This is from last year, but soon this year’s will be popping up soon.
For Becky of Winchester’s Square Up Challenge, and Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Spring erupting
Tag Archives: flower
2020 Hindsight
A year of flowers, clouds, raindrops…
I just finished going back through the posts from this year, a longer project than expected. I posted a lot this year, including two months where I posted at least once a day!
Going through the posts, I noticed a few trends: lots of flowers, mostly taken while walking the dogs around the neighborhood:
Lots of sky photos with dramatic clouds, mostly taken locally (Puget Sound region), although New Zealand had some great clouds as well:
…And raindrops: a lot of pictures with close-ups of raindrops, perhaps a sign of spending most of my year in Seattle:
I’ve also been spending time learning about photo processing. I learned how to take things for a spin (and a lot about blending modes in the process):
…And spent quite a bit of time learning about black and white:
These experiments, and wanting to give myself some structure around keeping the experimentation up, led me to start a new monthly challenge on my other website:
In conclusion
I was not in a great place as the year started, because of some turmoil in the family. Until I reread the first post from 2020 : Another year over…I’d forgotten how depressed I was! I even left my 2018 wrap up in the featured block because it wasn’t sad. Turns out my conclusion was almost foresight, although not in the way I would have predicted!
We were truly blessed to have been able to spend some time with our son over Chinese New Year, we met in the middle (more or less) in New Zealand, and the pandemic was rearing its ugly head as we parted.
Since parting we message daily and have a video talk once a week. We are so fortunate to have these connecting technologies. It was so much more difficult for families living apart during the 1918 flu…most people didn’t even have telephones in those days!
So ends 2020.
I am opposed to making New Year’s resolutions and too many things are up in the air right now to make predictions…maybe it has always been so and, until now, we just didn’t realize how fragile our norms were.
I wish you all happiness and health in the year ahead!
Pretty in pink
These dahlias are valiantly blooming even though the weather has not been very friendly of late.
Any way you look at it…
My rose is about done now after a windy, rainy week and last light the wind changed and it’s gotten fairly chilly. Still it was a nice little bloom. I’ve been playing with different ways to use the picture of it.
Here are a couple of different black and white treatments. One on the lighter side and one on the darker side.
Nik collection Antique plate II effect. 
Nik collection pinhole effect.
Since last February I’ve been experimenting a lot with different photo processing methods. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at different ways of creating and using monochrome…you’d think it would be simpler in black and white. But there are so many different ways to take the color out and adjust the light and dark that it seems harder than plain old color. Lately I’ve been rather liking applying the monochrome partially or overlaying the monochrome and color photos with different layer blend modes.
Posted as part of Friendly Friday: Two ways (Actually I used 4) and Brashley Photography’s Mid-week Monochrome.
If you take an interest in different photo processing methods you might like to take a look at the one-to-three photo processing challenge, on my other website.
My rainy day rose
Sometimes I obsess on things. These past few days it has been this rose just outside my workroom window. Likely the last rose of the season. Something about how it started to bud as the weather turned cold and has that little bit of bruising charms me. Or maybe it is the delicate pink during this season of brilliant reds, oranges and golds in the autumn foliage.
For Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Mystery flower
These are all of the same plant. I have no idea what it is. I saw it when the dogs and I diverted to avoid someone on our usual morning walk.
Little purple sunshine
RIP RBG: a truly great woman. I received the news while I was putting this post together.
My fall front garden gets most of its color from fall asters, the tail end of the naked ladies, and the fall re-bloom of my roses.
Wild sweet pea…or sweet wild pea?
I looked up these local charmers on The Google and it was indecisive. But it said they were native to California…excuse me! Can’t they just say “west coast”? They predate me here in Washington…and I’m practically a dinosaur!
Love and Peace Rose
I have been taking a bit of a break from posting since I finished the July Squares. While I know a lot of people post every day, some even more frequently, I am not usually one of them and I felt a bit like I had run a marathon.
My sister gave me this beautiful heirloom rose on Father’s Day and I was very excited that it decided to give me a blossom so soon. It has been my muse this week, as it has moved from a bud to full blown. I love its rich colors and it has that dreamy, old-fashioned rose scent.
It reminded me about The Little Prince and his love for his rose.
“The men where you live cultivate 5000 roses in the same garden and they do not find what they seek.”
“They do not find it,” I replied.
“And yet what they are looking for can be found in one single rose, or in a taste of water.”
“Yes that is true,” I said.
And the Little Prince added: “The eyes are blind, one must look with the heart.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
Bee’s point of view
Seeing things in black and white
Sometimes it is interesting to take a look at a picture without color to see what grabs your eye. I’m continuing my exploration of black and white. Never thought something that sounds so simple could be so complicated.
Does the black and white change your perspective of the photo?
For Becky of Winchester’s July Squares: perspective, and Cee’s Flower of the Day.
