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Monday, October 27, 2008
[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- The Sequel!
The last transmitted light post went over so well, I thought I'd do it again. (All posts tagged "transmitted light" can be found here.) I wound up with kind of a mixed bag, though: some of these are pretty cool, and some of them were a little disappointing to me.
Monstera deliciosa. Obviously a bigger, more split leaf would have been more interesting (if harder to photograph), but bless me, I can not get mine to split yet. I think it's mostly a temperature thing: too much air conditioning this summer.
Homalomena 'Selby.' Looks remarkably like the Homalomena 'Emerald Gem' picture in the older post, which surprised me since the two cultivars don't look much alike in size, color, shape, or pattern.
Schefflera actinophylla. A favorite from this batch, despite the plainness. I always enjoy when I can get a picture to be more or less in focus.
Peperomia obtusifolia variegata. Possibly the leaves are too thick for this to work out well, but the pattern is novel.
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Codiaeum variegatum, probably 'Petra.' I was at work thinking about this post when it occurred to me that it was sort of strange that I hadn't thought of doing Codiaeum variegatum already. And then I remembered that I don't have any at home anymore, and I stopped wondering.
Anthurium 'hookeri,' new leaf. Don't have a real name for this birdsnest-type Anthurium; it was sold to us as Anthurium hookeri, a species, but I've since learned that that's just what people call Anthuriums they don't know when they have to come up with a name for them. It's an awesome plant regardless; you should see the one we have at work.
Saintpaulia ionantha 'Kris.' The weird cloudy/hazy look is mostly because the leaf was too small to take up the whole picture and be in focus simultaneously, so I took a big picture and cropped it down, but I still had a lot of light from the light source hitting the lens while I was taking the picture. Hence the flare in the lower right.
Neoregelia 'Gazpacho.' Another favorite, mostly just for the colors. It's a very good houseplant, too, by the way. I ♥ Neoregelias.
Euphorbia pulcherrima. Pretty sure this is a bract, not a leaf.
Dieffenbachia 'Tropic Snow.' Because nobody does variegation like Dieffenbachia does variegation.
I'm thinking how lovely some of these would be as designs for stained glass windows. I can imagine lieing in a cool room with patterns of greenish light just washing over everything.
ReplyDeleteDelicious.
Esther
I love the wonderful texture and color of the veining.
ReplyDeleteI'd thought the same thing, Esther. Do you suppose leaves were the original inspiration for stained glass? I certainly wouldn't be surprised. . . .
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised either. It's an interesting thought.
ReplyDeleteI know the technical reason is that it wasn't possible in the early days of glass to make large sheets of it but it may be that seeing light through leaves like this suggested to the first stained glass craftsmen that lines can enhance rather than spoil an image.
. . . and there is such a difference between the effects of stained glass where the light is used . . . and stained glass where it's just rather an odd way of making a picture and where its presence doesn't have any impact on the interior.
Im now thinking how lovely it would be if one were to own a South facing Victorian house with a rather dull hall - and to install one of your leaf pictures in glass as the window on the front door.
Incredible!
Esther