Discovering Flowers

When I was a little girl, my dad was big into photography. Aside from taking pictures of my sister and myself, the things I remember him photographing most were flowers. At the time (and even up until today), I never understood the fascination with taking pictures of flowers. I mean, picture books of flowers are a dime a dozen, and, it's not like every dogwood flower has its own name (like people do). We had slides, negatives, and prints floating all around, each with an individual flower. Roses, tulips, apple blossoms, even four-leaf clovers. Each one's composition was impeccable, with the background blurred into oblivion to capture the crispness of the flower's details.

Well, my dad had an SLR camera.

Now I understand.

We went to a park today, and as is everything else around here right now, spring flowering trees were at peak. We were wandering down a trail, and I spotted a brilliant yellow shrub. (Anyone know what this is??) I raised my brand-new SLR to check it out, and suddenly yelled out in absolute wonder. I could not believe what I was seeing! Individual planes of depth lept out through the viewfinder, bringing some flowers into focus, and blurring others. And the crispness of detail was mouth-dropping. I was in wonder and awe.
I spent the next hour or so stalking down flowering trees, holding down their branches with one hand while I snapped pictures with the other hand.

Not that taking pictures of flowers is the only thing I'll be doing from here on out, but this has really opened my world up as far as photography goes. I stand in amazement.

Portrait Shoot

I finally succeeded with my backdrop! This one is all grey, as you can see. I wish it had been larger, but it worked nonetheless. Here was the set-up:
Mr. Comedian* slid into my viewfinder between the graduates. I figured he wouldn't mind too much being on my blog. :)

*Not his real name, in case you wondered.

(Post script: I have recieved the pictures and they have been delivered to most of the graduates. So far, I have heard only positive comments, so I am very happy. It was stressful doing this shoot, to say the least, but when the end results are satisfied customers, I will deal with the stress. Ha!)

New Toy

Of course I had to show you a picture of it. :)

Nikon D60

It's mine!

I am too exhausted to tell you anymore right now.

And there's too much happening between now and Sunday or Monday or Tuesday for me to tell you before then.

So you'll just have to WAIT.

:)

DIY Photography Backdrop

I'm getting prepared for my first paid photography shoot, happening this Sunday. I needed a backdrop, but didn't have a spare $200+ sitting around, so went to Lowe's and bought a painter's dropcloth. And bought dye. . . . And went back to town and bought more dye. . . . And went back to town and bought more dye. . . . And more dye. . . . Over the past few days I've dyed and bleached and re-dyed and dyed again and dyed some more. -- And run to town a lot. Ha! (I'm not exaggerating in the slightest.) And tonight I have a backdrop! Woohoo!!! While I'm not sure this is the one I'll be using for the project on Sunday, it was a great learning experience, and I will have it as a spare.

And now, (drumroll, please) here it is:
Since Husband was at work and the kids were in bed and I was too impatient to wait for some willing subjects to wake up in the morning, I nabbed son's teddy bears, and got some still life shots. Here's one:

Leave me a comment, tell me what you think. Thanks!

Slow Progress

Since the last post, I have been hanging' out at the hospital with Husband, who was diagnosed with pneumonia to both sides of his lungs. Was it the tree he cut down with the hand saw that did it???

Also, since my last post, our neighbors totally bowled us over with their kindness. -- As we headed off to the ER, they snuck back to our yard with a few more people, and, armed with chainsaws, tore the bank's underbrush and rotten trees to shreds in just a few hours! When I came home briefly to pick up clothes and other necessities for a hospital stay, I was too preoccupied to notice it till I was headed back down the driveway, and then I just sat in my car and bawled. Had it been left to me to finish alone, it would have taken me weeks, and then it wouldn't have happened because I would have been overcome by all the encroaching growth. So, this was simply amazing to see! I spent the time at the hospital wondering if I'd been dreaming about what I saw. :)

Today I spent a lot of time outside with the kids while Husband slept inside, recuperating.

This morning we planted:
2 bareroot raspberry bushes
3 bareroot blueberry bushes

We potted to larger pots (till there's time to dig a permanent garden spot):
3 hydrangeas
1 butterfly bush
3 ecchinacea
1 monarda

This afternoon I worked on clearing leaves and GOBS of garbage from the bank. So far there is quite the growing pile of cinder blocks, garbage bags, dishes, an old metal garden frog, and various other non-descript items. The happy thing I'm "discovering" is lots of boulders. -- I knew they were there, but now I can really see them. And suddenly, I have a new garden-in-the-making: a rock garden!!! I am so excited! The sky is the limit for what I could do here! But for this spring, I'm just going to work at clearing it out, and then planting annual seeds. I have a plethora of seed packs, some old and some new. I don't know if they'll all make it, but I figure this will be a good place to experiment. So, I shall let you know how it comes along.

What Is It?

This is the happiest item we unearthed yesterday, in all our thrashing of underbrush. Minus a few blossoms that got knocked off, it looks pretty good, but the question remains: What is it?

The thin tree bears delicate flowers of light pink color, with a dark pink cluster of stamens (??? -- Forgive me! I don't remember my floral anatomy from college A&P) in the center. Leaves are bright green, with one point at the tip, from what I can tell, as they are barely opening up.

Thanks for any help with identification!