The Flickr Poorphotographictechnique Image Generatr

(Updated on January 17, 2025)

In the basilica's Green Cloister (Chiostro Verde). This was taken from the eastern side, looking northwestward.

For the geological rundown on the rock types discussed here, take a look at the Part 10 description.

As I noted in another recent post, it's been intimated that I lack sufficient photographic technique. Oh dear. I suppose this judgment is especially valid when one considers such other posted photos as this one and this one and this one and this one.

I've thought about this a great deal, and have decided that my being devoid of technique is a good thing. The photos I post may be improperly placed or lit or framed by someone else's standards. But they're still worthy to me at least, as magical quanta of information. So the work goes on, critiques notwithstanding.

Case in point: this scan of a faded 1977 slide in which the cloister's courtyard turf is bleached white and the earthen-brown pillars of Pietraforte Sandstone are almost as pale.

At least that great Santa Maria Novella motif, the interplay of green Prato Serpentinite and white Carrara Marble in the arch voussoirs and wall panels, is still basically identifiable as such.

This small but famous enclosure is home to a series of frescoes, including those by one of my favorite Renaissance painters, Paolo Uccello. His surname translates to "Bird," while that of one of my top-ten early-Baroque composers, Marco Uccellini, means "Little Birds" or "Chicks" in the original ornithological sense. But once again I diverge.

The Green Cloister is also a wonderful island of peace and a place to escape the touristic hubbub and the artistic and architectural overkill that is Florence. During my time in Italy I always came here an hour or two before I had to catch a train in the station across the square. I sat, I strolled, I read, I reflected.

So did others, wholly contained within themselves. Note the woman still perceptible in this image. She exists in a bright and perfect world, perusing her newspaper. Ah, the Age of Newspapers, now dearly departed.

I also can't help doing some architectural botany here. The two severely fastigiate evergreens shown are Italian Cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens). If I am interpreting what I see on Google Earth correctly, both trees continue to flourish. The big guy in this shot is now a monster, and the little plant has grown over the decades to be quite lofty, too.

You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Architectural Geology of Florence album.

This image shows the same plant featured in Part 5. So it was taken about 30 yd (27 m) east of Old Ore Road, on the Chihuahuan Desert floor 500 yd (457 m) east of the foot of Cuesta Carlota, and about 2.0 road mi (3.2 km) north of its intersection with the paved park road to Rio Grande Village (Park Road 12).

This specimen, a fine representative of Argemone chisosensis, otherwise known as the Chisos Prickly Poppy, does an excellent job of attracting desert pollinators to its large, five-petaled flowers. But it must also try its best to ward off hungry browsing animals. Any wildflower enthusiast foolish enough to touch its leaves is likely to suffer multiple puncture wounds.

Many online images of A. chisosensis show plants with pink or lavender blossoms, but the only examples I've seen—all from this one locale—were a chaste white instead.

Recently, having been told, more or less, that I have no photographic technique, I feel compelled to prove that point conclusively. I'm doing so by posting this shot. The wind was blowing pretty vigorously when I took it, and the four flowers visible were deflected somewhat to the right. So I failed to capture all their inner anatomy and scenic potential. Mea maxima culpa.

Had I proper photographic technique, I would have held up the tour I was leading at the time for several hours, till the breeze died down. Or I would have packed a large portable wind barrier. I would also have waited for the Earth to rotate until the lighting was perfect, and I also would have had a more expensive camera with a bagful of detachable lenses.

However, now that I know the importance of proper photographic technique, I will jettison my previous, uncreative reason for taking photos: to simply document, record, and learn something rather than be a technology-obsessed shutterbug who doesn't care to know what he's looking at.

By the way, if you'd like to see more pathetically unartistic examples of my lack of photographic technique, take a look at this and this and this and this.

To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my my Integrative Natural History of Old Ore Road album.