Orchids are one of my favourite flowers. They always look so delicate, yet I think that they, like some people, have an underlying strength.
I was playing around with trying to photograph droplets on the petals. My efforts were not very successful, but they did not detract from the exotic beauty of the flowers.
Look at this purple beauty…
Monochrome edits…
The last one is my favourite. There is a calm and peaceful appeal about it.
It’s a funny old thing, but this morning I got up and took some photos of the sunrise. Well that’s not a funny old thing…the funny thing is that it reminded me of a couple of lines I wrote in my journal a few days ago…
Wait in the morning
Dawn breaking upon the sky
As earth softly wakes
and then these are the words I read in Psalm 19:1 after having taken the photos…
The heavens proclaim the glory of God
The skies display his craftsmanship
Little events weaving life together.
I am linking up to Lori’s Mandarin Orange Monday
I enhanced the colour by using a colour pop method, though I must say that it did not need a lot of enhancing…
I have just found Cee’s Photography blog, where amongst other challenges, she hosts a Black & White one. The current theme is “Flowers”, so I dutifully went out into our courtyard where there is a strelitzia in flower. I did take several shots in colour, but decided to set the camera onto Monochrome and took a couple of photos.
This is the SOOC shot…
I cannot remember all the edits I did, but for the following picture I added a soft white overlay, which lightened the image and brought out the contrasts a bit more…
Do go over to Cee’s blog and have a look at some of the other entries.
A walk on the eco side of Simbithi…
The aloe flowers in our garden are dying off. It is sad to see their glorious colour fading. However, I took note of them the other day and was intrigued by the way they are drying out. Nature is not always boring when all seems dull and brown.
I love playing with B&W edits. I added a black and white gradient and then a vanilla overlay…
It is grey and rainy today, but that doesn’t matter. It is lovely and cool and I bought a cheerful bunch of flowers this morning 🙂
I am supposed to be working on a couple of baby projects that need to be completed by 24 April, but I have been sidetracked by my blog! Baby projects in progress? Two quilts and two teeny jerseys for the two grandchildren that are expected in May – so exciting! I leave for the UK on 25 April. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to show the projects on my blog, because my daughter (one of the expectant mums) does not want to see them before she receives them. I hope she will like hers and I hope, even more, that my daughter-in-law likes hers too! I have said that they can put the jerseys on the babies once ,when I am around, and then turf them after that if they don’t like the results – haha!
Anyway, I digress from the bunch of flowers. I thought it about time to submit an entry for MOM, so I took some photos and then played around with my edits. As usual, I do the edits and then forget to note the process. Generally, I do a couple of basic adjustments in Lightroom and then open them up in Photoshop and play a bit more there. I did remember to write down the edits I did with one of the photos…see explanation below the photo.
My black and white version…
Editing Steps –
Desaturated the image
Added an Orange Colour Fill and changed the blend to Overlay 100%
Distort Layer – Ocean Ripple.
It does look as if one is gazing down into shallow watery depths. “Shallow depths”?? I wonder how that would be described in the English grammar??
Well, well Blog….you have been sorely neglected over the past month, but I see you have survived!
What, you ask, has been keeping me away from you? What could be more important than you? Ummm…the answer to that is…ummm…life!
Anyway, dear Blog, you are not the only one that has been neglected. My photography, Mandarin Orange Monday, my art and many other things have been neglected too, so don’t feel bad.
Here are a couple of macro shots of a strelitzia that was blooming in our garden a couple of weeks ago. It was not in the most convenient place to photograph. I had to walk down a little bank and trample over my husband’s plants (shhh…don’t tell him!) to get some shots. I nearly fell over in the process, and…horror upon horrors, my tripod got all muddy!! However, I think the result was worth it 🙂
I simply cannot believe that a week has gone by since I last put a post on my blog…what happens to the time???
Realising that it was Monday and, therefore, time for Macro Monday and Mandarin Orange Monday, I got out my camera this afternoon and took some photos of this flower. Being a fount of knowledge on the names of flowers (not!) I think this is a gerbera daisy. I am open to correction 🙂
For some reason I battled to get a crisp shot, but I thought the orange tones in this would be an appropriate entry for Mandarin Orange Monday…
Then I decided to look at the underside of the flower. It makes me feel like I am in one of those “Honey, I Shrunk The…” movies and I am standing under a huge plant. Definitely appropriate for Macro Monday…
It has been ages since I took part in any photographic challenges, so decided to put that right and take part in Lisa’s Monday Macro challenge.
It is the first time that I have taken part in her challenge and I hope it won’t be the last!
The photo below is a protea and I think it is called a Red Pincushion Protea. This one is sitting in a bouquet of flowers that I have in the house at the moment. Proteas are generally lovely flowers to have in a bouquet, as they last very well.
The detail of the tiny hairs in this photo fascinate me…
P.S. I am submitting this photo to Mandarin Orange Monday too…even though it is Wednesday already 😉 Thank you LoriK for inviting me to enter this photo.
I did not really do too much editing. I have forgotten exactly what I did, but my first edits were in Lightroom, changing the tone and enhancing the colour. Then I sharpened the picture in Photoshop CS5.
Last weekend we had some friends around for a meal and Anita brought me a beautiful bunch of flowers. They have been sitting on my dining table and bringing me much pleasure all week.
Now that I am settling into my new home I am finding my inspiration for photography and other creative pursuits returning to me – yeah! Today I decided to get my macro lens out and take some pics of the flowers.
Here they are…
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