Suzanne Havens

Giraffes at the Naples, Florida Zoo

Mar 162022

According to a Naples zoo keeper, female giraffes live together in herds. The male giraffes leave at puberty, live on their own and visit the females when they want some lovin’.

On a warm afternoon the giraffes took their turn eating endive right from the hands of visitors. A young girl shyly offered a giraffe a treat while her mom enthusiastically took photos, blocking a good shot, but definitely made a good memory.

One giraffe was 16 feet tall. The protrusions from their heads are not horns, but rather knobs to protect their heads. I was impressed how gently and languidly they moved. They enjoyed a shower from a hose. One rubbed the back of her head against a tree branch.

Notice how long and dextrous their tongues are! What a treat to have a telephoto lens and have the viewing stand so close to these beautiful creatures!

In Support of Ukraine

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Mar 102022

For all the creative problem solvers in the world, In What Ways Can We Help the Ukrainian People Thrive Again?

In the colors of the Ukrainian flag

Amazing Colors and Textures in Flowers and Leaves

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens No Responses »

Mar 062022

The flowers are quite small, so I used a macro lens to get very close and fill the frame. Usually I take a series of 10 to 15 images and stack them together in Photoshop. If there is any movement during the series, they won’t align and make ghost images, which is interesting in the abstract, but makes it hard to see the details. These live in the greenhouse and bloomed in mid-February.

Bromeliaceae,
Tillandsia_kautskyi

Bromeliaceae, Dyckia_saxatilis

Begonia

Bromeliaceae, Aechmea_recurvata

Permalink Marie Selby Botanical Gardens No Responses »

Mar 052022

Bromeliaceae, Guzmania_berteroniana

Araceae, Dracontium_plowmanii

Orchidaceae, Isochilus_carnosiflorus

Bromeliaceae, Aechmea_apocalyptia

Orchidaceae, Phalaenopsis_schilleriana

Photographers in the Gardens

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens No Responses »

Feb 262022

The Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith exhibit at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens interprets Mapplethorples photographs of plants and flowers in the gardens. Yes, these pedestals stand in the koi pond and yes, those are koi placidly swimming.

Scaphyglottis mesocopis is a tiny orchid. Each of these blossoms is about one half inch. This plant originated in Costa Rica. I made this photo from 10 stacked shots using a macro lens to reveal greater depth of field than from a single exposure.

New Year’s Cactus Blooms

Inspiration No Responses »

Jan 092022

My maternal grandmother’s sister gave this cactus to her in the mid 1930s. My grandmother gave this cactus to me in 1981. It has moved with us from Michigan to Atlanta to New York back to Georgia and now to Florida. I have pruned and propagated it many times to share its beauty. I used to call it my Christmas cactus, but now I have a different species that blooms at Christmas and this one blooms later, so I have renamed it my New Year’s cactus. This is the first bloom of the season. Rather than a side view, I decided to make the photos lying on my back looking up towards the sun to see inside and through the petals. I played with the backgrounds to give it a variety of moods.

Looking up to the sun

A bluer cast

A darker background

An imaginary background

Blurring the green leaves

Into the center with a dark background

Into the center with an imagined background

Christmas Is a Time of Miracles

Inspiration No Responses »

Dec 232021

Christmas Gives Hope to Us All

Inspiration No Responses »

Dec 112021

Wherever you are in the world may you be blessed with the love of our Great Creator!

Memorial for 9/11

Memorial No Responses »

Sep 112021

On September 20, 2015 I paid my respects at 9/11 ground zero for the second time. The first time was in November of 2001. So much had changed. Instead of rubble surrounded by fencing and personal memorials, there was a museum and waterfalls into pools on the footprint of the twin towers with names inscribed of those who died in the buildings and the first responders. There was a sculpture that looked like bird wings and a new tower. Many visitors quietly walked the site, paying respects, grieving.

I created these montages as my memorial. Can you see the ghosts? I call it Freedom Rising. Many years earlier I worked for American Express and went through or by the World Trade Towers on my way to work at the Financial Center. During the first underground attack of the World Trade Center I was working for Genlyte in Secaucus, New Jersey and could see the plumes of smoke from my office window.

I have great difficulty in understanding the hatred that motivates humans to hurt and kill one another, again and again and again. But I know that we must not be defeated by hatred. This is why I call my memorial Freedom Rising. We do not forget, but we use it as a way to contrast our love, optimism, and courage to build again, to soar like the phoenix from the ashes, and thank those who give of themselves to protect our freedom.

Freedom Rising

the waterfall and pool

The new tower cast in blue

The new sculpture

The museum, waterfall and pool, and visitors paying their respects

Floral Portraits

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens No Responses »

Aug 262021

As a volunteer photographer for the botany department of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, I have the privilege of being able to pose the plants in front of a black drape, light them and make a series of photos. Some of these are single images. Some are “focus stacked,” with multiple images made and then stacked by focal area in Photoshop. If the flower moves at all during the multiple shots, strange abstracts emerge. I enjoy them, but it is details that the botanists need. I keyword them and then they are added to a worldwide data base for botanists, who compare and contrast by family, genus and species. I have included one of the “ruler shots” to show the size of bloom.