I remember as a kid my father's fascination with photographing flowers. I must have a boxful of his slides taken back in the 1950s. I myself really never gave photographing flowers much of a high priority until this summer when my wife and I traveled to Hawaii for our 50th wedding anniversary. The islands have many things to photograph including flowers, so I took some shots of a few. This one was a challenge, taken near the Fern Grotto on the island of Kauai. It was raining that day, and the wind was blowing but I managed to tweak the camera settings to compensate for the lighting and the motion. Thank gosh my camera is weather resistant. At any rate, here's the shot, and my question for those who might know is - what the heck is this flower? Thanks!

John

__________________
- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Looks like fuchsia, but probably is something more exotic.

Plants of Hawaii: Fuchsia boliviana (Fuchsia)

http://www.wildflowersofireland.net/...?id_flower=330

Not sure what the flower is...I don't think it's a bird of paradise. But I'm really impressed with the performance of the K-5 at ISO 3200. Nice creamy bokeh on the lens too and since it was at 135mm, I know it wasn't the kit lens. Care to share what lens it was? You may have convinced me to instead of buying another gun, to replace my K10 with a K-5. Ain't water resistant Pentax cameras great.

CW

__________________
μολὼν λαβέ

That was my "walk around all-purpose" lens that I took to Hawaii to travel light. It's the Pentax 18-135mmWR. The picture was shot in the TAv mode at 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3200.

I have better special purpose lenses, but this one fits about 80% of the shots I wanted to take in Hawaii - and it's weather resistant. A perfect match for the K-5.

John

__________________
- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Hawaii's famous for their Hibiscus but I'm not so sure on this one.There's a gazillion variations.

Here's a pic. of mine,I grew it from a cutting about 10 years ago and created a tree from it.This one needs to be "Treed" due to it's growth.Kinda weeping.Others can be "Hedged"It's about 10' tall and as big around.The caliber is about 6".

Iguanas love to munch on the blooms and so does my dog.?

Got any more pics. of it?

Attached Images

004.jpg (68.2 KB, 26 views)

__________________
Dum vivo cano

It does look like the Fuchsia magellanica, but I was surprised to see that plant grows in Ireland. Sure is a dead ringer for this flower in Hawaii, though. Thanks for the links!

John

__________________
- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Nope. It's the only one I saw, and as it was raining cats and dogs, I didn't hang around to shoot more.

John

__________________
- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Wife just laughed and said their all over in Germany.I think you nailed it.

__________________
Dum vivo cano

The wife and I drove around southwest Ireland in 2003 and the fuchsia were blooming everywhere along the roads, lovely!!!

The Ring of Dingle, Dingle, the Dingle Peninsula, sometimes called the most beautiful place on earth.

The Dingle News Photo Gallery

That reminded me and I found this picture. The fuchsia in the foreground is decidedly out of focus but I think you can see enough of it to note the similarity to your flower. This is in Connemara in western Ireland.

__________________
μολὼν λαβέ

Absoluely gorgeous!! My 'like ' button isn't woirking today, and the rest of the forum isn't working much better.

Looks a lot like the fuchsias from my childhood in SoCal.

It's a fuchsia.

__________________
Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired