Another one of those days where flowers almost fell off the table. So I cruised through some past files and found this one from my last trip to the rose garden. An almost perfect sunflower. I was still test driving the Sol45 at the time and I’d say it performed very well. All I did with this one was add a high pass filter and spot heal a couple of minor flaws on the flower.
Today is my Mom’s 86th birthday. She doesn’t really need any more things and she doesn’t get out much and she has been wanting to check out the new Indian Casino in Yreka. So, I thought the nicest thing I could do for her today was take her on a little outing. I came back with $100 more in my pocket than I started with and she had a good time even though she didn’t win much. But, long story short, there wasn’t much time for flower photography so I went back to what I shot yesterday with the Velvet 85. I really just liked the colors on this one. I brightened it up a bit and then the texture I chose brought it along a little further. High pass filter and a little touch up with the spot healing brush.
I often feel that hydrangeas are just as beautiful as they fade away as they are in full bloom. But it is difficult to capture that in a single image. I’m not sure how successful I was here but I like the colors and shapes. The added texture adds to the feeling. Shot with the Lensbaby Velvet 85 on the Canon 7D.
I finally got a picture of a Morning Glory that I liked. It helped that it was cloudy that day so the whites were not so blown out. This one was shot with the Sweet 50 on the M3. I added a high pass filter, tweaked the exposure, and added a texture.
Quick and dirty today but at least I remembered. This is from my flower walk yesterday. I positioned myself so that the sky would be in the background. I was using the Sweet 50 on the M3. Probably could have done with a little more in focus but I do like the shadows from the backlighting. In processing I just added a high pass filter, adjusted the exposure a little and added a texture which I masked out over the flower.
I came home from a meeting this morning to find no power so the only thing to do was take the camera out for a walk. I was surprised to find a clump of California Poppies in bloom. I think sometimes plants get confused in the fall when the light is about the same as it is when they should be blooming in the spring. I shot this with the Lensbaby Sweet 50 on the Canon M3. I then took it into Photoshop and spot healed a lot of pollen and blemishes from the flower. I added a high pass filter and a texture and then just for good measure I took it into Topaz Impression and gave it a Georgia O’Keefe treatment which turned out to be a bit much so I dialed it back to about 50% transparency and now I think I have a winner.
I found this boquet of Sunflowers at Fred Meyer this morning. They were a bit past prime but only $5.00 for the bunch so I decided to take them home a play in the studio. It is kind of nice to be able to photograph without wind or bees in the wrong place or sunflowers that are taller than me. This one was shot with the M3 and one of the lensbabies… the Sweet 50 I think. I used both and forgot to make a note of when I switched. On this one I opened the shadows and added a high pass filter and a texture. I think there was one spot that needed healing as well.
For today I decided to go back into the files to see if there were any worthy images that got passed over. I found this one from early August in North Mountain Park. The cone flowers are so photogenic when they are at peak. Right now they are all looking pretty bedraggled. This was shot with one of the Lensbaby lenses on the 7D. I just added a high pass filter and touched up some pollen with the spot healing brush. I tried a couple of filters but finally decided this one stands well on it’s own.
It’s a good thing I got lots of good pictures at North Mountain Park yesterday because my life just got crazy busy, at least if feels that way after little or no activity since I got back from vacation. But I shall persevere and carry the camera around in case I see any interesting flowers. This one was also shot with the Sol45 on the M3. High pass filter and one texture added.
The thing about these Lensbaby lenses I’ve been using is it is really, really hard to find that sweet spot of focus and you have to try several shots and hope you got one right. But when you nail it, as I did (completely by accident) on this image it is almost jaw droppingly sharp. And the bee showed up at just the right time too. This was taken at North Mountain Park with the Sol 45 on the Canon M3. I added a high pass filter and a texture in post processing.