Day 9 – Blossoms

Blossoms

The first tree on my street is starting to blossom. I once again pressed the M100 into service with the 28mm macro lens. Judging from my results I need to take the big girl camera and tripod next time. So hard to nail the focus when working this close. I cropped this one quite a bit and added a texture and vignette.

I turned again to Julia Cameron for today’s quote:

Our creations are like children. They can be pushy about what they want and what they need. If we neglect them, they neglect us. If we ignore them they ignore us. Sometimes, they sulk and pout and cry and squabble until they have our attention. In the end, we have to do what they want. It’s the only way to make peace with them. Making peace with our creations is an artist’s primary task.

100 Days of Creativity – Day 1- Daffodils

Daffodilsw

Yep, it’s been too long. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing another 100 days project for a couple of weeks now. I’ve also been resisting the idea for a couple of weeks now. But, the truth is I’ve been really depressed since I learned that being eligible to be vaccinated does not mean I will be getting vaccinated any time soon. So, I decided I needed something to focus on besides taking the dog for six walks a day and combing through thousands of ancestors searching for the immigrants.

I first thought of doing 100 days of Spring but it was almost exactly a year ago that I started my 100 days of Beauty project and that sounded too much the same plus I got depressed all over again thinking of all the gardens and blossoming trees I photographed last year that were lost to the Almeda Fire. I got a little excited about the idea of reprising my 100 days of Lensbaby  project from a few years ago but that would mean I can’t photograph the birds at my neighbors’ feeders or along the greenway. So, I finally hit on 100 days of creativity which leaves the door wide open for all of the above and then some, including still life. And  it focuses my attention on jump starting my creativity which is what I’m really after here.

Daffodils have been popping up all over the neighborhood. I went out with the EOS R and Lensbaby Spark to see what I could come up with. I immediately realized that I needed extension tubes and I don’t have any that fit the R. However I liked this wider shot of a cluster of flowers and the bokah from the Spark is  great. I added one texture to give it some depth and warmth and, well yeah, texture.

I pulled about seven books off my shelf that have a creativity theme and the expectation of some good quotes to go with the photos…or digital art. Today’s quote is from Matthew Fox in his book Creativity:  

Creativity constitutes the very meaning of being human, and our powers of creativity distinguish us from other species.

Day 86 – Echinacea

EchineceaBW

The first Echinecea of the season. The colors were a little pale so I decided to go with black and white to emphasize the shapes of the petals.

From John O’Donohue:

Beauty touches and renews our hope when it takes us out of the grid of ordinary time and brings us to another place, a place where history ceases and the weight of memory relents, a place ever ancient and ever new.