Garden 2020 Gallery

Crimson Bottlebrush ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠When we bought this house in 2014, the crimson bottlebrush was already an established part of the landscape. It is absolutely gorgeous and this year it is OFF THE CHAIN. So much read you almost can't make out the leaves from across the yard. ⁠

⁠Not only that, but after years of strategic planting and landscaping, we have attracted a pair of beautiful Hooded Orioles, who seem to love the Bottlebrush. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop. ⁠

Butterfly Bush ~ Garden 2020⁠

Like many of the things we've planted, the intention was to attract more native insects, in particular butterflies and bees. This one is called a butterfly bush and in late summer it blooms gorgeous purple flowers. Ours has not bloomed significantly since we've planted it, but I think this summer we'll see some of those gorgeous purple flower clusters. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop. ⁠

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Calendula ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠My daughter has eczema that can flare up pretty bad occasionally. One thing that we've found that relieves the itch for her is Calendula Gel. When she discovered that Calendula was a flower that we can plant in our garden, she was so excited to grow our own. We planted it 2 years ago and it hasn't slowed down at all. ⁠

⁠It was a slow start but then suddenly it popped and it feels like it blooms flower after flower, year 'round. We've had to cut it back significantly several times and it always roars back. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop.

Wild Chamomile ~ Garden 2020⁠

My wife Alesia was hiking with our children when she ran across some wild chamomile, sometimes called pineapple weed. She thought it would be a fun teaching moment to show it to the kids and forage some to bring home and make tea. Once home she used what she needed, dried out the small pineapple flowers and scattered them around the edge of a garden box in our backyard. Toward the end of winter, we saw what looked like dandelion weeds coming through in that area, but those weeds developed into a hearty patch of chamomile in our own backyard. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop. ⁠

Salvia Hot Lips ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠This plant was a gift from a neighbor, brought to us from the UCR Botanic Gardens. It took off in our garden and is now roughly 1 million times it's original size. ⁠

⁠A big part of the homeschool curriculum my wife has used for the last 4 years is nature study, and we've worked to and attract as many native species of plants, birds and butterflies as possible. These hot lips attract all sorts of insects that we had never seen in our garden before it was planted. ⁠

⁠Shot in my home studio in Downtown Riverside, this little homegrown nature study was shot on a Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop. ⁠

Star Jasmine ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠We were lucky to inherit this beautiful vine that lines almost one entire side of our property from front to back. The Jasmine is the second of a wonderful one-two punch of fragrant blossoms at our house. First the orange blossoms hit in late-winter/early-spring and then about mid-spring the Jasmine starts to bloom. ⁠

⁠One of my favorite things about spring at my house is sitting on the back patio after dinner, enjoying the cool stillness after the sun has set and the scent of Jasmine is at its strongest. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop.⁠

Jerusalem Sage ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠This one was strategically planted in our garden in an effort to attract butterflies and other creatures to our yard. This is another plant that took off in our garden and is now 20 times its starting size after only a year or so. ⁠

⁠The flowers on this thing are wild. About 20 of them grow out of a pod and they are bright yellow and tubular. The leaves are beautiful and smell gorgeous. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop. ⁠

Lavender ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠Lavender is one of my favorites. It's beautiful, smells amazing, and can be used in everything. We planted a small start not far from where we put our tomato plants. The Lavender helps attract tons of bees, who then make their way to our tomato plants and around to the orange trees. ⁠

⁠Perhaps the best use of Lavender is in the @augiescoffee Lavender Vanilla Latte, which I am missing quite a bit as this quarantine lingers on.⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop. ⁠

Peruvian Lily ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠We didn't plant this one. In fact it appeared one spring in an awkward place in the front yard right underneath a row of Japanese Boxwood. We were set to pull it out thinking it was some unwanted weed and then it start blooming. It's been an annual visitor ever since. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop. ⁠

Red Corn Poppy ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠In February 2019 my wife and kids planted poppy seeds in one of our garden beds. The seeds sprouted and grew, blooming into beautiful poppies. As summer arrived and temperatures warmed, the poppies died off and we removed them. Nature had already done it's thing and seeded the flower bed again. This year, the poppies came back, in the same bed, and spreading a little further, bigger and heartier than before. ⁠

⁠This poppy was picked from our garden for a little home garden nature study to keep me busy in my home studio here in Downtown Riverside. Shot on a Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20 and finalized in Photoshop. ⁠

Sierra Madre Lobelia ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠I have limited prints available of select images from this series, link is in my bio!w⁠

⁠We picked this one up from @parkviewnurseryriverside specifically because it is a native plant to our region and will attract butterflies. Unfortunately it has had a rough go of it so far. Initially it struggles and seemed like it wasn't going to make it. After re-working some drip lines, it perked up a bit. The following spring it exploded, so much so that it was weighing itself down. I wasn't going to shoot it for this project because it was looking pretty rough, but we propped it up with some tomato cages and it looks to be springing right back. This is a resilient plant with very pretty little orange and yellow flowers. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio as part of an ongoing nature study. The camera I used is my trust Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and final edits made in Photoshop. ⁠

Sweet Broom ~ Garden 2020⁠

⁠I think we planted this sweet broom around February of 2019. It was so eye catching at the nursery, like bright yellow fireworks. It's a species that is dormant through late summer and fall, and we got a little worried when it didn't seem to be coming back, but now it is certainly coming back and is as beautiful as last year. ⁠

⁠This was picked from my garden and shot in my home studio in Downtown Riverside, CA. It was shot on a Fujifilm X-T2, processed in Capture One 20, and editing finalized in Photoshop.