One of the things I discovered while I was photographing the pepper collection at the National Arboretum was the wonderful variety of shapes and colors of peppers there are. Some of the most striking ones were either red or green.

The first set I photographed were just labeled Capiscum Pepper without any info about the specific variety. I really like the dark green of the peppers contrasting with the light green of the leaves.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The Bishop’s Cap Peppers have an amazing shape. They were a challenge to photograph – I wanted to show the shape while controlling the shine of the pepper skin.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

And finally the Fish Peppers – they start out as a striped pepper in shades of green – and turn to red as they ripen.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Fish Peppers (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I’ll be posting the last few pepper photos from this year in a few days. It’s been great fun photographing them – and I’m looking forward to discovering more varieties next year.