http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/ Cracked Lens is an online gallery of selected digital images by Alastair Robinson en Copyright 2008 Alastair Robinson Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:15:44 +0000 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.21 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss ]]>Laelia harpophylla (Orchidaceae) is a rupicolous species within the Laelia subsection Parviflorae, being a small-flowered Brazilian species confined to seasonally wet foothills toward the north of the country.

Small flowered, in this case, means about three and a half inches across, which is pretty hefty to you and I, but nothing on the larger flowered species within the genus. Nonetheless, what this species lacks in size ("because size matters") is easily compensated for through sheer robustness of colour and structural finesse.]]> http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2007/04/laelia.php http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2007/04/laelia.php Sat, 21 Apr 2007 11:15:44 +0000 ]]>Renanthera (Orchidaceae) is a genus of monopodial terrestrial and epiphytic orchids that occur across Southeast Asia. Their flowers are borne in their dozens aloft branched inflorescences, their modest colouration quite a characteristic of the genus!

This Renanthera monachica was photographed today at the Royal Horticultural Society's annual Orchid show in Vincent Square, Pimlico, just a wonderful sunny day's wander across the river from Vauxhall.

This proved to be a subject whose colour just had to be taken down a notch or two on the saturation front; it was borderline unreal in the flesh, and rather more so in my snapshot.]]> http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2007/03/renanthera.php http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2007/03/renanthera.php Flowers Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:03:12 +0000 ]]>
Something as commonplace as the casting of a shadow really isn't quite so tawdry when that shadow is cast by a vibrant, living sphere of over twelve thousand kilometres in diameter. It's an incredibly humbling and moving sight, though one which is all too easily regarded as a trivial curiosity in our climate of widespread indifference. Cynical sentimentalist? Perhaps.]]> http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2007/03/eclipse.php http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2007/03/eclipse.php Objects Sun, 04 Mar 2007 10:14:53 +0000 ]]>
Seen here not so long after the Lord Mayor's Fireworks, the British Airways London Eye, or Millennium Wheel, burns red in honour of Commonwealth veterans and civilians killed during times of war.

At 135 metres high, it is the largest wheel of its kind in the world, and has surpassed the Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa and Statue of Liberty to become the most popular tourist attraction on the planet.

It ain't no Forbidden City, or even a Potala, but it certainly has a place in the hearts of many, if not most, Londoners.]]> http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2006/12/remembrance.php http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2006/12/remembrance.php Places Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:07:45 +0000 ]]>Ophrys funerea (Orchidaceae), comes from a group of bee orchids that are quite unlike those we imagine as being more typical of the genus.

Closely related to the fly orchid, this member of the fusca-lutea sub-family has characteristically sombre blooms that, on close inspection, are richly marked in colours deep red and titanium blue.

As with its near relatives, pseudo-copulation between insect and flower characteristically takes place in reverse. No, the flower doesn't mount the insect, rather the insect faces downwards, its abdomen directed towarded the interior of the flower to unwittingly gather pollinia on its rear.]]> http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2006/11/funerary.php http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2006/11/funerary.php Flowers Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:14:11 +0000 ]]>
This meant that attending the Lord Mayor's Show finale last weekend was mandatory, and while it wasn't the best display I've ever seen -- that title is held by a record-attempting display in Kuala Lumpur to mark a Sultan's birthday -- there were certainly some mesmerising lights up in the sky.

Even in the absence of pyrotechnics, however, London was resplendent in her Autumnry, buildings, boats and traffic alike all magically shimmering in the glittering, black surface of the Thames.]]> http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2006/11/glitter.php http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2006/11/glitter.php Places Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:43:43 +0000 ]]>Ophrys cornuta (Orchidaceae) is, at least amongst the more typical forms of its near relatives, a contrary looking flower. Its lateral lobes are thrust forward, protruding like little pairs of lances toward all that approach. And yet these blooms are some of the most elegant in the genus, their lobes sometimes reaching impressive, delicately long proportions.

This population is lonely though, numbering mere tens of plants and representing the only known Italian stand.

Through Greece and into Asia Minor, similar plants certainly do exist, but these are, some believe, an independent species, Ophrys scolopax, making the individual you see an even rarer expression of nature.]]> http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2006/11/dissident.php http://www.crackedlens.co.uk/2006/11/dissident.php Flowers Sat, 11 Nov 2006 10:10:40 +0000