3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

flowers

Day 163/365: Crabapple Tree in Bloom

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More flowering trees, this time I know it’s a crabapple tree, unlike last time,  as I saw last years lingering crab apples. Still experimenting with an old Olympus E-10 I bought off eBay several years ago as I like the clarity it gives, only wish it gave more than four megapixel images. Maybe I’ll get lucky on Craigslist and find a great deal on a high end camera.

CrabApple Tree
Day 163: Crab Apple Tree (Olympus camera SOOC)

This photo above was straight out of camera on my old Olympus digital camera. The lens quality is really sharp, better than my Canon Rebel, but it’s only a 4.6 megapixel so I have to be happy with small images. Here at the lab we can print some nice 16×20’s but I can’t crop anything out, this size shrinks too low to make a sharp print.

Photoshop CS5 Filter/Render/Lighting Effects/Crossing Down/Spotlight

But I’m learning it’s not just the equipment that makes a photographer, it’s skill. I have now gotten better at aperture, shutter speed and exposure on my manual settings, some day when my camera hobby starts to pay for itself I’ll get a better camera.

Thanks to suggestions from my friends at Chick A Day Blog and Anglin Photography  I’ve experimented with this photo a little. Some like more contrast, others like a softer look, or maybe a more artistic flair. This photograph lends itself to all of them. Never think that you can’t learn from others. Straight out of camera images can be really really good, but they can be made “GREAT” by a little tweaking of Photoshop Magic.

Sepia Flowers
Photoshop CS5/Filter Sepia/ Select Color Layer
Cooling Photoshop Filter on Flowering Tree
Photoshop CS5/Cooling Filter & Pink Selection layer for Flowers on Top

I love my blogging friends, I learn so much from them, amazing photographs and Photoshop artists.

Photography Notes: After playing around in the Photoshop CS5 my son gave me when he came home from leave I like the post production images better than the straight out of camera.

More Information on Crabapple Trees

Day 162/365: Spring Returns With Lilacs

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Day 162: Lilacs (SOOC)

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. Spring Flowers! Lilacs, one of my favorite flowers both to look at and smell.

Yes, graduation is over, although there may be a stray post along the way, especially as I put together a video from the senior song written by two choir seniors. But, right now, it’s back to flowers and I have been waiting to post this for a week. Ahh….a breathe of fresh air, can’t you just smell them.

I have told everyone I love sun and warm weather haven’t I, thought so.

Photography notes: Didn’t do anything to this photo except resize and border. Straight out of camera. Love it when this happens!

Day 155/365: Happy Mothers Day

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A Mothers Day gift from my kids meet me when I awoke Sunday morning. It put a smile on my face and gave me at least 30 minutes of photography experiments. But I only chose one for  my 365 project. Today you get two photographs for my post a day project.

Happy Mothers Day

Hope all mothers had a wonderful and restful day. I did, even took a nap. What’s better than a Sunday afternoon nap, a Mothers Day nap.

Day 148/365: Red Tulips Look Like a Monet Painting

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Ok, maybe not the famous Monet red poppies, but it’s what I thought of as I crouched down in a neighbors yard to take these red tulips in a neighbors yard. I learned he planted this tulip bed over forty years ago. Daffodils are the first flowers of spring to bloom in my yard, now it’s time for the tulips to shine.In my small town in rural Nebraska people are used to seeing me crouched on the ground with my camera.

This photograph was taken with my old Olympus E-10 camera. It’s only a 4.4 megapixel, but the sensor is better than my Canon Rebel camera and the quality is so much better. I just have to be happy with smaller images.

Red tulips in the garden
These red tulips remind me of Monets Red Poppies (Olympus E-10)

I do love tulips, they are one of my favorite flowers and they are such a welcome sight in the spring after a long winter. Red tulips should be the tradition on Valentines Day instead of roses. I don’t like red roses, so over done. Do a search at the top of the page for more tulip photography. There will be more to come in all colors from red tulips to pink, yellow and the rare variegated tulip hybrids.

Photography Notes: Again, image was originally overexposed, so I played around a bit with the curves layer, added a threshold layer with a low opacity and fill for some dimension to the petals.

More Fun with Tulips

Express your love with red tulips

Hopefully, you followed this ageless custom and expressed your love by giving flowers. This year, rather than giving Rita a bouquet of red roses as I’ve done in the past, on November 3, 2013, I began Plan A — preparing a gift of red tulips. Perhaps …
5000 tulips main attraction at Mughal Gardens this year

President Pranab Mukherjee will declare open the annual ‘Udyanotsav’ at the world-famous Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 15. The Mughal Gardens will remain open to the public from February 16 to March 16. However, it will be closed …
Tiptoe Through the Tulips in Ottawa

Feedback. <. > Bright red tulips in bloom. (Don MacKinnon/Getty Images). As a token of appreciation for the protection of Queen Juliana and her young family, as well as the liberation of Holland, the Dutch sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada.
 

Day 147/365: Dogwood Trees

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Dogwood Blossoms (Olympus E-10)

Once again my Olympus E-10 comes out with me as I searched for more spring blossoms. I believe this is a dogwood tree, but I could be wrong, I’m not very good with flowering trees, so correct me if  I’m wrong.

What I like about my Fuji S1500 is I can carry it in my purse. Although I like the weight and feel of the Olympus, heavy, like a “real” camera.

Photography notes: This image was severely over exposed, something I can’t see in the view finder as I’m adjusting the settings (or maybe I’m doing something wrong) maybe I should look up an owners manual.  I have started to use the curves layer in Photoshop and bumped up the histogram to darken the image and I spot sharpened the foreground slightly.