Viper's Bugloss (Blueweed)
Common Mullein (Torch Flower)
(If I am wrong about the identification of these plants, please don't hesitate to let me know :)
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Not my most inspiring efforts but they all spoke to me somehow and it's important now to just keep this thing moving.
Unnamed pond on Thomas Dolan Parkway
Old Carp Road
The Edge of Suburbia
In truth, the scene didn't look quite like this. This is a heavily processed high dynamic range photo (three photos with different exposures combined into one in photoshop or another software package). There are many different ways an HDR image can be processed. I was going for drama here. The colours in the sky are somewhat exaggerated, but they are the colours that were there when I took the photo. There are a few unfortunate artifacts of the HDR process that will be visible if you look closely. So don't look closely.
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Don't look down.
OK, this was actually produced using a variation on one of the BuzSim filters in the Topaz Simplify plug-ins for Photoshop. So I guess I'm more of a technician than an artist :( .
]]>An iris with some iris buds and a tulip in the background. I took about 50 photos of this iris, but this is the composition that stood out for me.
The iris below was being abused by a strong, gusty wind, and the windswept look caught my attention as something a little unique. This one has a bit of an impressionist look about it. Hmmm... tempted to take it into photoshop and have some fun with it.
Some of you may believe that I artificially enhanced the colour of these images in post-processing. I didn't. What you see is what I got (when I pressed the shutter button). Here's what I did do:
1. Don't despair if (like me) you have a knack for getting to the place where you want to take the photograph literally seconds after the sun dips below the horizon. The best colour is yet to come, after the sun disappears.
2. Don't overexpose the image. The foreground will be much darker than the sky. Allow your camera to meter off the sky (if it has that capability). That will turn the foreground black. It's not the end of the world. Silhouettes are nice, and so are pretty colours.*
3. If you are going to process the images using a program like Photoshop Elements leave the saturation slider alone. Instead use the highlights adjustment to restore colour and (sometimes) detail in the most highly exposed areas of the image. It does this by lowering the luminance in those areas and drawing out more of the natural colour captured by your camera.
*If you want to have your cake and eat it too (i.e a bright foreground and a pretty sky), learn about high dynamic range photography. Here is an example of that.
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Or Chere, being bathed for the first time since last fall, in preparation for her first show of the season.
The blazing sun (I did NOT touch the saturation, white balance or colour sliders!) behind those newly formed leaves got me thinking about the relationship between fire and life on this planet. When our very existence depends on a raging inferno 150 billion miles away, is it any wonder that our own existence can at times take on a fiery character of its own?
Or perhaps I'm trying just a little too hard to be profound here.
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We then went down to the bottom of our property to investigate our derelict apple orchard. It looks great when you blur it out like I did in this photo! Finny looked pretty good too (and didn't need to be blurred out), though he was getting very thirsty at this point and ready to head back inside.
On the subject of apple trees, there was an old apple tree in our back yard that was at the end of its days and died shortly after we moved in years ago. I cut the dead tree down, but there were a few sprouts on the trunk so I left it in place. This is a photo of some of the blossoms one of those little sprouts is now producing.
When we took this tree down, I deliberately left this log as a play object for my girls and maybe an experiment in decomposition. These fungi are a regular occurrence and I think they add a point of interest to our yard :).
These were taken on Sunday, so more cheating. But I processed them yesterday and these images stuck with me all day. If you only knew the challenges these girls have faced. This sport is about learning to overcome obstacles in more ways than one. I am so proud of my little girls for the ability they have shown to face daunting challenges head on and confront them seemingly fearlessly.]]>
Oh, and Emily did win Ribbons too! :) Including a second place in a very challenging "My First Medal" class.
Sadly, I'll never know, because these are horse treats. And there are few enough of them that if any go missing I will be busted immediately.
I'm off to get a human treat at Starbucks now.
I know. It's completely illogical.
(Posted two photos today to make up for the zero I posted yesterday. I actually took over 1300 photos yesterday, at a school board drama and dance festival. But I can't post photos of other peoples' kids to my blog. So you get an extra tulip instead.)
]]>Or maybe it isn't necessary to look past the budding leaves to find the answers.
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]]>These guys appear to be practicing yoga in the park.
While this guy, already armed with inner peace, just cruises around the pond daring me to get in his way.
This one is for you Linda. Somebody wanted to say hi to his "other" mommy. :)
I took this moments after today's other photo. I came to this spot for a photo of Mrs. Olive's field, and I got one I'm satisfied with. But somehow, this one speaks to me more. This is, after all, supposed to be a journey.
What a great feeling to look across a field and finally see the colour green.
This is the start of a personal project where I will take and post a single photo every day. Except I will probably miss days. Let's see if I can hit more than I miss, haha.
There is a journey to be taken here, and I while I am hopeful, I am not sure where it will take me.
Dave
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