flowers – wonder and beauty

clematis

April 15, 2013 by rick

We’re at the beginning of the annual riot of clematis on the back porch. There’s a literal sea of buds and flowers twisting along and throughout the railing. I’ve been shooting them up close for a few days (well, years, actually).

Today, I was going through some of the images I shot over the weekend, and I kept wishing I had gotten this angle or that one, or a different composition. When I got home tonight, the skies were threatening rain, but there was still a shaft of sunlight coming through the clouds, so I got the camera and the macro lens out and waited for the sun to hit this one flower.

There were a bunch of shots I liked from tonight’s session, but the best ones were when the sun came through, and I’ve posted both of my faves here. I can’t really decide which one of these two I prefer. The first one has a good use of negative space, but the second one, while slightly more busy, I think has a better feel, especially in the crispness of the primary flower. Thoughts?

bloom

March 20, 2013 by rick

spring isn’t quite here yet, but I happened upon this tree outside a doctor’s office yesterday, ready for better weather…

still life with tulips

March 19, 2013 by rick

a year later, I’m still loving the new kitchen…

tulips {forced}

February 19, 2013 by rick

I’ve been off at the Portland International Film Festival for the past two weeks[1. Best movies so far? The Sapphires, Blancaneives and Renoir. I didn’t see Alien Boy, which Liz says is her favorite.
The worst? I beseech you: don’t go see Love, Marilyn.], and, while I have had my camera with me all the time, there haven’t been that many things to shoot or post (the previously posted photo, “flight,” being the exception).

However, in our kitchen there have been the most lovely forced tulips; a gift to Lee from her friend Betty. I don’t recall seeing forced tulips before, but I’m quite in love with them, and it’s been fun to watch them go from shoots of green to full flowers in a short time. They’re just about done, but I keep looking at them every night, and inevitably end up pulling out the camera to try another angle.

Below is one from a bit closer in. A couple of people have told me that they like this one better, although it’s a bit darker:

That said, as much as I love photographing flowers, the film festival ends Friday and I’m ready to get out and shoot something else.

On another note, my friend Duncan posted his review this week of the Sony RX1; if you’ve been intrigued by this camera, the review is well worth reading.[2. You can see a good representative sampling of my images taken with the RX1 over in this Flickr set. You could click the Sony RX1 tag above, but scrolling through the picks is better on Flickr, to be honest.]

sunflowers, sauvie island

September 23, 2012 by rick

Lee and I made our annual trek over to Sauvie Island today, to hike around a bit, soak up the fall atmosphere, and to grab the first pumpkins of autumn. We ended up, as we always do, at Kruger Farms, which is a lovely farm stand stocked with local veggies, pick your own flowers (like these sunflowers), a beer truck (Guided by Porches brewery), and good grub. (The farm stand is across the street from this inlet, which I photographed in January.)

The bad news was that it was too early for the corn maze, but I’ll take that over the crowds that will descend upon this poor island starting next week.