What's (in) the Picture?

Chris Breebaart Photography – finding stories

Posts from the ‘Flowers’ category

Living Room Roses

A close-up photograph of white roses with soft lighting, creating a warm ambiance.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – October 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Rose

A close-up image of a white rose with soft petals, set against a blurred dark background.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – October 2025

Having fresh flowers in the house is a blessing.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Autumn Announcing

A vibrant landscape featuring a field of orange flowers, a green canal with two white birds, and a bright blue sky with scattered clouds.
The Netherlands, Wassenaar – September 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Petals

Close-up view of light and shadow on flower petals in black and white.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – September 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version

Agapanthus

Close-up of a green flower stem with budding purple petals, against a blurred dark background.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Blue Hydrangea

Close-up of a cluster of blue hydrangea flowers with soft, delicate petals.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Outstanding

Black and white close-up of a Knautia Arvensis plant, showcasing its leaves and budding flower against a blurred background.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

In the front garden, next to the Japanese Anemone, there is a Knautia Arvensis. It is more easily known as Field Scabiosa.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Star

A close-up, black-and-white image of a Knautia Arvensis flower, also known as Field Scabiosa, standing tall in a garden. The flower has a star-like appearance with a slender stem.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

In the front garden, next to the Japanese Anemone, there is a Knautia Arvensis. It is more easily known as Field Scabiosa. It is literally a star.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Japanese Anemone

A close-up photograph of pink and purple Japanese Anemone flowers with delicate petals, set against a dark background.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2024

To close the series of the Japanese Anemone, a last one in color.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Monochrome Moods

Monochrome photograph of delicate flowers with soft focus, showcasing their intricate details and textures.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2024

I like monochrome photography for many reasons. One of them is the ability to play with the mood in the photo. Just by adjusting the aperture time or the opening of the lens, the same light delivers a different mood. This one and the photo I published yesterday, were shot on the same day.

Lens- Artist Challenge #364 is ‘Quiet Moment’. Close ups of natural beauty are a wonderful instrument to just be quiet, enjoying the view. And to realize all is connected.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Delicate

Black and white close-up photo of delicate flowers and buds against a blurred background, emphasizing their natural beauty.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

Lens- Artist Challenge #364 is ‘Quiet Moment’. Close ups of natural beauty are a wonderful instrument to just be quiet, enjoying the view. And to realize all is connected.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Outside

A serene landscape featuring a plowed field under a blue sky with scattered clouds, trees in the foreground, and a distant farmhouse.
The Netherlands, Voorhout – August 2025

Lens- Artist Challenge #364 is ‘Quiet Moment’. A bicycle ride to clear the head. Seeing the bulbs for Spring being planted.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Japanese Anemone

Close-up of a Japanese Anemone flower with light green leaves in the background.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

The Japanese Anemone in the front garden at close look.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

In Hindsight

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version

Hovering

Close-up view of pink flowers surrounded by green leaves in a garden, illuminated by morning sunlight, with a blurred background creating a 'hovering' effect.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

A plant in the front garden offers months of beauty in the sunlight of the morning sun. Using the portrait mode of the iPhone results in ‘hovering’ effects of parts of the plant that seem now unattached.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version

Front Garden Beauty

A close-up of colorful pink flowers amidst vibrant green leaves, illuminated by morning sunlight.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – August 2025

A plant in the front garden offers months of beauty in the sunlight of the morning sun.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Hosta

Close-up of delicate pink flowers emerging from lush green foliage in the garden of Castle Keukenhof.

The Netherlands, Lisse – August 2025

The garden of castle De Keukenhof

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Field of Dahlia 2

A vibrant field of green plants with blooming orange dahlias under a bright blue sky, showcasing the beauty of summer flowers.

The Netherlands, Voorhout – August 2025

In Spring this field produces either hyacinths, daffodils or tulips. In Summer this year it produces Dahlia.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Keukenhof Castle’s Garden

The Netherlands, Lisse – August 2025

In Summer the garden of castle De Keukenhof is filled with beautiful Dahlia’s.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Field of Dahlia

A vibrant field filled with blooming dahlias under a clear blue sky, showcasing various colors and growth stages.
The Netherlands, Voorhout – August 2025

In Spring this field produces either hyacinths, daffodils or tulips. In Summer this year it produces Dahlia.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Choices And Preferences 3 (Flowers)

I have a fondness for black and white aka monochrome. That grew on me. Mono was cheaper 50 years ago and more ‘easy’ to handle in a dark room. Monochrome gives something extra at times. The sphere, the grain. And over all these years I learned to see objects in monochrome, visualizing what something looks like in grays.

When I bought my first Nikon digital camera (the D70), I naively asked ‘where is the monochrome setting?’. It was not there. Shooting was color only. If I wanted mono I had to create it myself afterwards in Lightroom, Photoshop or an app like Snapseed. But lucky for me, on the iPhone and on the recent Nikon Zf, there are monochrome settings. To be honest, that was one of the reasons to buy a Zf. So now I have a choice: choose a mono or color setting, or turn color afterward turn it into mono.

I know the taste of my ‘audience’ is different than mine. In three days I like to find out more about your taste. What do you fancy more: a photo in mono or in color? 

This third and last one is about flowers, waiting for the recycle bin. The photo was shot in color.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Blue

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – July 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Drips (And Other Thoughts About Photography)

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – July 2025

This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #359 is ‘Tools of Photo Compositions: Lines, Colors and Patterns’. Photography is about seeing. But what do you see? I can only talk for myself. It all starts with an appeal. Something in the real world captures my eyes. Most of the times that is spontaneous. It is about being there in the moment. What I visualize tells me a story, a small whisper, ‘come, shoot me! It’s fun’. And when building the photo lines, patterns, colors (or monochrome tones) are tools to try to bring that story out. And then the shutter clicks. My photo’s are my story of the world. My way of giving ‘voice’ to something that made me press the shutter, that reflects inside me. Yet, my click with the image can be totally different than the click of the observer.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

White Agapanthus

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – July 2025


Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version

Contemplation

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – July 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version

Unique Dutch Stereotypes and Cherished Flowers: Chrysanthemum

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – July 2025

We Dutch are often described as being on the penny. Of course, we all wear wooden clogs. We eat stroopwafels all the time. We have a fetish for windmills. And do not forget to accuse us of creating our own country by fighting the sea. We drink to gain courage and let you pay your own meal. Add tulips and other bulb flowers to finish the picture of the Dutch. Oh yes, we are considered rude. We call it ‘direct’.

In the end we sure have a laugh about all that is said about us, Dutchies, worldwide. But if you combine being on the penny with buying flowers, you choose flowers that stay good for weeks: Chrysanthemum. As Johan Cruyff used to say: “every disadvantage, has its advantage”.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Exploring Dutch Gladioli: Culture and Significance

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – July 2025

In The Netherlands, we do grow lots of cut flowers. A lot of them are exported but there is plenty of supply for the domestic market. In our household we have fresh cut flowers every week. Last week we had these big fellows. Gladioli are famous for the saying ‘death or the gladioli’. A Dutch proverb that translates to ‘all or nothing’ or ‘do or die’. Success or failure.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Garden Joy: Agapanthus

The garden is a joy now, flowers popping up everywhere. The Agapanthus are doing very well this year. They are the diva’s this time of year. This is a white agapanthus, tweaking it a bit with Snapseed turned it into yellow all of a sudden.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Allium Afterglow

This is the last stage of the yearly cycle of a giant Allium. It comes in three photo versions after showing that amazing flower, that we enjoyed this year.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Hosta After Rain

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – June 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Sunflower

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – June 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Hosta

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – June 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version

Orchid

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – May 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

More Peony

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – May 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Peony

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – May 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Blue Belled Graveyard

England, Guildford – April 2025

Near the High Street of Guildford is a St. Mary’s Church with an old graveyard. The Church where Lewis Caroll used to preach under his real name.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using SnapseedGrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Blue Sunrise

England, Ranmore Common – April 2025

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Caught in between

England, Ranmore Common – April 2025

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Discovering Bluebells in Surrey: A Spring Adventure

England, Ranmore Common – April 2025

The brief for this weekly Lens-Artists Challenge #349 is ‘the first thing I thought of (when I saw this)’.
Bluebells are famous. But I never saw one with my own eyes in the wild until this Spring.

This Spring I saw them flowering in the woods of Surrey. Beautiful.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Wisteria 3

This is the Wisteria on its best! It is absolutely gorgeous, for us and the wild bees!

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Wisteria 2

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – May 2025

This is the Wisteria on its best! It is absolutely gorgeous, for us and the wild bees!

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Tulips by the bundle

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – April 2025

We are fortunate to have a supply of reasonably cheap fresh cut flowers throughout the year in The Netherlands.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Last Field

The Netherlands, Voorhout – April 2025

All the bulb flowers of Spring are now gone. We have to wait for next year to see tulips, daffodils and hyacinths ruling the fields of our flat lands. Until then we enjoy nature exploding in its full force, and after that its decline into Winter. But for now it’s amazing how fast everything springs out.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Poppy Anemone

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using SnapseedGrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

A Rose is A Rose is A Rose ….

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – April 2025

International Labour Day, not a red rose but a white one.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using SnapseedGrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Rosa

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – April 2025

In The Netherlands a lot of flowers are produced. We are lucky to be able to enjoy fresh flowers in the house.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using SnapseedGrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Yellow Tulip Road

The Netherlands, Voorhout – April 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.

Tulips

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest and Voorhout – April 2025

Tulips in the garden and on the field. It might be that the bulbs for our red tulips next year in the garden come from this production field in Voorhout.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using SnapseedGrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Magnolia Revisited

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – April 2025

This year I followed the flowering of the magnolia tree in our front garden. The mono photos are taken with Nikon Zf, the colors come from the iPhone.

Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using SnapseedGrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

The White House

The Netherlands, Voorhout – April 2025

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta.  Click the picture for a larger version.