Tiny Dancers

Milkweed seeds pirouette on the breath of a chilly Autumn day….

Not A Flower

I like shooting a wide variety of images; this is a duo I just put together. I like the contrast: light to dark, fun to fancy. It’s titled “Split Personality,” and I hope you’ll like it, too. 🙂

Thanks for viewing; comments always appreciated.

Apparition

As twilight falls, this dusky beauty glimmers in the fading light…

Tender Awakening

Soft and dreamy, like it’s floating in space, an elegant rose lily opens her petals….

3 Lilies

Bud and bloom, light and dark…

Thank you for viewing and, as always, comments are appreciated. 🙂

Three Faces of Eve

Negative shading.

Captivated by negative images today….thanks for stopping by!

Leaf Lace

This got tracked into the house on someone’s shoe and I nearly tossed it back outside. Until I took a closer look. And, well…one thing led to another, as it customarily does with me. Stunning example of nature’s artistry. I am always fascinated by what remains once the glorious color fades.

I used an inversion technique for this image. Thanks for looking!

Untitled

Every photographer is drawn to certain types of subjects. Flowers is a broad category, and I find them endlessly fascinating–the variety and the shape of the petals, the colors. Equally fascinating is what remains when the flowers are finished blooming; there is a poignancy to spent blooms that has me returning to capture their unique beauty, time after time.

Thanks for stopping by–and if the images moves you, leave me some love. 🙂

Peony II, Salvaging A Shot

It happens to every photographer–a shot that is almost perfect, except….

I’m a perfectionist, and I can get hung up on those exceptions. When I started taking photos there were a lot of images that I deemed unusable. Along the way, I picked up some useful tricks, and now, if I don’t like an image, it’s usually because the composition is off. Another thing I can get hung up on. The two photos in this post are an example of what I’m talking about.

The first one is almost perfect, except (there’s that word again!)…

Do you see it? Right in the foreground, there’s a leaf that’s blurry. Grrrr!! I like the rest of the shot but…what can I do about that leaf? What has been seen can’t be unseen; when I look at this shot, my eyes go straight to that leaf.

In the second shot, I applied a focal softening filter, then repeated it. It makes more of the background blurry so I don’t immediately see the flaw. It’s still there….I just camouflaged it, ending up with a shot I like, 100%.

Moral of the story: don’t be so quick to discard those less-than-ideal images; as you grow more comfortable with and confident in your editing skills, you’ll find yourself returning to them again, seeing them with new eyes.

Peony

From the archives; shot earlier this year, after a rain shower…