The willows along the Greenway are a in varying stages of development.
From John O’Donahue:
“The Human soul is hungry for beauty; we seek it everywhere – in landscape, music, art, clothes, furniture, gardening, companionship, love, religion and in ourselves. When we experience the Beautiful, there is a sense of homecoming.”
Here are some blossoms to remind us that spring is here and there is beauty everywhere in spite of it all. Get out there and take it in. The air is fresh and clean. It’s people you need to avoid not being outdoors as I have heard some express.
After keeping and eagle eye on the weather for a month I finally got a break on the same day I didn’t have to be anywhere so that I could escape to Jedediah Smith State Park to kick off the Redwoods National and State Parks project. It was a good start but I wish I had been able to stay a little longer. Maybe next time. I did get a few ideas on how to approach the project and look forward to the months ahead and many trips to the redwoods. And here is the art piece I made to highlight some of my favorite things from my hikes that day.
I went to the Ashland Cemetery looking for Stellar’s Jays but they were not in residence. However there were lots of robins so I brought out the big lens to see what I could do with them and found this guy hanging out with them. On consulting my bird books I learned that the Varied Thrush is more likely to be found in the mountains. This one apparently came down to the valley to get warm or find food not covered with snow. For me a great subject and new one to check off my life list. Here is what I did with him in the digital darkroom:
Well, this past week was not very conducive to nature photography, unless you like snow, which I don’t. So, I had to reach back to a walk in Lithia Park the week before when I captured this nice image of some catkins hanging over the creek. I’m hoping to get out and find some more birds tomorrow so wish me luck.
And here is the art piece that goes with this one. In all honesty I’m not sure this was such a good idea but maybe if I get some images to work with a little earlier in the week I won’t feel so pressured to get an art piece done AND post the image of the week.
For my last hurrah I took the Velvet 56 and the EOS R to the Harry and David Rose Garden. There is such a poignant beauty to faded roses and some of them look like they had been freeze dried with the colors still warm and vibrant. I added a high pass filter to bring out the details and gave it a little pop of vibrance and saturation. Then I added a texture that seemed to compliment the texture of the rose. And that, my friends, is a wrap. It’s been fun playing with my lensbaby lenses and getting to know them a little better. As always some of the images were better than others but I learned a lot and while I’m glad it’s over, I’m not sorry I started. I’ll be reverting to image of the week again now that the 100 days project is done.
I took the Velvet56 for a walk on the Greenway this afternoon. I found a little bit of lingering fall color but I’m always intrigued by the Teasel. The Velvets have a feature of offering a little bit of a glow at large apertures. This was shot at f1.6 so shows off that feature well. I added a high pass filter and two textures to add interest to the background and just a wee hint of color.
My enthusiasm for this project definitely waning but I guess it would be pretty uncool to give up with only a few more days to go. I worked at the Genealogy Library this morning and was inspired to continue my research this afternoon so no new captures. There really isn’t much left to photograph anyway. So I went to the archives and found this one from day two when I was perusing my neighbors’ gardens. It was taken with the Velvet 85 on the R and was a little soft as is normal with the velvets. So I sharpened the edges with a high pass filter and added a couple of textures to give it a little more artistic look.
It’s a good thing I got extra pictures yesterday because the wind is fierce out there today. The tree outside my window reminds me of the whomping willow. But this image is interesting because the leaf has an icicle on it. I think someone must have forgotten to turn off the sprinkler system because I can’t think how else the water got on the leaves as it hasn’t rained in some time. This was taken with the Burnside and I like that I captured the swirly bokah which is one of the Burnside’s characteristics and also was able to take advantage of it’s close focusing distance. The hard part was finding a leaf that was not way over my head. In post I opened up the shadows and toned down the highlights. Also added a high pass filter which really helped define the leaf.
I had good intentions of taking a camera walk today but it got so windy I knew it would not turn out well. Now the wind has died down some but I’m all out of the mood. So, I reverted to my walk in Lithia Park on October 15. I’m sad to see that many trees have already lost their leaves. But they were still going strong ten or twelve days ago. This was captured with the Sweet 50. In post I added a high pass filter and sharpening and a vignette to help the main leaves to stand out from the background.