Photos on Daffnet

Before there was Daffnet and before there were digital cameras, people photographed daffodils on film, mostly print film as slide film had a narrower range of acceptable exposure. As ADS Slide Programs chairman in the early 1990’s, I would annually assemble my slides and as many other contributed slides as I could get into a Show Winners program that people could rent. That was one of the two ways people who were not at a show could see what the flowers looked like. The other way was when some of the slides were published in The Daffodil Journal. The Carousel slide trays came in to sizes — 80 slides and 120 slides. There was no way to overlay text on the slide images, so the slide programs were limited in size and needed a separate script for identifying the cultivars.
Daffnet and digital cameras allow us to see a lot more daffodils than could ever have been put in a slide program or published in The Daffodil Journal. I think it is informative to see what is growing in other parts of the world, not to mention other parts of the U.S. I can imagine that different people will have different reasons for wanting to see the photos on Daffnet:
1. As I am currently the ADS E-Media Programs chairman, I can use the Daffnet postings to assemble the annual Show Winners program. Admittedly, there is less need for the program, but it still is handy as a compilation into a single file of the ADS award winners.
2. The Daffodil Journal needs pictures, and the photos on Daffnet are now a resource. That saves the editor from having to solicit slides from contributors.
3. Keen exhibitors can see what’s in winning collections (provided the names are listed) and get an idea of they might consider ordering. Without the Daffnet photos there would be only the printed results in the September Daffodil Journal and a limited number of photos of the winners. (By the way, the most time consuming part of photographing a collection is writing down all the cultivar names and typing them into a computer.)
4. For those willing to order from overseas, it’s helpful to see the best daffodils from other countries. No doubt raisers outside the U.S. are pleased to see their cultivars showing up as winners in the U.S. (like seeing your adult children succeed in life). Although I’m not a hybridizer, I nevertheless find it interesting to see which American cultivars are doing well in other countries. It reminds us that no country has a monopoly on the best cultivars.
There are two areas of Daffnet where I would like to see more photos. One is to get more coverage of underrepresented ADS regions — i.e. photos of show winners from regions where we’ve seen few or no photos. The other is to get more photos from underrepresented countries — e.g. Australia. That would give us all a more complete or balanced view of what’s growing in all the daffodil growing regions of the world.
Kirby Fong