Picture of the Day - 3/14/09

Here's a good reason to carry a small camera with you everywhere. We were driving through downtown Santa Ana yesterday and Sheila found this bird of paradise she wanted me to capture. The first shot had a background that was too cluttered, so I tried moving more to the left to include more of the building. I also chose to photograph partly into the sun (didn't your mother tell you never to do that?) so I could get some backlighting on the flower. Cropping out a bit of distraction on the left side yielded this shot of the flower. A native to South America, the flower is pollinated by birds, which perch on the spathe (blue part) when visiting the flower. The weight of the bird opens it to release the pollen onto the bird's feet, which is then deposited on the next flower it visits.