Following on after Red (now expanded with new images) and Green, this is my third post about Nature’s colors.  Yellow is a complementary color of blue; when they appear together they provide a striking contrast, as shown by the two examples below.

Blue tends to produce a calming effect and to slow down our metabolism. Dark blue is the preferred color of corporate America being used in Ford, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung logos.

Blue plants

Blue is a prominent color amongst flowers and familiar blue flowers include the expansive sheets of bluebonnets that transform the Texas prairies in April where it was chosen as the state flower. A special spring feature of British woodlands in southern Britain is the solid blue carpets of bluebells. Indeed, the British poet Tennyson was moved to write they 'seem like heaven breaking up through the earth'.

Blue flowers are also be found up mountains, where green turf is enlivened when blue gentians open their stunning blue trumpets on a sunny day. The tubular flowers open only in response to sun; however, individual flowers can be induced to briefly open by breathing warm air on them repeatedly, but you have to be speedy about taking a shot before the flower closes up again! 

For centuries, rose breeders have strived to produce a true blue rose, but always failed because there is no natural blue pigmentation in the rose. Thus, a blue rose has always been symbolic with a quest for the impossible such as unrequited love in Chinese folklore. Breeders have now managed to produce a pale mauve rose by genetic modification involving implanting a gene that simulates the synthesis of a blue pigment. Florists have been able to create blue roses (and carnations) simply by immersing the stems of white flowers in blue ink.

Natural dyes such as woad and true indigo produced the indigo dye used to color fabrics blue or indigo. These have now largely been replaced by synthetic dyes, but indigo leaves are still used in mountain areas in Asia – especially for producing blue and white batiks.

Blue animals

Blue pigments create blue colors in some marine animals, but most blue insects arise from spectral colors. The latter are produced by the physical structure within the butterfly wings or beetle wings cases. Peacock feathers and mother-of-pearl shells also show spectral colors that change depending on the angle of light.

One of the delights of visiting a tropical South American rainforest is to see flashes of iridescent blue when male morpho butterflies open their wings as they fly through the forest. As they close their wings, the blue disappears to reveal a cryptic underside. This confuses a potential predator as well as providing a perfect camouflage when the butterfly comes to rest.

Totally blue animals are not widespread; amongst birds the blue jay (USA) and the male splendid wren from Australia are both examples.  The electric blue damselfish and powder blue tang are examples of marine tropical fish that add bright splashes of mobile blue to a coral reef. 

Some animals display blue parts of their body for specific behavior. The blue-footed booby parades its blue feet by dancing during the courtship display to attract a mate; while the flying gurnard opens the pectoral fins to suddenly flash blue as an alarm reaction.  The Indian peafowl has an iridescent blue neck and throat, which shimmers as the peacock parades with his erect tail in front of a perspective mate.

Photographing Blue

Shooting landscapes topped by blue skies when the sun is at right angles to the lens i.e. shining from the left or right of the view, plus a polarizing filter will increase the saturation of the blue and thereby enhance the contrast between the sky and white clouds. This filter will also make tall white flowers – such as regal or canna lilies – pop from a blue sky. On the other hand, tall blue flowers, such as delphiniums, will show up better against a dark stormy sky.

The color of water – whether it be sea or freshwater – depends on many factors. It varies according to the position of the sun. A glass of pure water appears colorless to the human eye, but it has a slight tint of blue that deepens as the volume increases – hence oceanic water appears deep blue. Light reflected from either a white tiled swimming pool or a white sand beach makes water appear turquoise. Dissolved carbonates in water of travertine terraces also create glorious turquoise blue pools. A polarizing filter can be useful for removing skylight reflections on water thereby giving a clearer view of life beneath the surface.

Light reflected from the surface of ice appears white; whereas ice compressed in glaciers absorbs all colors of the spectrum except blue which renders the ice blue. Soft light is good for taking shrinking icebergs as they melt to create a multi-faceted surface from which direct sun is reflected back.

Some blue flowers, notably British bluebells, reflect far-red and infra red wavelengths, which made it difficult to reproduce the true blues on slide films.  Fortunately, this is not such a problem with digital cameras – although better blues are gained by shooting on a cloudy rather than a sunny day and by taking freshly opened flowers.