At one of the parks near my home the park system was cutting down ash trees that were dying from infestation of ash borers.

They placed the tree trunks in an open field.

Over time some of the trunks would crack open at the base. 

In the field around the trunks were Knapweed flowers and some of seeds from the flowers blew into the cracks of this tree trunk and soon emerged a flower.  

Sometimes you find flowers growing in odd places like a crack in a sidewalk or even a crack in a tree trunk.

Join my new online Flower Photography Club. For more information and to join the club, click the link. Flower Photography Club - Michael G Moats

Cup flower shot with Fuji X-T30 MKll and Tamron 18-300 lens. Used a printed background and shot at f/32 for max depth of field.

Here is the finished image using creative filters in Smart Photo Editor.

The original out of the camera.

Join my new online Flower Photography Club. For more information and to join the club, click the link. Flower Photography Club - Michael G Moats

On January 2nd, 2026, I launched my new Flower Photography Club online. The Flower Photography Club will be like a traditional camera club with a live monthly meeting on zoom.

Each month we will have a live zoom meeting which will feature a special guest speaker covering their style of flower photography, tips on post processing, composition, equipment, places to photograph flowers, plus more.

If you are unable to attend the monthly meetings, they will be recorded, and you will have a link to where all the videos will be stored so you can view them anytime you like.

We will have a private Facebook group that can only be accessed by our members and no one on Facebook will be able to access or see our posts. It will be a place for our members to share their flower images and a place to ask questions for help. I will also have a monthly theme which members can shoot and post in our Facebook group.

The membership fee is a onetime payment of $79, and you never have to pay again. This price will go up in the future so sign up soon.

On the first day of each month members will get an email with information of the day, time, and zoom link for that month's live meeting. The same info will be on my website blog and our club Facebook group page.

If you would like to sign up, click the link below.

Flower Photography Club - Michael G Moats

As I would travel throughout the country teaching my macro boot camps, I would find botanical gardens near the area that I was holding my workshop. 

I was teaching in the Carlsbad, CA area when I found that not far away was the San Diego Botanical Gardens. 

Boxed areas with lots of great subjects. 
 

If you are visiting the San Deigo area check out the gardens.

Here are some of my favorite images.

Join my new online Flower Photography Club. For more information and to join the club, click the link. Flower Photography Club - Michael G Moats

The new year is starting off really well as I got to shoot some flowers and plants at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Dixboro, MI about one hour drive from my home. The gardens are maintained by the University of Michigan.

I haven't been there in about five or six years and was happy to see a lot of new subjects to shoot.

I don't have many flower images from desert plants, and I was excited to find some in bloom, which has not been the case whenever I have been there in past years.

One problem with shooting in botanical gardens is the clutter behind the flowers, so I made sure I had backgrounds to hold up behind the flowers. 

These images were shot with the Fuji X-T30 MKll and the Tamron 18-300. All shot at f/22 to f/32.

Join my new online Flower Photography Club. For more information and to join the club, click the link. Flower Photography Club - Michael G Moats