Here's what i managed to capture last night. I hope it is at least good enough to convey its potential. what should I do diffrent when it bblooms next year? Keepping in mind it blooms only at night. The second pic is what it looks like at dawn.

at dawn

Use really bright lighting and maybe a longer time setting on your camera, with a tripod of course.

Did you try using a flash?

Kt

I did use the built in flash the ones I took just using the halogen light attached to my garage definitely wasn't working. But I do have an external flash with at least one filter if that would be better. And so besides flash the flower needs direct bright light from say no more than 3 ft away or so that the entire flower is illuminated ? Does it matter how much it's surrounding is illuminated? The lady that gave me this plant has more than one and she thinks some of hers will be blooming in the next couple of nights. So I might not have to wait a whole year to impliment some changes and get a better shot. Thanks for responding to my post.

I don't use any external lighting when I use my flash. Even in almost total darkness, when using a flash and handheld, the pictures come out really nice but then I rarely take extreme close-up pics like yours.

Here is one I took from about 1 foot distance in the dark.

Kt

Thanks Kt.Thats what i'll do when my neighbors flowers bloom. I'll admit the main reason I was doing such a close up shot is my background was horrible and not much i could do about it.i wouldve had chain link and gardening equipt picking up flash since i haven't planted it yet. fortunately my neighbor has lots of low and high light illuminating her yard and since this bloom is about 6 to 8 inch a shot from a distance might be better.

Your plant is a night blooming cereus. They are stunning when blooming, aren't they?

I took these a couple years ago using a simple point-and-shoot camera with flash. Could have been a Nikon Coolpix or a Canon; I don't recall which.

Kate

Thanks Kate.i'm going to love being able tell people what it is rather than just describing it. And yes they are stunning! And they smell heavenly as well. My starter plant did produce a second bloom since my initial post; a bit smaller but just as beautiful. Suprisingly it stayed open until 9 or 10 a.m. Here's what I managed to capture this time. Thanks again for the info.
Nikki

I found a few time lapse youtube videos of the noght blooming cereus. This one i found to be very well done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJc1IhESV8c