Wow, good photos! I have a heck of a time taking good pictures of plants and flowers. I don't know if it is the camera or me.

Thanks for posting.

Derek,

One of the most common mistakes I've made in the past has been to photograph flowers in bright sunlight. It just makes for photos that are too high-contrast and stark. You can see the first two above are little contrasty because of that. The send two use the sunlight as backlighting, which often creates a cool effect, especially with tulips, since they have such large petals. The old adage to always put the sun behind you is really not true, even when photographing people. You just don't want it glaring in your lens, but often having the light come from behind the subject is pretty cool.

Those last four photos above were taken in open shade, and that lighting allows the colors to show much more naturally, without the stark contrasts. But my favorite is the one with the pink tulips glowing from the backlighting!

Thanks for the tips. Although all your pictures are good, I do really like the shot of the pink tulips. Do you use a tripod? I took a picture today of our Japanese Maple backlit by the sun. It turned out pretty good. (Our Japanese Maple is so small we call it our japanese twig.)

Sometimes I use a tripod, but I didn't on these. I find the tripod gets in the way too much when I'm trying to move around and find just the right angle for flower photos. But when I'm taking pictures of my family, I usually do use the tripod, since it's so disappointing to have gotten a great shot of everyone only to find out later that there was a little blurring from not being steady enough with the camera.

Speaking of Japanese twigs, I succeeded in getting nine seedlings to sprout from seeds off my Japanese maple. I realize I'm going to be raising these in pots for a few years before they're big enough to plant, but that's one of the beauties of gardening -- it sure teaches patience and a better long-term perspective! Here are some photos of my maple last fall (click to enlarge):

And here are the babies:

What gorgeous maples. Are they green in summer? I didn't realize Japanese maples could have such beautiful fall coloring. Mine certainly didn't. The maple I have is called something like Red Filligree. Sound familiar?

I need to post pictures again sometime. Just don't be prepared to be impressed with my photography.

When does a Japanese maple develop seeds?

"When does a Japanese maple develop seeds?"

I'd like to know too. Especially if you are collecting a few extra. I was wondering the same thing about a couple of trees I noticed near where I work. They were probably only a few feet tall, maybe a three to four foot spread, and they have thin red leaves.

By the way, what is the best way to figure out how to identify a type of tree?

Maple seeds develop right now, but the ones that will be most fertile are ones that stay on the tree till fall. These seedlings are from seed I collected in September or October last year. I put them in the fridge for two months in Jan-Feb and then planted them. I found a great set of instructions for "stratifying" Japanese maple seeds at a forum hosted by the University of British Columbia. Check that out for more info on sprouting them.

Cycler, I think one handy tool is a field guide on trees. You can read a review of several of them here. I have also gotten some good use out of a relatively simple web application hosted by the National Arbor Day Foundation. You should give it a try!