Photographers have the power to stave off the death of ephemeral flowers.

Click on photo for larger image.

The plants Shirley Finfrock preserved were huddled on the corner of Cowper and Lincoln across from the Palo Alto Presbyterian Church. They were only a fraction of a group of more than 30 thousand tulip bowls planted by the Gamble Gardens gardener.

"I knew that the flowers wouldn't last forever," said Finfrock. "I wanted a record of what they looked like."

Finfrock, who is retired, has been taking photographs since she was 10 years old. For Christmas, while the two were stationed in Germany, her husband gave Finfrock the first camera she owned. It was the first year of their marriage, and he was in the army.

Finfrock has been taking panoramic pictures for the last three years, but she said her panoramic camera tends to produce images that are more "spectacular."

"It's a different perspective than you're used to seeing," she said.

"Parrot Tulips Panoramic View" was originally one of many photos Finfrock made into notecards and sent as gifts to friends. But it was the tulips that seized the most attention and got her thinking about the photo contest.

"Everyone raved about that one," Finfrock remembered. "I thought well, maybe I'll submit it."

-- Bill D'Agostino