Flowers and Plants Photos

Here are digital photos of the flowers and plants of the Hawaiian Islands.  Jon Larson, co-founder and currently President of the Iliahi Foundation of Hawaii, presents these photos from the collection of photos he has taken over the years.  They were taken; out of doors in their natural state, in nurseries and greenhouses, in tended gardens as the national tropical botanical gardens of Limahule and Allerton on the Island of Kauai, in florist shops, in plant shows, and from orchids he grows in his own home.  Enjoy!

 Orchids

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bromeliads

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

Anthiriams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

Shell and Torch Ginger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird of Paradise

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the non-flowering plants that we encountered were of unimaginable beauty and variety as they welcomed us at every turn in the tropical botanical gardens we visited at Limahule and Allerton and the tropical rain forests of Kauai.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bromeliad "Fasciata Morgana" blossom.

 

 

 

 Our Native American brothers and sisters believe it takes the loving cooperation of Mother Earth and Father Sky and the Great Spirit to create such beauty as we find contained in the flowering and non-flowering plants of "Turtle Island", the name many Native American first peoples have given to what we call Mother Earth. We wonder why such beauty was created in the first place. This innate beauty certainly far exceeds the basic functions required to attract insects for plant pollen reproduction. Our own attempts (through further hybridization) to improve on the basic plants we have found throughout the world are mere cosmetic improvements on perfection. One is drawn to believe this excessive natural beauty of the plant kingdom was surely created at the hands of God (the Great Spirit), as were we, to all share together the incredible beauty of these blossoms and all of the other plant creations we experience here on earth..

Photo Editor's notes: These photos were all taken by Jon with the new Sony Mavica digital camera he purchased for the 40th Reunion. No flash was used. The pixel count setting is Normal (not Fine). A 480 x 640 setting is very adequate for close up photo work of flowers and plants. This camera has a 14x digital zoom. In some cases self focus was used in the close ups. Photos are transferred to the PC via floppy diskette from the Sony. Each photo is typically 200kb+ at this point. Mavica software supplied by Sony is used to edit each photo. Trim cropping is done and brightness is sometimes adjusted. In some cases, paintbrush editing is used to clean up a background flaw. The digital images are stored in jpeg format. The Mavica stores a photo in disk files too large to be practical on the Internet and the '59 web site). Therefore Corel Draw 5.0 is then used to reduce the disk storage by about 85% in most cases down to about a 20kb file for each photo. The loss of clarity is hardly noticeable as per the fine quality of these photos. The HTML program is then changed to call the new photos. Photo-journalism will be changed by the advent of the digital camera. Photos can be quickly edited and inserted onto the Internet for viewing worldwide. Enjoy!