Day 86 – Viola Tricolor

Viola

My mom always called these Johnny Jump-ups. I can see why they are called that as I had a pot full of pansies last year and these came up volunteer all over my yard this year. I never had the heart to pull them up but they are getting pretty scraggly so I decided to make a little bouquet of the flowers that were left and take them out. Then of course I had to photograph it. This one needed a little exposure adjustment. I added a high pass filter and toned down the saturation just a little. Shot with the 22mm macro on the M3.

Day 85 – Echinacea

Echinacea

I’m liking this Macro workshop. I do my homework in the afternoon and then I have something to post the next morning. Yesterday’s lesson was on a technique called free lensing, which basically means taking the lens off your camera and turning it around and holding onto it while you shoot. You loose all the automatic controls so you just have to find your focus by moving back and forth. Out of about 30 shots this was the only one that turned out. I had stopped by Home Depot since it was on my path yesterday and picked up a couple of new plants to play with including this fresh echinacea since the ones in my garden have about given up the ghost. I used the M3 with it’s 22 mm macro lens but you can do this with any lens to get more magnification…not sure about the zooms. But, it’s all about experimentation. In post I added a high pass filter and a lightroom preset that helped to brighten up the colors.

Day 84 – Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum

I’ve got a crazy busy day today so I wanted to post something first thing this morning so I don’t forget. I shot this one yesterday afternoon when I was experimenting with the 28mm macro lens I have for the M3. I would like it better if the center was just a little sharper but I really love all the crazy blur and bokah on the left. I had to do a lot of spot healing on the flower which I think has some ash residue making for a lot of white spots. I didn’t get them all but I got most of them. Then I added a high pass filter and that’s all.

Day 82 – Zinnia

Zinnia

I stopped by North Mountain park again today. It is a little surprising how much things change from week to week. The Morning Glories and Sunflowers are starting to fade but the Zinnia’s and Marigolds are still going strong. The milkweed pods are also bursting forth. They are fun to photograph but are not a flower so you won’t get to see them here. For this one I decided to get out the big girl camera for a change. Shot with the Canon 7D  and a 180mm macro lens on a tripod. Once again I tweaked the exposure, added a high pass filter and a texture. This was another one where I thought, “Oh, it doesn’t need a texture” but once I got it on there and did the eye Dr. test (No. 1 or No. 2) I had to go with number 2.

Day 80 – Yellow Rose

Rose

Quick and dirty today but at least I remembered. This is from my flower walk yesterday. I positioned myself so that the sky would be in the background. I was using the Sweet 50 on the M3. Probably could have done with a little more in focus but I do like the shadows from the backlighting. In processing I just added a high pass filter, adjusted the exposure a little and added a texture which I masked out over the flower.

Day 79 – California Poppy

Poppy2GOK

I came home from a meeting this morning to find no power so the only thing to do was take the camera out for a walk. I was surprised to find a clump of California Poppies in bloom. I think sometimes plants get confused in the fall when the light is about the same as it is when they should be blooming in the spring. I shot this with the Lensbaby Sweet 50 on the Canon M3. I then took it into Photoshop and spot healed a lot of pollen and blemishes from the flower. I added a high pass filter and a texture and then just for good measure I took it into Topaz Impression and gave it a Georgia O’Keefe treatment which turned out to be a bit much so I dialed it back to about 50% transparency and now I think I have a winner.

Day 78 – Sunflower

Sunflower

I found this boquet of Sunflowers at Fred Meyer this morning. They were a bit past prime but only $5.00 for the bunch so I decided to take them home a play in the studio. It is kind of nice to be able to photograph without wind or bees in the wrong place or sunflowers that are taller than me. This one was shot with the M3 and one of the lensbabies… the Sweet 50 I think. I used both and forgot to make a note of when I switched. On this one I opened the shadows and added a high pass filter and a texture. I think there was one spot that needed healing as well.

Day 77 – Red Dahlia

RedDahlia

Well, it finally happened. It’s been a stressful week all the way around and I got so wrapped up in other things and other activities that I completely spaced out posting an image yesterday. So my options are to go a day longer or post two images today. Since I’m ready for this to be over and the flowers are getting harder to find I’m going to post two today. One from the archives and one from a new shoot which I haven’t done yet as I am still playing catch up on a few other things that have fallen off the table this week. But I will get around to it this afternoon and those of you that have subscribed to my blog will get two images tomorrow. This one was captured at Shore Acres State Park back in August. They have the dahlias so well protected from the visitors that I had to use a telephoto lens on the 7D to get this shot. I added a high pass filter and a texture. Oh, yes, I also photoshopped out a distracting stem on the left.