“It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together.” — Mary Oliver, “Praying”
Every spring I’m out looking for these. I have a few spots I go back to year after year, and I’ll stop for them when I find them somewhere new. The Giant Blue Iris is just one of those subjects I keep coming back to.
A lot of it is the color. That blue-purple is hard to find in nature at this intensity, and when the light is right it almost glows. The green backgrounds you get in the environments where these grow don’t hurt either — the contrast does most of the heavy lifting for you. As a subject, the Giant Blue Iris is generous that way.
What keeps me coming back isn’t that I’ve figured them out — it’s the opposite. Each bloom has its own character. The way the petals open, how the light catches the falls, the angle that feels right for that particular flower on that particular day. I’m still exploring. I don’t think that changes no matter how many springs I’ve shot these.
The bloom window is short, and I’m not interested in missing it. Seeing the first Giant Blue Iris of the season still means something — not in a dramatic way, just as a marker. Spring is here. Time to go find out what this year’s flowers have to say.
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