how I can make the Google translate widget work with a blogger site, please tell me!

Pinus bellum (oppdatert)

Hva gjør man når man ikke finner noen insekter eller noen blomster å ta bilde av?

Jo,

man tar et bilde av det eviggrønne.

Blåstjerne

Blåstjerne er ikke et eksakt navn på denne blomsten. 

Det er et norsk navn på arter av fire planteslekter i hyasintfamilien (tidligere alle regnet til liljefamilien). Flerårige planter med løk, bladrosett og opprett stengel med blå eller hvite blomster. Til sammen 80 arter, de fleste i middels varme land. (Kilde: Store Norske Leksikon)

Mange er også resultat av spredning av hageblomster.

Disse vokser ofte i hager og titter opp av gressplenene om våren.

Denne hadde begynt å visne. Kanskje derfor at støvbærerne har endret farge fra blåsort til noe lysere farge?

Blåveis og påske

Jeg visste hvor jeg kunne finne dem. De er der på samme sted hvert år.

På skogbunnen, inne blant noen busker, langs veien ved stranden,

i en solfylt helling mot syd-vest.

Slik står de en og en og titter opp gjennom gammelt løv.

På Wikipedia står det:

Blåveis (Hepatica nobilis) (dansk: blå anemone, svensk: blåsippa) er en flerårig urt i soleiefamilien. Den har karakteristiske, leverformede, vintergrønne blader og blå blomster i april - mai. Planten blir ca. 10 cm høy.

Blåveisen er utbredt i Europa nord til Skandinavia og Finland, og sør til Apenninene og Pyreneene. Den mangler i Vest-Frankrike og på De britiske øyer. Blåveisen vokser på tørr og kalkrik grunn i løvskog eller barskog. På disse vokseplassene viser ingen andre blomster seg før blåveisen. Allerede under snøsmeltingen begynner den å åpne sine mørkeblå kronblader.

I Norge er blåveisen vanligst på Østlandet, Sørlandet og i Trøndelag, men planten finnes også i Ryfylke, Hardanger og ved Bodø.

Slektsnavnet Hepatica viser til det latinske ordet for lever (hepar), mens artsepitetet, nobilis, betyr «edel». Ettersom bladene er leverformede, er planten, i samsvar med signaturlæren, blitt brukt mot leversykdommer.

Etter blomstringen ligger stengelen bøyd mot jorden, og småfruktene (nøttene) blir liggende i morplantens nærhet. De spres ved hjelp av maur (en myrmekofilplante).

Bildene er tatt med Nikon D700 og Sigma 150mm Makro f/2.8. På de fleste bildene er blenderen f/8. Enda mindre blender hadde gitt større skarphet på blomsten, men samtidig også mye mer forstyrrende bakgrunn. Den bruntonede bakgrunnen skyldes gammel, brunt løv på bakken.