About the Author

Steve Schwartzman grew up on Long Island, New York and moved to Austin Texas in 1976. In his early years in Texas he did some landscape photography, still primarily in black-and-white infrared. In 1999, he became an early adopter of digital photography and launched a project to produce a photographic CD documenting the Austin area. In the process, he grew increasingly aware of and captivated by the many species of native plants that grow where he lives, and they became and remain his primary photographic subject.

Steve has had countless photographs published in Texas Highways, Texas Prairie Journal and Wildflower magazines. In 2007, his photograph of the basket flower described above was chosen as the top 100 of more than 60,000 entries in Parade Magazine, which is included in Sunday newspapers. In 2009 and 2010 Quick Reference Publishing commissioned Steve to provide all the photographs and text for three laminated wildflower guides: North Texas, Central Texas, and Southeast Texas. In 2013, he won first place in a LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Center contest for his photography. To view more of Steve's work see his blog.