This was the view that awaited us as we walked onto the grounds from the parking lot! I kept trying to capture shots of the little hummingbirds flitting in among the orange flowers, but, alas, they were too quick.
Sunnylands
The focus of our short stay in Palm Springs was of course our reunion with the Rapunzels. We enjoyed some great meals and spent a lot of time catching up on each other’s lives. Our one outing was to Sunnylands, which had been highly recommended by my cousin, Charlaine who was just there. Sunnylands was the estate (built in 1966) of Walter Annenberg, the late publisher, diplomat, and philanthropist. We hadn’t bought tickets for the tour (which included the house), but took our time walking around the beautiful grounds. I was especially captivated by the palo verde trees (state tree of Arizona!), the trunks of which you can see in the below photos.
Deconstructing
This is what can happen as you arrange flowers for still life photography. . .
Two Tulip Monochromes
I love tulips in the window light. These are pink, but I really like the contrast when I convert it to black and white.
Both photos were taken with Lensbabies. I think the second one was with the Edge 80- but I can’t be sure (aperture and lens aren’t recorded in the metadata- frustrating at times).
Flowers in Fall
Sunny Bouquet
Nothing like a sunny bouquet to brighten up a not-so-sunny day!
The Porch
I’ve always loved front porches. We had a good sized one in the house I grew up in, but we never sat on it. I finally have a front porch in our current house (just a slab, but it does the trick), where we sit and watch lightning storms and … sometimes … snowflakes!
This front porch caught my eye when we were picnicking at a Sonoma County winery with our friends, Georgia and Jerry in August. I loved the blue bench as background for the yellow flowers- and then there was just something about the watering can by the screen door! I played with these images a bit using Topaz Simplify and some textures.
Trailing
Sunnyflowers
My friend, Carol and I took a walk at Willow Lake the evening before she left- hoping for a dramatic sunset, some birds, and golden light on the rocks. There was a lot of golden light, but no dramatic sunset and few birds. I enjoyed photographing the weeds and flowers backlit by the sun, which was hanging low in the sky; here are a few of my favorites:
I love how only one flower is facing the camera in this shot.
A hazy Granite Mountain can be seen in the background here.
Big Boys of Summer
Comings and Goings
Butterfly Memories
Posting from the archives today- here are some butterfly images that never made it to the blog.
And I couldn’t resist this super closeup- this one was on Lonnie’s shirt!
Golden Spotlight
The other evening, I glanced over at my entry hall as beautiful light from the setting sun cast a golden glow over my forgotten ranunculus arrangement on the cabinet. I am always complaining about the lack of good light in our house, so I felt compelled to run and get my camera and snap photo after photo until the light faded. My lensbaby Sweet 35 was on the camera- and of course I don’t remember what the aperture was set at- maybe f/4, which produced a lot of blur on the sides (more than I usually like). The second shot shows my adjustment- pushing the bottles together to put more of the flowers in focus. Closing down the aperture would have forced me to raise the ISO more than I wanted to in the excitement of the moment, so that was my speedy solution.
Cheery
Is there anything more cheery than ranunculus? Happy Friday to you!
A Lensbaby Still
Next week I start an online Lensbaby class through Clickin Moms with Caroline Jensen! I’m beyond excited to learn from this Lensbaby guru (and also from some of the amazing photographers taking the class- Holy Cow!). I’m taking it “study-along”, meaning I won’t get any feedback except from my classmates, but I will have access to all the class materials and can read the feedback Caroline gives the other students. We’ve already been given “pre-assignments” well in advance of the class starting, so I already have started learning.
Because I’ll be so involved with the class, it is possible that I’ll be pretty behind in my still life assignments, unless I combine the two (which I may in fact). But since I often use a lensbaby for my stills, I’m going to try to step outside of my comfort zone and practice outside and with people.
So here is a lensbaby still life of PEONIES (surprise, surprise!) and my chair.
melinda anderson photography 