Nature – Page 24 – Jeanne Hoadley Photography

Day 41 – Sunflower Impression

SunflowerImpression

I made a half-hearted attempt to go out and photograph my neighbors’ sunflowers this morning but the wind was not cooperating and I’m still struggling to find the sweet spot on my Sweet 50 lens. But this one which was completely in blur out of the camera cried out for some digital artistry. So after several iterations of Topaz software and several textures I came up this one which I rather like. Not sure I would hang it on my wall, but on the other hand, printed on wood? I might have something here.

Day 40 – Dahlia

Dahlia_Sweet50

I used to think Irises were my favorite flower but I’m coming around to thinking Dahlia’s may have the edge. There is so much variety in color and shape and texture. What’s not to love. Yesterday on the way home from North Mountain Park I swung by the nursery and picked up a couple of plants to practice on, including this beautiful Dahlia. This morning I was experimenting with the Sweet 50 lens on the Canon M3 with extension tubes. I think this one had the medium extension on it. The challenge of this lens is getting that sweet spot exactly where you want it. In this case, I nailed it. One out of 30’s not bad, eh? Afterward I burned in the center to make it more visible and added a high pass filter.

Day 39 – Echinacea with Bee

Echinaceawbee

I know we’re all tired of the smoke and it took me awhile to force myself out the door for a trip to North Mountain Park. But I have to say that the soft light created by the murky skies is really nice for flower photography. I just love the feeling of peace and all’s right with the world that I get from this one. It was shot with the 7D Mark II and a 180 mm macro lens. Minimal processing with a high pass filter and a little tweak to the exposure. I thought about putting texture on it but I didn’t want to mess up that beautiful soft blur.

Day 38 – Rose

Rose2

I’m having a hard time getting excited about going out in the smoke to photograph. Hence one more from Vancouver. This one is from the rose garden in Stanley Park. I added a texture and vignette to soften the background but masked it out over the rose itself.

Day 37 – Calibrachoa

Calibrachoa

I made it to my Mother’s house but didn’t have time to do much photography. I did snap a few pix of here pretty little Calibrachoa in the front of the house. I was in the mood to try something a little painterly so put on a texture then ran it through Topaz Impression and dialed the opacity back to about 50%.

Day 36 – Yellow Star

Truth is I have know idea what this flower’s proper name is. It is another one from the best residential garden in Canada. Yes, I’m still resting on my laurels. Actually, I have made a commitment to finish my family history book in time to have it printed to give as Christmas gifts. And Friday is my genealogy day. Eleven more families to scrapbook. One a week should do it. I promise I will take some new photographs tomorrow. Should be easy as I am visiting people with nice gardens. For processing I just tweaked the exposure a little, added a high pass filter and touched up some bruises and pollen on the flower.

Day 35 – Black Eyed Susan

BES

I’m still trying to get my life caught up to normal so flower photography did not happen again today. I pulled this one from the Butchart Garden file. I just love the sense of motion in this one, almost like the flower is dancing. I did the usual tweaks with sharpening and exposure, added a vignette and a light texture to the background.

Day 34 – Blue Globe Thistle

GlobeThistle

A few days ago I posted a picture of a bunch of these flowers under the title “Round Blue Mystery Flowers”. I later learned that they are called Blue Globe Thistles. The official count for the BC trip is 1255 images. Of course, some are duplicates and not all are flowers but still I have plenty to draw from. But it would not be in the spirit of the project to rest on my laurels. I just needed a day to chill out today. I promise, I will get back in the field tomorrow. I’ve got my pictures all transferred and backed up and I’m starting to try and figure out how to scrapbook this trip since so many of the images are of flowers. On this one I again just adjusted the exposure a little and added a high pass filter for sharpening and just a touch of vibrance. Otherwise pretty much straight out of the camera.

Day 33 – Another Dahlia

Dahlia2

So, I caught the airport shuttle in Victoria at 6:45am and finally got to Portland at 2:00pm after an amazing adventure with customs and TSA in Seattle. Yep, back in the USA. Then I reclaimed my car and power drove home with only one or two brief stops. Needless to say I did not have time to photograph flowers. In fact, after collapsing in my easy chair I went “Oh, shit… I have to go upstairs and find a flower to post”. But then I realized I had all these amazing flowers on the laptop so I fetched it and started through yesterday’s flowers and chose the first one I liked, which I’m pretty sure is another Dahlia. I just loved this perky little three toned flower and it looks pretty sharp against the dark shrubbery behind it. I did minimal post processing because this laptop is putting out a lot of heat and the air conditioner is still playing catch up. But at least my daily flower is now posted!

Day 32 Dahlia

Dahlia

It was a tough one today. We visited three different gardens. But this Dahlia from the private garden that won best residential garden in Canada won the day. So many pretty Dahlia. Makes me think a trip to Shore Acres needs to happen soon. Maybe tomorrow. Very simple post processing again. some exposure adjustment and a high pass filter.