Tag Archives: magnolias

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The Magnolia Effect – The First of the Leaves and Falling II – Magnolia liliiflora

Four magnolia posts in a row! Perhaps the blog ought to be renamed to The Magnolia Effect for the week. Have no fear, though, there will be some diversity of postings soon; indeed, I have a number and variety of sets of photos that I only need the time and energy to process and post. And I do try not to overflood my subscribers email on any given day :)

The intriguing thing about this varietal of magnolia is that unlike the classic white magnolia which has large waxy petals throughout the year, this magnolia is bare during the winter, then first the flowers appear, and second the leaves, as the flowers begin to fade and fall. The first set of photos below are of the new leaves popping out, which are followed by another set of fallen petals which often cradle tiny bundles of stamens, like tiny purple piano hammers.

Thank you for indulging my love for my magnolia tree. It is simply rather impossible to walk out to my car these days and not want to stop to take some more shots, especially as even now the ephemeral nature of this glorious beauty is already in evidence.

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The Magnolia at Dusk – Magnolia liliiflora – Direct Positive Lightroom Preset

As I noted in the post yesterday, this tree is likely to have many pictures taken of it. This is true not only because of its lovely blossoms but also because of its shape. I think you will agree that it is pretty amazing.

Having been pretentious enough to name my house, I am not going to name every blessed thing in and around it, but I do think this tree deserves one. I am thinking Queen followed by something, because she looks rather queenly to me. I will let you know if I come up with anything.

The Direct Positive preset is an interesting one. It brings up the black values and dramatically increases the saturation levels of blue, aqua, purple and a little in green and yellow. I almost always tone the effect way down, but it can make for some intense, striking images.

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Waiting to Explode – Magnolia liliiflora in Morning Light – Lomography

A friend of mine argued with me that the lovely tree in front of my house was not a magnolia, as I have been naming it in recent posts, but rather a tulip tree. Upon consulting another friend who actually works for the Missouri Botanical Gardens, he said it is indeed a variety of magnolia, but not the classic, white Southern magnolia, which incidentally keeps it waxy leaves year round. My best guess is that this tree is a Magnolia liliiflora. Looking at it coming home tonight, even more of its blossoms had cracked open. Did this poor tree have any idea when I moved in that it was to have its own personal paparazzo who would photograph its every mood.

This was taken in the early morning and I have added a lomo effect.

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“Woods Fill Up With Snow” – St. Louis’ 24 Hour Winter Wonderland – Tower Grove Park, March 26, 2011

For my third video, I present a montage of images I gathered in yesterday’s heavy snowfall. Despite the amount of snow, it really was not that cold at all. The main challenge was keeping the snow off of my camera. In the midday shoot I only had a corduroy jacket to use as sort of an old-fashioned camera cloak sort of thing. By the afternoon, I had an umbrella, but it was very small and the snow was, like truth told by Emily Dickinson, slant.

For the title of this video, I borrowed from another great American poet and perhaps America’s best known poem. The woods in that poem I imagine to be very different, but I was literally watching the “wood” of Tower Grove Park fill up with snow, so it seemed an apt title.

The soundtrack I downloaded for free from Last.fm and is from a gentleman called Josh Winiberg. The piece is lovely. You can listen to more of his music here.

To view the video, click on the image above or here. Why not embedding? Well I would prefer you saw it at a larger size and preferably full-screen to get the full effect. Enjoy. Winter’s last hurrah. Surely that is true this time, isn’t it?