Flowers/Macro: Apple Blossoms

The trees at Rogers' Orchards are in full bloom.

Camera: Canon EOS T3, Lensbaby Muse, 4x macro lens Processing: PSE

Flowers/Fragile

In an exuberant response to an unusual warm spell, these magnolias burst into bloom a good month before they ought to have done. Silly things! This is New England. Even a mild winter does not relinquish its control willingly. Tonight, temps are getting down into the 20s and these lovely fragile flowers will be blistered and browned by morning.

Camera: Canon EOS T3, LensBaby with telephoto lens

Flower/Foreign

I have always thought of orchids as foreign and exotic.

Camera: iPhone 4s Processing: minor adjustments in PSE

Orange

The marigolds in my SeroGarden at work are prolific and a brilliant orange.

More rain, wind and it's a work day--not optimal for finding a photo. But someone put this pretty plant in the ladies' room at my sterile office building, and that added some color and life to a dull grey day. I took the picture with Hipstamatic and aded some punch with PictureShow.

Primary colors

A bed of these happy flowers brightens the entrance to the town library. Frame and the barest minimum of touch up added with PhotoGene. This is the first photo taken with my new iPhone 4. Could be my fevered imagination, but it seems brighter & crisper to me than the earlier shots.

Blooms

Our magnolia blooms against a blue spring sky. Taken with the Hipstamatic iPhone app, the photo was tuned up a bit further in PhotoForge.

Spring

Spring has sprung earlier than usual this year. One of the first signs is the sprouting of these tiny snow crocuses (croci?) The photo was taken with the iPhone using the Hipstamatic app.

Snapdragons

I love the ProHDR app! At first I thought it was only for landscapes, but today I tried it with these snapdragons growing in the little AeroGarden in my cube at work. The light is intense and the shadows deep; the iPhone has no flash and little way to compensate in terms of settings. ProHDR took care of that. I did have to hold the phone very steady for the two shots--a bit of a challenge! I used the Dreamy filter from PhotoForge to give it a romantic softness.

Quite honestly, pointsettias give me the creeps. Maybe it's because the things in the middle remind me of the poison dart thingies were shot out from plants and nearly offed Mr. Spock in the classic Star Trek episode, "The Apple." Be that as it may, they are still emblematic of Christmas, and churches are festooned with them. These were on the altar at our church this morning. The Watercolor filter given them some needed depth and definition.

Today is the winter solstice. From now on, the dark will be retreating. What better time to feature these sunny flowers--zinnias growing in an AeroGarden to brighten up our living room? Combining Rough Pastels and Accented Edges softens them a bit, adding a painterly touch.

July 27: We were at the Dodge dealership in Oneonta early Monday morning, where we got the unwelcome news that Bob had blown a head gasket. This meant that A) we were about to fork over a whole boatload of money and B) we were going to have to find an alternative way to get home, since it would take several days to repair. We then waited for several hours to get a rent-a-car. The dealership was a bleak place on a bleak strip of highway. About the only bright or pretty things in sight were a few urns of these yellow flowers situated at the entrances. I like the way Cut Out makes them almost abstract.

There aren't many flowers blooming here in New England in November, but these waxy little blooms are still alive in an urn outside the doors to our church. There was a stiff wind when I was trying to get a shot of them after Bible Babes, so it was tough to get a nice crisp focus. a funky combination of Flourescent Chalk, Posterize and Cutout allowed just the colors and shapes to dominate.

These flowers were being sold at our town's Farmers' Market. All the crisp edges and spikes are striking; Accented Edges and Poster Edges helps delineate them.

It rained yesterday, it rained today, it's gonna rain tomorrow, and it's supposed to rain straight on through the weekend. When the weather is grey and gloomy, certain flowers--forsythia and dogwood, in especial--seem to have their own inner lights. This forsythia bush is fading, but it still had the capacity to light an drizzly afternoon. I wanted a filter that would highlight the raindrops. Watercolor seemed to fit the bill.

We have a small wild cherry in our sideyard. This branch was caught between the slats of our battered fence. Accented Edges increased the contrast a bit and added a painterly effect.

These flowers look like apple blossoms, but apples aren't blooming here yet. The trees are planted in a bleak parking lot in a strip mall, and they're just covered with these luminous flowers. The Accented Edges filter make the petals and the leaves glow.

Vinca is a shy flower. Its blossoms nestle quietly behind the shiny leaves that creep along the ground in the shade. The Charcoal filter, applied at a partial opacity, coaxes the flowers out of hiding.

Phew! Now I'm caught up!

We arrived home yesterday to find that the magnolia next to the house had exploded into bloom. A combination of Colored Pencil and Sumi-E accentuates their exuberance.

It wasn't the day I expected. I was just about to leave for work when I got a call from my 16 year old daughter--she'd hit her head in gym, and she really didn't feel well. I called in to work that I wouldn't be coming in today, collected Sierra from school, and monitored her for a while. I was pretty sure she'd had a mild concussion, so I took her in to see her doctor to confirm it. He concurred. She's OK; she's perking up nicely after having been sort of groggy all afternoon. At dinner I realized I hadn't taken my picture for the day. This handful of carnations is left over from the bouquet my husband gave me for my birthday on the fourth--clearly they have staying power! Dark Strokes was not a filter I would have thought would work with such delicate colors, but I like how it seems to make the petals glow.