Tag: photography

New Growth

Yesterday it was over 80F. Today it is a cool 69F. Little rain. Still, life continues. New growth on a pine at the local garden, where flowers are in bloom everywhere. A walk in the open space nearby found mockingbirds singing away, looking for wives, and staking out their territory. It’s a stunning time of year.

Ceanothus

Ceanothus is also known as California Lilac. it is a shrub with glossy green leaves (as you can see in the photo!). It comes in other colors, too, but the blue is the original color. To me, it is always the sign that spring is on the way – and today I found it, along with a lot of other plants in bloom. I was as busy as a bee!

I used my Nikon V3 and 70-300mm lens, which, with a 2.8 crop factor, makes the 300mm closer to 810mm. It allows for great shots and I totally forget, until I use it, what a wonderful system it is.

Red

This morning the sky is mottled with clouds and the light is soft. Bright red flowers seem even brighter than ever.

I keep meaning to find out the name of these – never seem to find their label in the garden. Time to set about on a hunt, like I do annually for the daffodils and narcissus.

A Patch of Daffodils

This is a panorama shot with a very narrow DOF. The focal point could have been better, but it is the row of daffs in front of the trees. The third clump in the very front from the left is best in focus, but I probably could have focused on the blooms in the second clump. Oh well.

I probably took 60 or so images here, and got a really well-covered area. The point is to see the different layers of in and out of focus areas. The foreground is sort of in focus, then the daffodils, and then moving back, the trees become increasingly more blurred. Sometimes doing these big panoramas can produce exciting pictures – other times, rather meh to downright worthless.  If you enlarge the picture, you will be able to see the levels of focus more clearly.

The beauty of digital! So much can be thrown away, so much can be play, so much can be a learning experience that is cheap – film does not make this an economic adventure at all.