David's Iris Garden

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween!

07/22/2026

07/20/2026

More film back from the lab from this season. I always seem to forget I must tilt my twin lens cameras up, just slightly, since the lens which exposes sits just below the viewfinder/composition lens. So, yes I have chopped the tops of some of these flowers off when taking closeups due to parallax. Ha.

Tried some multiple exposure images at the end of this roll. Will definitely give this another go in the future with more consideration of composition and how they might overlay rather than just some quick random snapshots.

07/17/2026

My last Japanese Iris bloom shriveled up and “melted” a few days ago. So my season that began April 4th lasted over 100 days at 3 months and 11 days. Pretty good! Then, to my surprise, I found this SDB seedling blooming yesterday.

First time it has done this…so I’m hoping it keeps showing me its rebloom potential yearly. Also happens to be one of my late fathers’ favorites that he pointed out during one of the last times he was able to walk the beds. I was especially missing him lately and yesterday - very nice to see this iris again.

Added last photo of the maiden bloom in 2024 - the one he pointed out. I find it interesting how the colder spring weather makes it so much darker and contrasted as opposed to when it is blooming now.

07/15/2026

This is absolutely genius!

We've started our "Pod Farm"... At about 2 months after making TB crosses and right about when we harvest the SDB pods we gather the tall bearded stalks with crossed pods on them. They are trimmed at the base, put into the ground and gently watered off and on until the last pod is harvested. It is much easier to watch and collect the cracking seed pods if they are all in one place, saves a bunch of time and walking. Been doing this for a few decades now after learning it from Barry Blyth. (this is about 1/5th of this year's TB crosses)

06/16/2026

More 120 medium format film photos. This was probably CineStill 800 film - will know when I pick up the actual negatives. I'm pleased with how these images came out.

Last image tells me that the camera was likely loaded with the night exposure film and is of the Shell plastics plant, also known as an “ethane cracker,” in Beaver County, Pennsylvania - Monaca Shippingport area near Pittsburgh. It's not the greatest picture but I like to think it is worth it when I lug a bulky camera around for chance images.

I'm very much going to experiment more next season with this film because the color is very acccurate - I photographed that blue seedling (19.433A TB) multiple times with no less than 5 different cameras etc and these were by far the best representation of color - even beats the iphone turning that one purple. Minimal to no color balance editing in photshop.

06/14/2026

I. Pseudacorus. I've always wanted to paint a version of this yellow flower in the style of Audubon. Would probably include the stems, leaves, and its weird rhizome/roots if I ever get around to it.

06/14/2026

Color film images using Harman Phoenix 120. The color correction on this roll was such a nightmare that I will probably never load this brand of film into a camera again. I simply gave up on some of them as far as fixing the color balance. Not what I am looking to spend my time doing, especially with capturing iris flowers as accurately as possible.

06/14/2026

These are images from a 35mm roll of Cinestill 800 speed film. I like the grainy quality and how the film captures "movie-like" color. Typically it is used for night time exposures but can perform well in the daylight in the garden. Including some night images of random things and some "basement studio" pictures of an amaryllis to show what it does in low light.

06/10/2026

Warning: I'm going to nerd out on film photography in this post.

This season I pulled my film cameras out to shoot a handful of 120 medium format and a couple of 35mm rolls. Less than normal. A few rolls were loaded into cameras last fall so I had images from then and didn't finish them until recently but I don't think that is the reason for any of the results that follow.

Last fall I picked up some new film that is on the market. Specifically, Harman Phoenix and Harman Phoenix II film. When I got my scans back from the labs the color balance was so incorrect that I had to refer to phone images so I could identify iris flowers I should surely recognize. So, in short I had to make extreme color balance alterations. I try hard to steer away from this when utilizing in photoshop. But it was absolutely necessary.

The first two images are the raw files/scans that I got back from the lab without alteration. This is a "blue" seedling I liked this spring. You sure wouldn't know that from the first two images! The next two images are the color-corrected ones, and then finally, the photos I took as reference with my phone so that I know what I shot. I have learned that I have to always take an image with my phone for anything I shoot, especially 120 - since you only get 12 frames a roll. Unlike a phone I can't waste a frame taking an image of the tag/label in the photo prior.

Conclusion. I'm guessing the lab may have gotten some chemistry incorrect since I see that Phoenix films are tricky and do some wild things with color balance. Or maybe it's just the film itself. Boy, does it get blue/purple wrong! I like the grain of the film in the high-res versions, but this level of being off is not what I'm looking for in flower photography. In my opinion, Kodak Portra has always been my favorite and seems to always be the closest to reality or what your eye would see. That said, I'm always trying different boutique camera films and looking for new things to try. Recently I was really happy with CineStill Tungsten 800 and the experimental Film Photography Project Eastman Double-X B&W film company.

I'll be posting more film once I've edited them and added information to the images.