“I must have flowers, always, and always.” 
― Claude Monet

I’ve seen these pretty clumps of pink flowers along the roadside before. Many times. I’ve just driven by, last year I saw some and turned the car around to make some photos, but they turned out to be quite disappointing, a bit out of focus, and not showing the characteristics of the flowers well. They are quite pretty and really stand out because of their moderate height and large pink blossoms.

This year I found a few along a local roadside and took the time to gather a few for studio work. It was a hot day, so I carefully clipped them and placed them on the passenger seat floor, in a box to keep them cool, hoping they would not wilt too much. When I got them home, I place them in a vase for a few minutes, though they did not seem to have suffered much from the short journey home.

I made a few images from different angles, but as is usually the case with my compositions, the first, intuitive shot was the best, showing the nature of the flower, with it’s frilly pink petals, a partially emerged blossom and a group of buds, not yet opened below. To this point, I had no idea what type of plant it was, the buds looked a bit like holly-hock. So, as I always do, I went to my wildflower books and found out that it is a musk mallow. I found that a curious name, till I gave it the ‘sniff test’. Yes, musk mallow is indeed a good name for this. So, one more mystery plant identified and documented.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
0.8 sec, f/40.0ISO 100

High Resolution image on 500px

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