A visit to the Ruth Bancroft Cactus Garden today provided me with a zillion photo ops. I posted many of my favorite cactus photos to Flickr so that my grandson (a big fan of cacti) could see them. I like the abstract quality of some of the cactus images, but I am much more a fan of lily pads than cactus. My favorite photo today was of the lily pond in a shady nook of the garden.
f/5.6, 1/640, ISO 400, 200mm
Macro Monday again!
Today’s photo was taken using my tripod- and a display board (given to me by my photoblogging friend, Carol) with white paper on it as a backdrop. I felt like I was impersonating a professional photographer!
f/7.1, 1/160, ISO 3200, 85mm
Even in front of a window, I couldn’t get enough light at the aperture setting I used for my desired depth of field without using a high ISO. Eventually I realized that I could lower my shutter speed (hello- tripod!), so later photos were taken at a lower ISO. But this ended up being my favorite.
It is Texture Tuesday again! I knew I wanted to do flowers again- but our flowers are fading fast, and I didn’t have the time or inclination to go out looking today. I ended up shooting our much photographed Gerbera Daisy and desaturating it in Aperture. I was going for a faded yellow tone, but ended up desaturating it more in Photoshop, because I didn’t like the green background. Eventually I went for a sepia processing before I added my textures. The assignment today was to use Kim’s aurora texture (the one with the script), and I also added golden and february magic edges.
We were out and about early today- heading over to Starbucks after saying good-bye to Matt. A drive by the Community Garden yielded this shot of a basket of petunias in among the veggies.
f/4.5, 1/125, ISO 640, 170mm
When we had our trees trimmed this summer, they did an EXTREME trim of the branches of the magnolia tree by our deck- too extreme! When you look at it straight on, all you see is trunk. With my 300mm lens, I was able to capture a magnolia blossom today- about 30-40 feet up! I liked it as a black and white conversion and added a pink overlay for fun (yes, I’m still playing with Photoshop- but could have done it in Aperture too).
f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 320, 300mm
Texture Tuesday again- and the assignment was three. Two flowers plus one reflected flower equal three. I used 3 layers of texture- 2 of Kim Klassen’s silence and one of golden.
FYI, one of the silence layers I used color burn as the blend mode; I meant to use multiply, but accidentally hit the selection right underneath. The blueish tints around the edges came from that effect. I liked it, so I kept it!
I felt like playing with Photoshop today, so took a few flower photos this morning to have something to play with. Here’s one I took of an agapanthus blossom.
I tried to write the word “bloom” on a path, but the letters kept bumping into each other. I don’t know if it is the shaky path I am drawing for the letters to sit on- or if there is an easy way to move each letter around after I type it. I experimented with font size and character spacing, but still couldn’t get it to look right.
The texture I used was Kim Klassen’s silence.
While inspecting our garden for changes that might have occurred during the two weeks I was gone, I heard some definite buzzing as I neared the agapanthus. I got as close as I dared with my macro lens to get this image.
f/7.1, 1/400, ISO 200, 85mm
Today I had my camera with me when my husband and I parked to go out to lunch, so I was happily able to capture the flowers spilling over the fence of someone’s beautiful garden. I was in the mood for textures today- so added three of Kim Klassen’s- bent edges, dustyrose, and greyday vintage.
My good friend and former teaching buddy, Kathryn, kindly offered to let me come by anytime to take photos in her gorgeous garden- so today I took her up on her offer!
Her yard has been beautifully landscaped- complete with waterfall and firepit. And then there’s the vineyard! Today I just concentrated on the flowers by the gate, knowing I will be back again for another photo session.
Here’s a rose with lavender in the background- love the colors!
f/13, 1/200, ISO 200, 135mm
And here is a bonus macro shot of a little visitor to her garden.
f/22, 1/80, ISO 200, 85mm
Thanks, Kathryn- I’ll be back!
Texture Tuesday is calling my name again! It’s easy to come up with a textured photo when you have beautiful flowers in the house- these were from Trent’s mama, Sarah, and they have lasted almost a week so far!
The textures I used were Kim Klassen’s bent edges (one of my favorites) and love. The requirement for this week’s challenge, beyond using at least one of her textures, was to use text in the image. I thought to challenge myself to create words on a path (which I used to be able to do in another program) in CS5, but couldn’t figure it out.
Maybe another time . . .
More rain today. . .
We often go out for brunch after church on Sundays. Because of the wet weather, the outdoor seating area wasn’t being used, so there was a long wait to get in. Fortunately, the rain had stopped, so we stood outside while waiting, and I was able to use the time to snap a few photos.
f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO 500 (aperture priority. . .), 200mm
When driving in our neighborhood, I always notice this fancy fence and multitude of rose bushes. Today’s photo captures just a part of this elaborate display.
f/5, 1/800, ISO 400
We have some uninvited guests in our front yard who seem to be making themselves at home and staying a long time (and perhaps inviting their friends). No, I’m not talking about the squirrels this time.
I mean these guys.
f/5.6, 1/80, ISO 800, 200mm
These flowers started appearing about a month or so ago- and are growing REALLY BIG. I have noticed some neighbors who also have them growing in their gardens (perhaps deliberately). My father always referred to flowers you don’t plant as volunteers- but I’m thinking they could be weeds. Weeds are defined by my friend, Kathryn, as any plant that you don’t want, so . . .
I dressed them up a bit by adding some textures (just in the mood today). Anyone know what kind of weeds volunteers flowers they are?
One of the three varieties of iris that we bought a few weeks ago is blooming. I snapped this photo early this morning after the rainstorm- a bright spot on an overcast Sunday morning.
f/13, 1/500, ISO 200, 75mm
melinda anderson photography 