Mohn and its relatives

Mohn is my maiden name, therefore - and as a botanist and gardener - I have a special relationship to the family of Papaveraceae. Red wild poppies (Papaver rhoeas) have a surprising resilience. Seeds may lie dormant in the ground for years and only show life and come to flower when the earth is moved - when you turn over the soil in your garden, when fields are plowed or shaken up otherwise as on the killing fields of WWI. On November 11 I was in London visiting the Tower with the spectacular arrangement of 888246 ceramic poppies  to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of what the British call the Great War.
My favourite Mohn plant is Romneya coulteri, the Californian tree poppy, with huge white fluttery petals, and an egg yolk like center. A good example is growing in Regents Park, London, quite close to the entrance close to Regents College. In Germany they are terribly difficult to propagate and grow, I have had one in my previous garden on a southwest-facing completely dry wall in deep gravel with controlled watering. It grew well and flowered, but I could not take it with me; they don't like to be moved.
I have also grown the blue poppy from the Himalayas (Meconopsis spec.), that thrives so well in Scotland. In Germany most summers are too hot, they prefer a constant cool climate with light shade. Unfortunately, I am not the only one who likes them - the slugs in my garden seek them out as soon as leaves appear in spring so you have to be vigilant every single day to protect the defenseless little leaves as they appear.
Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh poppy) is an easy-going pretty plant that seeds freely and seeks out its own places where it will thrive. It lightens up any border or dark area beneath rhododendrons with its bright yellow and orange short-lived petals and grey-green dissected leaves.
Most Papaver are of therapeutic value -  alkaloids in the milky substance of near ripe seed pods and stems are used for narcotics, while the seeds themselves, which contain very little opiates, are used for baking and cooking. Papaver somniferum, the "sleep-carrying" opium poppy, will send you dreaming .... Mohn and its relatives

Flowers and Plants in Still and Not-So-Still Life

A series of flower images with a variety of techniques: Macros, double image overlay, controlled camera shaking, long exposures or multiple exposures with and without flash. I always try to give plants a "life" and some movement to avoid showing them as boring and static beautiful statues.

                                                                                                         Plant life
My garden is in constant change, through the year, through wind and rain, as are the plants. They grow, fruit and seed in response to their changing environment and  although they have their roots down in the ground, they communicate with  neighbouring plants even over long distances and send their messages through wind and soil with substances like aetheric oils and other secondary metabolites.

A Room with a View

Windows - "Das Fenster im Blick" is next year's theme for the Fotoclub exhibition in Volkshochschule Bad Homburg. Windows, open or closed, with or without a view, and other less obvious samples. 

                                                                                                        A Room with a View

Me Myself I

I created this series when I came across the book "self-portrait photography" by Miss Aniela  (www.missaniela.com), a young British-Polish woman (meanwhile commercial fine arts photographer) who creates beautiful dreamlike scenes with herself as a model. I liked the idea to try this out and it also helped me learn Photoshop. Photoshop Elements has a photomerge feature which allows you to do these kinds of composings from multiple photos with ease.

                                                                                                                           Me Myself I

Colours of Music

Kulturzentrum Englische Kirche, Bad Homburg, presents an exhibition "Fotografie aus Leidenschaft" from Nov 19 to Dec 14, 2014. 
Four of my images from the "Klangfarben" Series are included (Klangfarben). Three pictures were made using in-camera image-overlay technique and colouring with U-points in Capture NX2 afterwards. "Joy of Music" was made by zooming during a long exposure at a concert and again adding artificial colour in Capture NX2 afterwards. Prints were made on Kodak metallic paper. 

New on Blogger

New on Blogger! 

I am setting up this blog to give some background information on my photographic projects at  www.mohn-images.com.