Sunday Stills: Yellow Flowers

I know these aren’t wildflowers but these are the end of the summer’s blooms, the yellow is such a cheerful and sunny colour

https://sundaystills.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/sunday-stills-the-next-challenge-yellow-or-wildflowers/

https://nowathome.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/yellow-wildflowers/

Thanks for visiting.

IPhoneography Challenge: Macro

Good morning again.

Last week it was my birthday and I got a lovely bouquet of gerberas (I think that is the spelling) from my husband without any prompting (!).  They were just beautiful and of course I have immortalised them on my 5S. I have found the phone on the 5S to be a lot sharper than the 4S.

The above photos were edited in Photoshop while the ones below in Snapseed.

It wasn’t just the flowers that were interesting, but also the pink dotted paper.

More interesting abstract images.  They were a lot of fun to play with.

This is part of Lens and Pens by Sally  IPhonegraphy challenge.

Thanks for visiting.  Here are a couple of other great blogs.

http://lensandpensbysally.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/phoneography-challenge-your-phone-as-your-lens-macro-and-check-new-themes-added-to-the-schedule/

http://completelydisappear.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/the-shells-and-the-sea/

Keep Your Chin Up…

The number Two

 

Good morning from another sunny Hastings day.

This weeks A Word A week Challenge is two.  So again I got into my archives and found these photos of two blooms.

The roses tend to grow in packs so to speak so it was easy to pick out photos of 2 blooms together.

Two budding peonies.

Two golden ranunculus.

Two blooms on this flower head. This was used for my Halloween photos.

Finally two gerbera.  I thought that this photo had some great potential for some special affects so here is what I did.

A bit more dramatic I think.  I hope you think so too.

Gorgeous spring colours

 

Good morning from another beautiful spring morning in Hastings.

It has been so warm and windless the last couple of days and it makes going for a walk a pleasure.  Spring has well and truly arrived and the gardens are really starting to show of.  The senses are been inundated with the sweet smell of new blossoms as well as the vibrant colours which is so lovely after a grey winter.  I am now just discovering what a beautiful flower the peony is.  There are a couple of gardens that are just a mass of colour.  They make a fantastic show.

 

What can spoil a lovely walk is not having enough battery juice in the camera or too small a memory card.  Everywhere I looked there was something to take.  I left at around 10 am but by midday the light was getting too harsh, leading to hard shadows so maybe it was just as well that the battery had died.

 

I did try and use the strong sun to silhouette the flowers a little to get different textures on the flowers themselves, or as in the second photo to highlight the hairiness of the plant.

I also worked on my focusing skills.

 

Then there are the hazards.  The bees are out in force.  I have to stand right back and try and zoom in on flowers when the bees are around as I am allergic to them but they epitomise what spring is about.

It is a real pleasure to go out and see the perfusion of colours and signs of life, and with my favourite music helping me along it is a great way of relieving stress.  A way of living in the moment and trying to capture the memories on a memory card.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Raewyn

 

Pretty in Pink

 

Good morning from a beautiful sunny Hastings this morning.

Yesterday I was feeling a bit blue with the America’s Cup result so while I was working on my digital scrapbooking last night I decided to cheer myself up with the colour pink.

On the other side of Cornwall Park there is an absolutely gorgeous garden full of peonies and poppies.  It is so alive with vibrant colours.  Roses are my favourite flowers but I have fallen in love with peonies.  They are such magnificent flower just bursting with life.  Of course I have taken a lot of photos there.

With the background paper I used a close up of this magnificent specimen in the photo and edited it with photoshop.

I didn’t do too much to the image as I wanted the pinkness to be kept as well as the details of the petals.

 

Coming back through the park there is a greenhouse or winter garden which is used to grow the plants for the various gardens around the park.  At the moment it is filled with hydrangeas and gerberas.  Close up shots of tightly packed petals make great papers as well which I used here as an accent paper.

Finally I added the embellishments which I created from other photos.

 

I felt for the font it needed to be rather traditional so I used the Great Victorian Swashed font.

It certainly brightened up my night doing this page.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Raewyn