Category: Flora

Day 59 – Sweet Pea

SweetPea

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.

Day 58 – Hydrangea

Hydrangea

So, one of my photography gurus pointed out that if you had the lensbaby creative bokah filters they fit perfectly in the Sol 45 to create some interesting background texture effects. So, of course, I had to get some. This morning I went out to my sweet hydrangea (which seems to be putting up more shoots for even more new blossoms!) and practiced. Probably not the best setting but you can see a little cross hatching in the background blur of the flower. Some filters were more subtle than others. They are really just little pieces of cardboard with shapes cut into them. I can’t wait to try them on Christmas lights!

In post I tweaked the exposure, added a high pass filter and a vignette. I also adjusted the color a little because I thought the flower looked too pink when it is supposed to be purple.

Day 57 – Pansies

Pansies

Well, I’m not really feeling it today but I found these pansies from a neighborhood walk back in July. I don’t think I’ve done much with pansies though they are one of my favorite flowers. These were shot with the M3 and a standard telephoto zoom. I added a high pass filter, a texture and a vignette to darken the edges.

Day 56 – Echinacea

Echinacea2

I was looking through the files for something I could do something artistic with and found this one which needed absolutely nothing done to it. Well, of course I had to do something so I cleaned up a blemish on the flower added a high pass filter and yes, I think that’s all. I really like the idea of reviewing the files to come up with keepers like this one that may have just been edged out or overlooked in the first review. I shot this on July 1st, by the way, at North Mountain Park. I was using the M3 with a 28mm macro lens.

Day 55 – Blanket Flowers with bee

Blanketswbee

I’m kind of excited about the idea of going back through the files and looking for ways to push the boundaries of creativity. Not that I won’t be going out to shoot, just not every day especially now that the flowers are kind of bedraggled from the heat and the smoke still has me hiding indoors with the ancestors. Anyway, I shot this one back in July at north Mountain Park with the sweet 50. That lens has a ball joint on it that allows you to point it in the direction where you want the focus to be and then blur out every thing else. So in this case I pointed at the bee and got maximum blur on the right. I then took it into Topaz impression and applied a Cezanne look and came back and masked it out over the flower with the bee and it’s neighbors. This one printed large on canvas would look great on my living room wall.

Day 53 – Sunflower

Sunflower

It is getting harder and harder to find something that doesn’t look like something I’ve already done. I got lots of great shots of sunflowers yesterday but many of them have a similar look to previously posted sunflowers. I don’t think I’ve done one in sideview yet though.

This one was shot with the Sol45 on the M3 again. I added a high pass filter which has become standard operating procedure for flowers. Then I added a texture and masked it out over the center. I may have to start playing with new techniques such as black and white or selective color or more digital artistry. We’ll see.

Day 52 – Soft focus Rose

Rose_soft

So, I skipped church in order to worship at the temple of photography this morning. I gave the security guards at Harry and David something to do again. They don’t seem to mind that I’m there taking pictures, they just see my car and have to come investigate. Anyway, I’m not really that fond of roses as a photographic subject but when I do shoot them this is what I’m going for. Unfortunately this rose had a few blemishes that I couldn’t seem to photoshop out so I’ll have to give this one an A- but it’s definitely headed in the right direction. I shot this with the Lensbaby Sol45  handheld on the Canon M3 with an extension tube. Post processing was about as usual. Tweaked the exposure, opened the shadows, burned in the upper right corner, added a high pass filter and cropped in just a little bit. I also ran this one through a denoise program to help emphasize the smoothness in the blurred areas.

Day 51 – Rose with Beetle

Rosewbeetle

I’ve been thinking about getting back to the rose garden soon. So, I thought I wold take a look at what I might have from the last trip. I had to open the shadows way up while holding the overall exposure down in order to highlight the beetle. I added a texture to help with the edges but I think it might still be a little too bright on the right side.