Along with the Chrysanthemum, I picked up a Rudbeckia at the nursery. I had purchased on earlier in the summer which looked fine until I planted it. Then it died. I’m beginning to wonder if my soil is tainted so many things just crash after I plant them. I may just put this one in a pot for it’s own good. This was taken with the Sol 45 and I just added a high pass filter, a texture and a vignette.
So I knew I was going to be over at Mountain Meadows this afternoon so thought I would just stop by North Mountain Park for a while to photograph flowers. As I was snapping away I happened to look down at the back of the camera and saw “Cannot Record” Well, I knew immediately what had happened. Checked the card slot, sure enough no card, went home and straight to the computer and there was the card. I have to say that on a project like this the only surprise is that it doesn’t happen more often. I just wonder what I did with my spare card when I cleaned out my camera bag before my last trip? Now I know why I should always carry one.
Anyway, Plan B was to stop by the nursery on the way home and see what they had in bloom. Yea! The chrysanthemums have arrived. And for an extra bonus they were just watering them and the drops were still there when I got them home. This one was shot with the Sol 45 on the M3, high pass filter, slight color adjustment, and one texture.
Yeah, I know, another sunflower, but I don’t think I’ve posted one in a few days. I found a whole row of them blooming yesterday just by the turnabout in Talent. It was getting kind of windy so I had to make a promise to come back again later, so no, we are not done with sunflowers. This was another one of those days when I almost forgot to post something so it was quick and dirty. I just added a high pass filter to tighten up the sharpness and that was it.
Nothing says September like a Morning Glory. They have been appearing all over my neighborhood. And I keep photographing them and coming up empty. They are darned hard to photograph because that white center throws off the exposure. Then there is that big flat face. I like to shoot them side on and get the trumpet shape but then you end up with background issues. Well, you get the idea. I liked this one for the new bud peaking out between the blossoms. I tried about 10 different textures on it but didn’t like any of them. Otherwise processed about as usual with a high pass filter and some slight adjustments to exposure. Oh yes, shot with the Lensbaby Sweet 50 on the M3. I’m getting stuck in a right there I think. I just heard of a new pro level mirrorless camera coming out from Canon but I’m like, hmm… new camera ….trip to Europe …new camera …trip to Europe. Leaning toward taking the old camera to Europe at this point.
I’ve been photographing Day Lilies all summer but I don’t know that any of them has ever made the cut. So in perusing the files for something to post I found this one and set to work. First I had to edit out some extraneous leaves, then I spot healed a lot of pollen from the flower. Then I added a high pass filter and a texture. At that point I still wasn’t too happy with it so I took it into Topaz Impression where the Degas Dancers filter gave it the look I wanted or at least something better than where I started.
Two thirds of the way through! Woohoo! I have to attend a family gathering at Lake of the Woods so won’t have time to look for flowers to photograph today. This one is from my camera walk yesterday, just up the street at my neighbor’s house. I really liked this composition but it was a bit overexposed so I decided to take it in a painterly direction. I gave it a Cezanne treatment then added a texture and vignette. Lots of futzing with opacity and masks to make it look just right. Although I wanted to get rid of those black spots on the petal on the left which were added during the painterly process but Photoshop balked so I said, fine we’ll keep them.
Happy September everyone! I took a short walk over to the Talent pollinator garden to see what might be in bloom this morning. The blanket flowers were definitely the stars of the show. I have to give myself an A- on this one for clipping off the tips of the petals on top. It was captured with the Sweet 50 on the M3, getting to be my favorite combination for flowers. Today is the first of the month and that means two new sets of textures from my texture club! I can assure you I have enough textures to last me a lifetime but it’s just too much fun to try out the new ones every month. In this case I just did a high pass filter and touched up a few spots on the flower before adding the texture and a vignette overlay to darken the corners.
Another day of breathable air! Yea! So, I took the sweet 50 out for a walk and found these marigolds blooming away for a nice spot of color in someone’s yard. I love the detail in this where you can see the little petals all curled up and ready to open out. Nothing new or unusual in post processing, tweaked the exposure, added a high pass filter, adjusted the color a little as it looked pretty green, and added a texture.
It was another one of those days when I almost spaced out that I was supposed to post a flower image. So, it was back to the archives. This one was shot at Van Dusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver. One of my favorite stops on the tour. These are fairly modest flowers but what makes this image work is the contrasting colors. Orange and purple are opposites on the color wheel and that always makes for good image design. I shot this one with the Sweet 50 lens on the M3. In post I added a high pass filter, tweaked the exposure and added a texture which I masked out over the flower.
So, for the first time in weeks we had breathable air this morning so I set out for a walk with the M3 slung over my shoulder with the Sol45 lens on it. Unfortunately I forgot to add an extension tube so I couldn’t get too close to any of the flowers I found. But since the destination I had in mind was the sunflower field over across the freeway it didn’t really matter. I did get some intriguing pictures of the sunflowers but since there was a fence, a steep slope, and an irrigation ditch between me and them I could not get as close as I would have liked and I thought these sweet peas turned out a little better. The trouble is now I can’t get that song from the ’60s out of my head. “Oh Sweet Pea, come on and dance with me….” over and over.
In post processing I opened the shadows, added a high pass filter (notice the detail on that lower left blossom). I always tell myself I don’t need a texture but then I decide to try one and it ends up looking so good I have to keep it. Which is what happened in this case.