My interest in combining flowers with educational information about alternative medications blossomed rather unexpectedly into an interest in creating images for their own sake. I noticed the pictures I created and then stuck on my refrigerator pleased me week after week – even month after month. Perhaps they could please others, too.

I call my images flower portraits because they are close-ups and, therefore, more personal and expressive than botanically illustrative. As I’ve pursued subjects in my back yard, botanical gardens, nurseries and roadside locations nearby and around the world, I’ve also discovered the portrait possibilities of wildlife in zoos and game preserves. And it’s little surprise that some of these locations provide scenic opportunities as compelling as the flower and wildlife shots.

So I find myself on a creative seesaw between my educational Web site and my interest in finding and sharing images that have a timeless quality usually expected in paintings. You can see many of these photographs at www.donvineimages.com. Most are digitally captured with Canon equipment, processed using Photoshop and printed with Epson Inkjet printers.

Note: Vine’s photos are on view through Sept. 30 at the Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita’s William J. Reals Gallery of Art, 1010 N. Kansas, Wichita. Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

– Don Vine is professor of medicine at the Kansas University School of Medicine-Wichita, where he teaches and practices cardiology.