This is the other photo I took of our magnolia before the frost wiped out the blossoms last night. People on the Lensbaby forum preferred it to the other. What do you think? 
The first sign of spring: a few tiny snow crocuses open in the warming light. 
I wanted to highlight just the colors of this lovely tulip. 
This is one of the flowers still fresh from the bouquet John gave me on Valentine's Day. He always buys me daisies, because that is the flower I carried on our wedding day, nearly 33 years ago.
I used the Lensbaby Muse with the macro kit--both lenses stacked--to create a dramatic DOF that brings out only two petals of this very tiny flower.
These daisies are planted outside the gym and were still damp with last night's rain. When I was trying out different filters, I found that Colored Pencil had the interesting effect of affecting the background more than the main subject. I played it up by erasing the effect entirely from the flower in the front.
My AeroGarden at work now hosts marigolds, geranium and monkey-flower. This is a shot of the marigolds. Here's where I'm learning from all of you. I would have made this a neatly centered subject with a nice area of greenery around it. But you've shown me how effective it can be to put it off-center and to crop it tightly. 
Our son is graduating from college on Sunday, and we're having about 50 people over afterwards to celebrate. My husband is only mildly concerned about what to give them to eat and drink--but he is nearly frantic that they won't have anywhere to sit. Busly Berkeley's sying words were supposed to have been, "Stairs--more stairs!" John's will be, "Chairs--more chairs!" So off we went this evening to WalMart, Target, Lowe's in an effort to garner more chairs. 
Dogwoods are among my favorite flowers. I love the laciness of the blooms on the trees; they always looks as if they're floating on the branches. This tree in our yard was a gift in honor of the arrival of our son, Christian. He is now 22 years old. The photo was on which took very well to filters and effects. I had the day off and found it a pleasant time sink to play around with them. In the end, I liked best the one using the Bas Relief filter. This might be partly because I've never used it before, but I also like the 3-D and almost Asian effect that it gave the picture. My son being Asian, that ties everything together.
Well, one certainly doesn't have Internet access when one forgets to bring the computer! And, really, that's not such a bad thing: we spent four days unconnected--no Internet, no TV, no radio. During the day, we hiked and biked and poked around Woodstock. In the evening, we sat at the campfire and later did some reading in our little trailer. Saturday night, we had friends over for chili. All of life's stresses just unwound.
Spring in New England can be discouraging in that it never seems to come. Winters in Connecticut are not severe; they're just looooooong. The weather's been raw and damp and grey. Outside the library, this magnolia seemed to sense it was time to bloom by the calendar, but didn't have the courage to open up all the way when the temps still dip below freezing at night. 
Daffodils are my favorite flower (well, them and Lily-of-the-valley); and we wait for them for SO long here in New England...so I couldn't resist one more photo. This was taken in our yard, where they have burst into exuberant bloom. I really didn't think that the original needed anything, but for the sake of the project, I played around with filters anyway. I like the Sumi-E played up the color and luminescence of the flower. 
The weather is still raw and rainy; the daffodils outside haven't dared to bloom. I cut one to put in the little wall vase in the kitchen. With warmth, it promptly opened. Using a flash blew it out, but there's too much yellow in the original shot. The Colorful Center effect sowed up the flower's inner glow. 
We finally have flowers blooming oustide! There's a smattering of truly teensy snow crocuses beside the walk to the back door; and on the other side of the driveway is this lone slightly larger crocus. I have no idea how it got there. We've lived here since 1981, and there's never been a crocus there before. I prefer the original photo, but a combination of Watercolor and Smudge Stick delineates the details, especially in the center. 
