Moonbeams and Peppermint!

The other evening, I was out on the back porch feeding Ms. Put (our cat) and her friend the stray Maine Coon cat when I smelled something that piqued my interest.  Earlier in the afternoon, a thunderstorm had come through and gave everything in the garden a good washing but this was not the "after-rain" clean smell..it was a definite minty aroma!  Right off I knew that the Peppermint Lilies must be in bloom!  Since the skies had cleared enough for the moon to shine through, I grabbed the camera and headed outside.  True, the lily would still be blooming in the morning, I just wanted to experiment with the camera a bit.  White or near-white flowers nearly "glow" when the moonbeams hit them and I was in hopes of capturing this in a photograph.  I made my way through the arbors and down the gravel pathway to where the lilies were planted.  The sweet scent was strong and I could see several large moths flitting about the garden.  They, too, were in search of the Peppermint Lily.

Once I rounded the bend in the path, the lily could easily be seen even though I had no flashlight with me.  The moon light reflected off of the petals with an almost ethereal radiance.  It was lovely!  I so hoped that the camera's eye would pick up exactly what I could see!  After several shots of the flower, I made my way back inside as the mosquitoes had decided to dine upon my blood!  Once inside, I studied the pictures that I had taken.  They were perfect!  The camera had picked up on the glow of the petals!

As I stared at the pictures, I realized that not only had the moon glow been recorded but the raindrops that still clung to the petals were also visible!  Oh, my goodness!  This idea of night photography with just the moon as a "flash" was so intriguing!  I wish there were more white flowers in bloom!  I would love to explore this a bit more but, alas, there were no other flowers glowing in the garden!  I will have to be patient and watch the garden blooms to have another trial run to see if this was skill or just a fluke of nature! Either way, the pictures made me smile..so all is good!