Last week, our orange tree was loaded with buds.

This prompted me to take a closer look with my Moment macro lens for iPhone.

As I got closer to the soon-to-be-opening blossoms, I couldn’t help but notice the pungent odour of citrus. The smell definitely had a citrus base, but there were also strong, earthy notes. I just wanted to keep my nose inside the tree and fully experience one of the many smells of spring. Yes, it’s springtime here in the RGV! I’ll expand on this in a future post.

After I caught a few photos, I realized that I’d never before researched the development of an orange. This is possibly because due to the harsh winters in our part of Canada, growing citrus trees outdoors is an impossibility. So … even though for as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed my daily orange (s), as one of my favourite fruits, Ive never given them much thought beyond loving their refreshing and juicy sweetness and loving them for all of the great nourishment they provide.

The first thing I was curious about was the life cycle of an orange, and I learned that from the time the tree sets blossoms until the fruit is ripe and ready, can be anywhere between 10 and 15 months, depending on the variety of orange tree, the location, and the climate. That’s longer than it takes to make a human child! Little wonder an orange is so perfect.

Do you like oranges? Whether you do or not, I hope you’ll continue to follow along with me on my photo journey of the makings of an orange.

Photo Note: I shot my feature photo at morning golden hour. I used the Moment macro lens attached to my iPhone and took several photos from different angles, in hopes of getting some good light in at least one of them. There was a bit of a breeze that day, thus the blur in the elongated bud. That was unavoidable, because I didn’t want to wait an extra day in case I missed that phase. In post processing, I first corrected the white balance. Out of habit, I had used the hood for the macro lens, so the whites weren’t as bright as the actual flower. I don’t think the hood is necessary at golden hour. The other corrections I did were minor edits with Snapseed’s details tool, which allows you to enhance structure and sharpen more. I find this a useful tool with bright white or red flowers in particular, because these two colours can easily lose details in a photo, just through their inherent vibrancy.

“My father always said that if you want oranges, you have to go to where the oranges grow. “

Terrence Howard