G. Donald Bain
Bain Digital Graphics
Point Richmond, California

The Cactus Greenhouse
University of California Botanic Garden
Berkeley, California

480 by 272 pixels

G. Donald Bain, Bain Digital Graphics

The Geo-Images Project

E-mail Don Bain at The Geo-Images Project or at Bain Digital Graphics.

For the Global Synchronous Shoot I went up into the hills behind the campus to the University of California Botanic Garden. This is a little Shangri La draped over the steeply sloping sides of Strawberry Canyon, laid out geographically to represent the botanical regions of the world. Almost any day of the year one section or another will be in bloom, and that day the azaleas in the East Asian section were spectacular. Unfortunately the skies were dark and gray, threatening rain, so I choose to photograph indoors, in the desert house.

This greenhouse contains a staggering variety of cacti and similar succulent plants. Horticulturist Lawrence Lee was bringing out some Notocactus that had just come into bloom. In addition to its beauty, the botanic garden serves an educational purpose. Opposite the cactus area, for example, is a display on convergent evolution. It shows plants that, though not closely related, have adopted a similar form (in this case succulence) to deal with environmental challenges.

Shot on Kodak Ektapress ASA 1600 with a Nikon N6006, Nikon 28mm 2.8D lens, using my own custom VR mount. Processed by Custom Process in Berkeley, scanned in the Geography department on a Polaroid SprintScan Plus. Assembled usingthe QuickTime VR 2.0 Authoring Tools (MPW) from Apple and Adobe PhotoShop 4.0, on a Power Mac 8100/80.

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Last ironed by Rabbett on: Friday, April 24, 1998.