flowers

Posts tagged
with flowers

Photography

Cherry Blossoms over the Meguro River in Tokyo

Every year tourists flock to Japan to capture the annual blooming of cherry blossoms, an event so thoroughly documented you can find online calendars that estimate the precise moment to visit each city around the country to catch the trees in full bloom. For Tokyo the optimal time must have been this morning when photographer Noisy Paradise snapped this breathtaking shot just at dawn over the Meguro River. Photo courtesy the photographer.

Art

New Flower Mandalas by Kathy Klein

Using the flower petals of carnations, daisies, mums and other wildflowers Arizona-based artist Kathy Klein (previously) creates temporary mandalas in outdoor locations near her home. She calls the pieces danmalas (‘the giver of garlands’ in Sanskrit), and each piece is photographed and then left to be discovered by others. If you’re desperate for any hint of spring in your space, Klein now offers prints and has a 2014 calendar of her best works.

Illustration

Flowers in Progress: Scientific Illustrator Taunts Us with Spring

Scientific illustrator and artist Noel Badges Pugh has an incredible knack for drawing flora and fauna. He recently illustrated an entire field guide about bees and keeps a regular Tumblr, Art in Progress & Completion, where he posts these tantalizing drawings of buds and blooms. Maybe it’s because this is the coldest winter in 30 years, but I’m spending the rest of my day looking at these. (via Gaks)

Science

Terrifying 'Orchid Mantis' is Camouflaged to Look Exactly Like a Pink Orchid Flower

In an unparalleled feat of natural selection the Orchid Mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) from Southeast Asia has evolved to look almost exactly like an orchid flower in order to lure unsuspecting prey. If looking like a plant isn’t impressive enough the clever insect also changes color from pink to brown according to its environment. (via Boing Boing)

Art Photography

High Speed Flower Explosions by Martin Klimas

The life of a flower usually ends in slow, inglorious decay as petals wilt and succombs to the cycle of life, but these flowers shot by German photographer Martin Klimas go out with a bang. You might recognize Klimas’ work from his wildly popular series of shattered ceramic figures photographed at high speed as they hit the ground. For his exploding flower photographs the artist first soaked them in liquid nitrogen to ensure the petals were brittle as eggshells and then blasted them from behind with an air gun resulting in dazzling bursts of color.

You can see more from this series over at Feature Shoot, and Klimas also opens a show called Sonic at Foley Gallery in New York starting September 18, 2013. If you liked this be sure to check out the work of Jon Shireman. (via My Modern Met)

Art

Giant Sculptural Floats Covered in Flowers from Corso Zundert 2013

It’s the biggest time of year for the small town of Zundert in the Netherlands. Twenty gigantic floats were paraded through the city as part of Corso Zundert (previously), an annual flower parade that sees teams of designers and artisans compete to build the most original sculpture covered almost completely with dahlia flowers.

Several floats appearing in Corso Zundert this year contained moving parts, including the winner, Crazy Gold, that had some 53 moving components. You can see a ranking of this years competitors over on Croso Zundert, videos on YouTube, and many more photos courtesy Omroep Brabant.