I saw this emerging Lilac blossom against the bright red of a Flowering Quince and could not resist shooting an image. As they say, “When you see red, shoot!” The red background tends to overwhelm the Lilac buds. I tried to separate the two with a shallow DOF. Later in post processing, I added a little structure to the Lilac and added a little blur to the Quince which helped the separation a little more. Just experimenting …
I was experimenting with swipes and pans on this Redbud tree to create some interesting images for backgrounds. While I had my camera set for a blur (f/32, 1/4 second, ISO 200), I let the wind create a little magic on its own. I just held the camera still, waited for a gust of wind, then snapped the shutter. It’s pretty amazing what nature can do!
The sweet smell of the Holly blossoms greet me as I go out our back door. Who could help not noticing these small blossoms especially when they are highlighted by the sun-lit red Japanese Maple leaves in the background.
The early morning dew drops highlighted this emerging Lady’s Mantle leaf. This was a gift of nature just waiting to be noticed. It was a beautiful morning!
Late afternoon sun provided the brilliant illumination of these emerging flowering plum leaves. The blossoms provide the background.
Below is different perspective of the blooms.
The lesson that I was exploring as I took this image was from Tony Sweet: “Pick a background and put something interesting in front of it”. The late afternoon sun brilliantly lit up the new spring grass. The blossoms in the pear trees lining our driveway were in partial shade. Normally I try to pick dark backgrounds with light shining on the foreground subject. This time it was just the opposite. I kept a moderate aperture size to blur the background and keep the blossoms in acceptable focus.
The emerging new growth of this Exbury Azalea surrounds and seems to protect the old growth from last year. I moved around to get the best position of the old growth between the towering new growth.
Post processing was also simple. I added a little contrast and structure to the leaves as well as darkened the background using NIK Viveza. As a final touch, I lightened the center and darkened the edges with NIK Color Efex Pro.
Today is the First of May. It is time to appreciate the emerging Spring flora. For the next several posts, I will focus on the emerging buds and blossoms in our back yard. This image caught my eye as I walked by one of our Japanese Maples. It looked like the emerging leaves were wings ready to take off and fly.
For processing, I cropped the image to put the “wings” in the right perspective in relation to the edges. I slightly brightened the center and darkened the background to add a little pop to the leaves.
I am continuously trying to train my eye to see B&W. I find it difficult to see past brilliant color and identify the potential for B&W images. A few days ago, I stepped out our back door and saw these two yellow daffodils brilliantly back-lit by the low morning sun. Was it the color or was it the the brilliance of the back-lit subject that caught my eye ….
The following is the color version.
Just when we thought Spring was here, the temperatures dropped to the low 30’s last night. This morning was bright and clear, but “finger numbing” chilly. With the wind blowing, I worked hard to come up with the best compromise between a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the daffodils and a depth of field large enough to get some detail in the background. I was not too successful. But it was still a bright Spring morning shot.
Lesson learned: Sometimes a compromise cannot be reached … move on!