For some reason, I’ve never been attracted specifically to nature photography. Sure, things like flowers and trees are part of landscapes, but it takes a deliberate thought process to isolate and capture the smaller items. On a visit to Stephen F. Austin State Uninversity in Nacogdoches, Texas, we ended our stay with a walk through the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden. It was a pretty spring Sunday morning and we had the place to ourselves. Many of the azaleas were still in bloom, but there were some unexpected surprises.

This flower is from the Chinese Snowball tree. The large flower heads start out lime-green before they change to white and they get 6 to 8 inches across. This tree was about twenty feet tall and full of these beautiful snowballs.