Play the angles.

Backyard art.

The dappled light on our smoke bush and willow yesterday morning called for an impromptu excursion into the backyard. I wonder what the neighbours thought of the lady in her housecoat and slippers, shaking a camera at her garden shrubs?

Tulip time.

Awakening.

*In response to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Awakening

I’ve missed you.

Hello, spring!

Secret garden.

*Door-lovers unite at Norm 2.0’s weekly feature, Thursday Doors.

Morning glory.

 

Catch some rays.

When you’re tired of making the same old photos of your garden blooms, try this: manually zoom your lens during a long exposure (shutter speed here was one second) to capture your flower more unconventionally. In this shot of a coreopsis, the blooms surrounding the main one are rendered as ghostly streaks of colour.

I had some help from Lightroom to crop the image and darken sections to minimize distractions like the leaves and the detail in the soil.

Making this radiating effect in a photo was pretty fun. I think I’ll try it on some other kinds of subjects – food, toys, vehicles… maybe even a face, if I can get one of my cats/kids to hold still long enough (the exposure time was one whole second, so I may have to wait until they’re asleep).

Streaks of nature.

One of the fun things about photography is that when you’re in an abstract and painterly mood, you can make just about anything into a sweeping blend of lines and colours.

The subject here is Japanese Blood Grass, a pretty ornamental in my garden that’s green at the base and crimson at the tips. I got in close and tilted the camera vertically during a two-second exposure time.

No paint required.

 

Busy bee.