And not to neglect the wildflowers. The Queen Anne’s Lace is going crazy in my neighborhood right now. So I took the new lensbaby for a walk this morning. In post processing I just bumped up the exposure and added one texture. I was really blown away by how that one texture really made this one pop.
Yesterday I spent 4th of July at my Mom’s house with my sister and her family. My Mom has lived in the same house for over 60 years now. She is not really up to gardening anymore but she loves her flowers so my brother and sister-in-law keep her patio garden going and parts of her yard have just gone wild so things that have been planted over the years are still blooming with abandon. Long story short, I spent some time running around her yard taking pictures yesterday afternoon and I have enough different flowers to last at least another week, or at least plenty to draw on come crunch time. And another place to add to my list of rotating field trips.
These geraniums were so over the top vibrant I had to tone them down a little using a Lightroom preset. I did the usual high pass filter, then added a texture with a slight vignette to it.
One of the things I love about this project is that it opens my eyes and changes my focus. Yesterday I spotted these huge lavender bushes along Hwy 99 in Talent. I’ve probably driven by them 20 times and not really seen them. So I decided to change up my morning walk and head over there with the M3. When I got up close and personal I realized that most of the little flowers haven’t opened yet. So there’s one to go back for. I also saw some flowers in neighborhood gardens which were interesting but not quite in full bloom so there is hope that I won’t run out of material too soon. My walk took me through downtown Talent where there were plenty of shops and residences with beautiful flowers on display. Proving once again that it is good to get out of your rut once in awhile and it is good to have a project that inspires you to do so.
I knew this was going to be the image of the week after I took it a week ago but I never got around to publishing it. I seem to be very undisciplined about my photography lately so I’m thinking about taking myself in hand to do another 100 days project. The theme for this one will be 100 days of flowers. I have to get started right away as this will take me into October as it is. I should have started 15 or 20 days ago! But this is spontaneous so what the heck. I’ll just see where it leads me. The good news is I have a garden tour coming up at the end of July so that should play right into my theme. This Bumblebee, by the way, was captured at North Mountain Park in Ashland.
A neighbor gifted me with some beautiful peonies. So, of course, I took them straight to the tiny studio for photographing. I am also breaking in a new computer so it was a good test of whether I have everything working right. Aside from the brushes needing to be reloaded in Photoshop I’m doing well. But I just realized I’m going to have to load Notepad before I can post this to my website. Love the new computer. Hate the hassle of getting things back to normal.
Anyway. I shot this with the Lensbaby Velvet 85. Took it through Nik detail extractor, did some noise reduction, had to brighten one side so used masks on the part that didn’t need it. And I used the spot healing brush to hide some blemishes on the outer petal. Oh, and I cropped in to get rid of an ugly grey background. Overall. I’m pretty pleased with the result.
It seems like overnight we went from winter to spring. I had to wait a couple of days to get out without rain but the blossoms were fresh and lovely thanks to all that moisture. I used the short telephoto on the mirrorless for this shot because it has a closer focusing distance than the long and because I needed to be able to maneuver to get the best composition which the tripod would have inhibited. In post processing I ran it through Nik Color Efex Pro to add detail and a vignette to help highlight the blossoms.
Last week I went on strike because the weather had been so cold and gloomy I didn’t even get out to photograph. This week spring is asserting itself again. So I went into my backyard to look for signs of spring. Photographing my blooming forsythia was a challenge but I also found the leaves on my hydrangea bush starting to unfurl. Crocuses and daffodils are blooming all around but this shot really spoke to me of the unfolding of spring.
It was a busy week and weekend so I’m just getting around to the image of the week for last week. Didn’t do much in the way of new captures but I was inspired to start a new series from existing flower images using grunge textures and clipping masks. I started with cocuses as I have been starting to see them in bloom.
Can’t say that I have been very productive this past week. I think I was fighting off the flu that is going around so I will use that as an excuse. I did spend some time working on my Black and White photography course and this was one of the images I converted for my homework assignment. So with little else to work from it gets the nod for image of the week.
I’ve just completed a scrapbook documenting my year in photography and photo artistry so over the past month I have looked at almost all of the nearly 12,000 images in my files for 2017. This one stood out for me to be the image of the year. I love the subject, I love the colors, and I love remembering how excited I was when this beautiful creature came along to pose for me. Next project is to go through the files again and weed out the clunkers.
And for my poetry fans, I just cleared all the poetry books out of my office and in honor of my upcoming trip to Japan I have made a new year’s resolution to do a haiku every day in 2018. So this one is a warm up:
Monarch Butterfly
Threatened by our careless ways
I am steeped in awe.
-Jeanne Hoadley