Prunus too!

[Bonbon]

Being humble is a merit of character. May take a long time to learn but worth trying.
Try look at the flower blooming at this time of the year. Who can stay "not humbled" by the beauty and wonder of nature?
(Sorry about the wire, though. Not time yet to remove)

[Jester]

Wow , beautiful photography Bonbon

[miyagiman]

very, very, nice. i can appreciate this. can we see the whole tree?. dave.

[Bain]

very, very, nice. i can appreciate this. can we see the whole tree?. dave.

Indeed - and its full name.

I keep getting sidetracked on the way to work each day with all the early Cherry tree blossomings happening..

[NathanM]

Beautiful ^_^

[Jester]

The name of the tree that the larger flower belongs to is "Prunus Blireana" - Purple Leafed Plum and the smaller flowers belong to a tree called "Prunus Cerasifera - var. Atropurpurea" Purple Cherry Plum

Hey Bonbon, do you mind me asking what kind of camera you used for those brilliant shots? Was it automatic or SLR? How many mexapixels?

[astroboy76]

hey Jester,

I have taken pics similar to this with great quality also. I have an olympus digital camera. it isnt an SLR. i just use the macro feature. Is superb for close up shots

[Bonbon]

I think Jester is correct about the names. I always misplaced their name tag while potting and then forget their names. The "Prunus X Blireana" is a hybrid between Prunus Mume and Cerasifera. I got all my prunus from RayNesci and they are not expensive at all.

For the camera, It's a very old Minolta D7i, one of the first generation semi-pro camera. Not a DSLR. I like it very much, Robust and reliable. Serve me well for the past 10 years. I keep it handy near my bonsai working area and take lots of picture. I love to capture the beauty of my trees and record how they evolve over the years.

One misconception about DSLR is DSLR normally takes better pictures. It is not necessarily true. DSLR is more flexible in focal length because you can change lenses and the viewfinder is more truthful to the final image. I find that most adv. amateur DC can do a very decent job.

Macro helps to focus close. Use large aperture, long focal length will help to blur the background and make the subject stands out more thus reduce distraction. Steady hands and sharp focusing is important too.

[Webos]

Couldnt agree with you more...I'm a photographer by profession, and I truly think that the photo quality of point and shoot cameras nowadays is excellent. If you dont need an SLR...There aint really a need to get one. Go buy yourself a nice little Canon Ixus or something like that. Dont even bother yourself with how many megapixels it might have, its all a gimick. You dont really need more than about 3 megapixels to take good shots...6 if you are going to blow it up to poster size. The most important thing of all is the quality of the glass in the lens...good glass, crisp clear shots, crap glass, soft shots...

[Joel]

And a properly exposed film shot is ALWAYS nicer than a digital shot. . . . .

JayC

[Webos]

I dunno if I can agree with you there JayC.....With cameras these days, there aint much of a difference between Digital and Film. I'd agree that people do have some sort of romantic attachment to film..But side by side, I dont think many people would be able to tell the difference.

[Joel]

Hi Webos

I was always under the influence that the natural colour saturation (without alteration) was better (more realistic) with film. Perhaps it was just my photography teachers romantic obsession in that case. She was a bit odd. . . . .

JayC

[kcpoole]

Hi Webos
She was a bit odd. . . . .

JayC

Aren't they all.

Unless you were to be looking at a print direct from negative, a digital image side by side then you will have false artefacts degrading each one.
If you were to scan the Neg, then you will have the scanners limitations to deal with, and if you were to print the Dig image, you will have printer artefacts and issues as well.

The 2 mediums are different and cannot be directly compared as the processes involved are to dissimilar.

Ken

[Webos]

Oh no JC....what have we started! Back to the prunus! Nice flowers aint they?!!

[Si Van Nguyen]

That's beautiful! The flowers and the photography. Thanks for sharing.
I would love to have one of these bonsai.
Si