Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Hieracium

2 more pictures in notes above! :) Here is a lovely hawkweed blossom with others in bokeh behind. I knew this picture would be fun to play with, so...I did! Please roll your mouse over the picture to see the two other versions I made! :D Which do you like the best? (if any! :D)

If you've been visiting my stream for a while, you've probably noticed how much I love taking pictures at angles that are not common. This is a favorite, which is a near-side angle, focusing on just the petal edges and letting the rest of the flower drift away into bokeh. It's a bit challenging to get right. Too much depth of field and the rest of the flower is too clear. Too little depth of field and you don't get crisp focus on all the petals you're highlighting. It took me about half a dozen pictures to get this right, partly because there was a breeze and these flowers are on very long stems that never stop moving! Hilarious that I got it! :D The background was a solid, soft beige and I thought it would be perfect for a texture. I used to get all my textures over on Flickr but I just can't do it anymore...it's so slow over there, it's stupid. However, I'm delighted to say that ipernity has a couple of texture groups which offer free textures too. There are also many fun texture-based groups here as well if you want to learn more about this! Texture groups on ipernity Here's some technical information about how I created this picture! The texture I found was made by the extremely talented KaySeeArr and this is the image: #13 - FaceOfSol... . I altered the texture mostly by desaturating it to get closer to the beige background, and then I applied a canvas texture to it as well. The texture is at about 50% opacity so that it blended into the background nicely, and the flower petals are sitting on a layer above the other layers! :D (To use a texture like this, which is made available to use at its largest size, choose the option "Download the photo (original size)". You can then open it in Photoshop and paste it onto its own layer in the picture file you're working on!)

Isn't it fun to play with depth of field to create some fun bokeh?

I like the way this stem created a natural frame with one glowing blossom leaning out to the sun! :)

This flower should look a bit familiar, since it's another species of Hawkweed similar to the Greene's Hawkweed I posted just a couple of days ago!! If you take a look below, you'll see how different they are. Like I mentioned in my previous post, there are more than 10,000 recorded species of Hawkweed flowers, and it's likely that there are several growing on our property that I can't tell apart. Unfortunately, I have no idea which species this is, but it's obviously not a Greene's Hawkweed! Hawkweed flowers can be found all over the world and though they are similar to dandelions, they aren't in the same sub-family. Hawkweeds are considered an invasive weed in most places because it spreads so easily and is hard to get rid of, once established. This flower is, however, a favorite food for many insects including moths and butterflies. If you would like to know more about this flower, Wiki has two sources: Wiki: Hieracium Wiki: Hawkweed

Did you know there are more than 10,000 recorded species of Hawkweed flowers?!! WOW!! The name Hawkweed comes from folklore that said hawks ate these flowers to improve their eyesight--though they would do better to eat carrots! :D This flower can be found all over the world and though they are similar to dandelions, they aren't in the same sub-family. Hawkweeds are considered an invasive weed in most places because it spreads so easily and is hard to get rid of, once established. This flower is, however, a favorite food for many insects including moths and butterflies. If you would like to know more about this flower, Wiki has two sources: Wiki: Hieracium Wiki: Hawkweed I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :)

(Please scroll down to see two more pictures!) Oh look! It's another Hawkweed! :D Yesterday I posted a picture of the Pacific Northwest native White Hawkweed , but today I'm posting the third yellow Hawkweed species I've found on our property! There are over 10,000 species listed to date! One of the reasons there are so many is because this plant hybridizes easily between species and this new mix is considered to be a new species! It's notoriously difficult to identify many species from one another. On top of that, they have different numbers of petals, even within the same species, and that can be seen here in these flowers as well. If you would like to know more about this flower, Wiki has two sources: Wiki: Hieracium Wiki: Hawkweed NOTE: I'm definitely NOT an expert so I could easily be wrong about the identification of this flower!! It's really hard to know and I haven't found any flower that looks like this but a hawkweed! Please let me know if you have a better idea of what flower this might be.