I don’t know if this flower has another official name but I thought it and its companions were the most beautiful flowers I saw today. And this was at Butchart Gardens so you know there were a LOT of beautiful flowers. I shot this one with one of the lensbaby lenses. I was switching back and forth so I’m not sure which one. I adjusted the exposure a little and added a high pass filter in post. That’s all.
Today’s garden was that of the Horticultural Center of the Pacific. They had a wide range of plants and garden types but the backlighting on the California Poppy won the day. Just a little exposure adjustment, a high pass filter to bring out the details and a slight vignette.
I don’t know what this flower is called but the bees certainly seem to like it. And they are very clever about finding the ones that are in full bloom. I was impressed by their perfect spherical shape and deep blue color. I found these at Van Dusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver. Possibly our best garden yet. I adjusted the exposure a little on this one and added some detail and a vignette.
Our first stop this morning was the rose garden at Stanley Park. Unfortunately the local “heat wave” had taken its toll on the roses. I was much happier with this Rudbeckia I found in the landscaping at our second stop at Prospect Point. Apparently the flowers had just been watered. It’s always a bonus if you can get water drops on a flower. Some photographers do it intentionally. I’m more of a purest and try to take what I find naturally, even if it does come from a sprinkler system. I shot this one with the sweet 50 and only added a high pass filter for sharpening.
The only flower garden we visited today was at Queen Elizabeth Park, the highest point in Vancouver. We spent more time looking at the view than the flowers. But we did take a stroll through one of the quarries. Yes, like Buchart Gardens in Victoria the gardens of Queen Elizabeth Park were built in an old quarry. I didn’t have a lot of time to get creative but I was impressed with the Hydrangeas. These are doing much better than mine at home, which seems to be done putting on new blooms. I suppose they got started a little later too. No fancy post processing today. Just a High pass filter to bring out the details.
So I set out today on my garden tour adventure. Since, for some stupid reason, I decided to fly to Vancouver from Portland I thought I might as well stop on the way up at Oregon’s own garden. Unfortunately it was about 1:30pm when I arrived and it was HOT. I have not perspired so profusely since last time I was on the east coast in summer.
But I had allowed myself an hour (silly me, one needs far more than an hour to do the Oregon Garden justice) and I did get some good photos but I was ready for some air conditioning by the time the hour was up. You might want to check out the first installment of my travel blog (yes, I am insane trying to keep up two daily blogs while on vacation) for this trip at http://jeannehoadley.com/Travel to learn more about the Oregon Garden.
This water lily sort of reminded me of stained glass the way the reeds divide the picture up. So, I ran it though a simplify program to try and push it a little further in that direction.
Like Coneflowers, Black Eyed Susan’s are ubiquitous but also very photogenic. I stopped by North Mountain Park again this morning this time with the Sweet 50 on the M3. The first time I tried this it didn’t work and I thought there was something wrong with the adapter that allows me to fit a standard canon mount lens on my mirrorless camera which has a smaller mount. But, after I got the Trio 28, I learned that because the lensbaby lenses don’t communicate with the camera you have to set the camera to shoot without a lens. Now it works just fine though for close ups of flowers you need an extension tube. This one was almost perfect out of the camera, I opened the shadows a little and added a texture to break up the blurred background a little.
It is smokey out again today so I decided to just stay in and play with my store bought sunflowers. I got a lot of good images so it was hard to decide. But I liked this one. I was experimenting with the Sweet 50 again and had my fruit box in the background. I thought this flower had a lot of character and I like how it’s partner is faded into the background. Then I got artsy and added a texture and took it through some software to grunge it up a little more.
It was so smokey this morning I had to cut my walk short. The upside of all this smoke is the beautiful diffused light. I took the M3 out for a walk with the Sweet 50 and an extension tube. I was almost home when I decided to take another stab at my neighbor’s lavender. This bee came along and just as I was about to give up on him he struck the right pose and I nailed the focus. Yes, photography is sometimes a game of chance. Today I got lucky.
I found a bouquet of sunflowers at Fred Meyer yesterday for only $5.00 so of course I had to bring them home to the tiny studio. This one was shot with the sweet 50. I love how you are almost not sure what it is and then the flower petal comes into focus. I added a lightroom preset to bring out the bold colors and a texture for visual interest. This one is growing on me. I’m thinking acrylic print.