:Always Breaking

We have two hydrangea bushes, one on either side of the front steps. When we bought our house nearly 11 years ago they were the only things attractive on lot. My wife keeps them pruned nicely and every year they have beautiful bunches of flowers. This year is turning out to be no exception. They always start blooming about now, and are usually in full glory right around the beginning of July.

They seem a little brighter shade of pink this year, not sure why. Hydrangeas can change colors, and if you plant new bush they usually do change colors. They pick up different minerals or whatever in the soil and it changes the color. I’ve heard you can put pennies in the ground to get them to change.

One year someone actually stole the flowers. Early in the morning, before I would ever dream of waking up, someone came by and cut all the bunches of flowers off both bushes. This was a couple of days before my daughters birthday party, so instead of beautiful hydrangeas to welcome the guests, we had bare plants. We were furious, but what could we do. That year we got to enjoy the flowers for about two weeks and had to wait a full year to get them back. That hasn’t happened again, and I hope it never does. We’ve planted some bushes in the backyard just in case.

Anyway, you can enjoy these plants on Zooomr. There are more shots here and here.

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Roses in May Hosted on Zooomr

The past few weeks have seen the most spectacular roses I’ve seen in town since I moved here. All over town, rose bushes of every color have had an abundance of flowers. At this point, many are past there prime, but last weekend was great.
I shot this a couple of days ago, thinking it was one of the last flowers to bud on this bush, but today it still looks amazing.

I shot it in RAW and did some adjustments in Picasa; just some brightness and contrast. I really wish I had a real macro lens for my camera. I know I mentioned that before, maybe this summer I’ll get one, or at least before next spring. This year was great for roses, but who know what next year will bring. We didn’t get as much rain as normal, and the weather has been pretty mild, at least until today.

Higher resolution versions are on Zooomr, but no Exif data. Shooting in RAW doesn’t capture the Exif (because Exif is jpeg specific) and I haven’t found a good tool for editing Exif data. I tried a couple, but was unimpressed.

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Arch Hosted on Zooomr

Another shot I took Easter weekend, actually only a few minutes later than Camouflage. I have been taking other pictures, but have been slow getting them up online. Also, I took a few photos I really liked Easter weekend, so figured I’d make them last for several posts. I find taking pictures in spurts works better for me. Less stress, more creativity. I do take my camera with me pretty much everywhere I go, just in case I see something interesting. I’ve got at least three of four pictures I’ve taken over the last week that I want to blog.

My foot is still slowing me down, and tomorrow I have arthroscopic shoulder surgery. I feel like an invalid already. The surgery should keep me from shooting for several days, hopefully no more, so I’m going to post the pictures I’ve already taken while I’m recovering. If all goes well, I’ll be back out shooting pictures in no time.

On to some comments about this shot. I took it while my kids were busy playing in the river. It was warm, and the water was really low so they were wading in up to their ankles and playing in the sand. This river willow branch caught my eye and I started shooting. I took it in color, but knew when I was shooting that I wanted it in black and white. I did a good deal of contrast adjustment and added film grain to help give a more surreal look. I also used a wide f-stop (which I tend to do a lot) and had to obviously get down on the ground. I get nervous when my camera gets too close to sand, but this shot was worth it. (I got dirty, the camera is fine) I think it came out nicely.

It is on Zooomr with a GeoTag and another shot of the branch.

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Tulip Hosted on Zooomr

Again, I’m running late and haven’t posted for a few days. My wife got some flowers and this tulip opened up all the way. It’s not your normal view of a tulip; it almost doesn’t look real.
See it on zooomr.

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Frosted Hosted on Zooomr

Today I was late driving to work, so I took a back road that has less traffic. I dropped into this valley, and noticed a farm house across a frosted field. I quickly pulled over and started shooting. It was early in the morning and everything was still frosty, which I always think looks really pretty in the early morning light. I took a lot of shots, several of which I liked, but this was my wife’s favorite so it makes the blog. You can see a couple of other shots here and here.

I’ve driven through this location dozens of times, and never thought to take pictures. It’s just your average dairy farm, but this morning with the frost and morning light it was transformed. Again, I found a shot in something routine and ordinary. Photography is like that sometimes, at least for me.

I used a polarizing filter on this shot and went for a short depth of field. You can kinda make out the farm house that caught my eye in the background. I really like the polarizing filter and think it really enhances outdoor pictures. See the exposure details and geotag at zooomr.

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Point taken. Hosted on Zooomr

It was another beautiful, cold day that I spent inside finishing up projects. I didn’t shoot durning the day, so had to find something in the house to shoot. I started with my bike, and ended with a potted cactus. It’s one of two live plants in our house. I had to bring in my halogen work light just to get enough light to take pictures. I like depth of field, so I spent time experimenting as much as possible with the poor lighting. I ended up with pretty slow shutter speeds, and without a tripod had a hard time keeping still. Lesson for the day, get a tripod. Lesson two - shoot during the day.

Anyway, this was the coolest shot I took. Details at Zooomr. The bike shots were ok, but would have been better outside with concrete as the backdrop (bikes belong on the road). The catcus shots were pretty interesting, but this was my favorite. It’s pretty cool how our eyes see the colors completely differently than the camera picks them up. I haven’t messed with the colors in this, that’s how the camera took the picture. I like the color of this shot and the fuzzy background. I guess the real lesson for the day is that everyday things in our lives can be special or unique if we just look at them from a different perspective. Everyday things make good subjects, if you take the time to pay attention. Even common house plants.

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