2010: Glowy

2010 Day 29

29 JAN 2010

I had gone to the local grocery and picked up a bouquet of flowers to brighten my kitchen. Nothing big, certainly not expensive; just a little $5 bouquet of dyed daisies. I thought the green ones were so pretty I decided to try and photograph them. Unfortunately, the flash was blowing the color out and adding very harsh shadows (I hate the pop-up flash on point-n-shoots) so I tried doing it with what little available light I had. Which led to high ISO (1600) and lots of grain. Rather than fighting it, I ran the photo through a softening filter in Photoshop and added a little film grain. It's not my best work, but it'll do.

Blossoming Over

Day 199

18 JULY 09

The rear driveway at the bank has some beautiful foliage growing next to it. It would be much nicer if it stayed next to it. It's awfully hard for traffic to run both ways when one side is obscured by overhanging blossoms. At least they're pretty to look at while you're stopped and waiting for the other side to clear.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves adjustment, green boost, border addition.

Hot Pink

Day 169

18 JUNE 09

My husband's plan was to sod our backyard. It did eventually get done over the summer, but before it happened, the weeds ran rampant. And my husband's train of thought seemed to be Why bother to cut it; I'll be clearing the whole mess and sodding it soon. While I'm sure it made sense to him, it drove me nuts because we ended up with some really tall weeds. At least the one in this picture was pretty to look at.

Post-processing: ACR tweaking, cropping, sharpening, noise reduction and border addition.

A Dose of Pretty

DAY 149

29 MAY 09

Sometimes, I see something on a drive through my small town that makes me smile. Like these flowers brightening the corner outside the local Burger King.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, slight curves adjustment, border addition.

The Real Stuff

DAY 142

22 MAY 09

The gardenia shrub outside my garage is in full bloom. It's wonderful -- I leave my home to get into my truck, and I'm hit with the scent of gardenias. It's another one of those things that makes me happy to be alive.

The wild thing is as much as I love the scent of gardenia blooms, I can't stand those fake gardenia sprays. Or of any other bottled gardenia scents. Give me a real flower and I'll smell and smell and snort and sigh and grin. Spray the fake stuff and I'm scrunching my face and running.

I love the scent of real gardenia blooms.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, black & white conversion using the Audition filter in Virtual Photographer, border addition.

"A weed is but an unloved flower."

DAY 135

15 MAY 09

The post title is a quote attributed to American author and poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox. I stumbled across it on ThinkExist.com when looking for a clever post title. I thought it suited the photo.

We were out looking at more go karts. My husband had just bought another, and I was sitting in the truck, waiting for him to load it on the trailer. Next to the seller's truck were these flowering weeds. If you look closely, you'll see a dark blob near the bottom left -- that's a dandelion.

Anyway, I'm a girl, and girls love flowers. Even though these were weeds, I still thought they were pretty, and wanted to try and get a different photo of them. Instead of going in close as has been my habit lately, I decided to maintain distance and shoot from a lower angle.

I went with black & white for the picture because of the guy's truck. He was parked right behind my subject, and I couldn't get a good angle that didn't include at least the bottom of his vehicle. But it did seem to recede more in the black & white conversion. A little more tweaking in the PS black & white filter gave me that different look like was searching for.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves adjustment, black & white conversion (with some custom tweaking in the Photoshop black & white filter), border addition.

Still Cheery

DAY 132

12 MAY 09

I've mentioned the drought we've been under a few times; this photo relates. When rain became scarce and watering restrictions were put into place, it became nearly impossible to take care of the flowers I'd planted in my flower boxes, and they eventually died.

I completely blame the rain, and not my gardening abilities, of course.

The following spring, I'd wanted to plant flowers since they'd brightened my front porch so nicely, but I didn't want them to die of thirst again. So I improvised. I bought fake ones.

I suppose some people might see it as being a little tacky, but I like they way they brighten my porch. I like the way I don't have to worry about watering them. I like the way I don't have to worry about them when I'm on vacation. Most of all, I like the way they make my house look cheery without breaking watering restrictions. And it's oh-so-easy to change them with the seasons.

Post processing: noise reduction, sharpening, border addition.

Once More Before They Go

DAY 103

13 APR 09

When my husband and I were in the side yard taking a look at what needed to be done to clean it up, I noticed the Wisteria was looking particularly pretty. So I took pictures. My last shots had been distance shots, so I went for closeups this time. This was the last picture I got of the wisteria before the flowers faded away.

If my husband has his way, there won't be any more Wisteria to shoot in the future. I don't think he'll get his way just yet. ;)

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves bump, border addition.

Sea of Purple

DAY 96

06 APR 09

The woods next to my house are covered in wisteria vines. They're gorgeous when they bloom, but they're driving my husband crazy. Choking the trees, pulling them down...he's now on a mission. Me? I'm torn. I see what they're doing to the trees, but their flowers are so darn pretty!

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, border addition.

In the Pink

DAY 95

05 APR 09

I know I've been posting a lot of rain pictures; you can expect to see a bunch of flower pictures, too. Why not? It's springtime, they're out, they're pretty, and they're colorful. Plus, they have the added bonus of not wiggling around as much as my children. Or other people. Or animals.

This is one of the shrubs in front of my house. I didn't plant it, but I'm pretty sure it's an azalea. Every spring I get a profusion of pink blooms that brighten my yard and add cheer to my home's façade.

You might see these babies again. I can't help it. They're yet another thing that makes me happy.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, border addition.

Signs of Spring Abound

DAY 90

31 MAR 09

When spring comes to metro Atlanta, it comes like gangbusters. It's most evident in the sneezing and labored breathing of my poor son, who suffers horribly until the oak and birch pollens have done their thing. It's also easy to see in the plethora of flowerbuds and flowers that pop up everywhere with their sweet scents and bright colors.

These flowers brightened up the tree across the street from my house, and made my day a little brighter every time I stepped into my driveway. Yes, I've been shooting a lot of flowers lately, but there have been so many to shoot! Don't worry, before long, I'll decide I need to get out of my flower rut and start looking for other things to shoot.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves boost, border addition.

Dreamy

DAY 87

28 MAR 09

We've had lots of rainy days around here, yet they're still exciting. On this rainy day, I had to run to the dry cleaners before the yearly cub scout banquet. As I parked, I saw the dainty flowers on this little tree and decided to get a few shots through the windshield. After a couple pictures, I feared there might be something wrong with my camera. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't focus.

Of course, as soon as I pulled the camera away from my face, I realized the problem. The rain was sheeting on my windshield. Nothing could focus through it. I caught this shot before the major sheeting. The rain threw small parts out of focus resulting in an almost a dreamy quality.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves adjustment, border addition.

Welcome, Spring

DAY 83

24 MAR 09

When you make the turn into my subdivision, this is the first tree you see. The greeter, if you will. In fact, I was going to give this post a title that somehow incorporated a greeting and a tree, but I couldn't come up with a phrase that made sense so I had to settle for the much lamer "Welcome, Spring". Still, the post title does fit; it seemed as soon as we hit the first day of spring, this tree started blooming.

I love that this tree is what greets me when I come home. It's beautiful. It's cheerful. And it makes me happy.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, border addition.

Like an Old Tire

DAY 68

09 MAR 09

I seem to be doing a lot of tight shots lately; am I in a rut? I'm not sure, but I'm inclined to say no because of this picture. You see, I wanted a picture symbolizing the arrival of spring. And here just outside metro Atlanta, the blooming of the Bradford Pear tree is a definitely sign spring is here.

On Day 68, I got a few full pictures of Bradford Pears blooming every time I turned around. Unfortunately, it was a bright, sunny, warm day, and the sky in every one of those pictures was horribly blown out. So I had a choice: a tight shot of Bradford Pear blooms or a glow-in-the-dark sky. I went for the tight shot.

While these trees are very pretty in the early spring, the profusion of white blooms always makes me smile, there are a couple drawbacks to these trees. First, they're kind of frail. After this recent snowstorm, every yard that has Bradford Pear trees also has a pile of branches at the curb. Second, the smell. Have you ever smelled a Bradford Pear tree in bloom? If you haven't, I'll tell you how you can without ever even seeing one. Find an old tire and wait until a stifling hot day. When that day arrives, completely enclose yourself in that old tire and inhale deeply. Smell that? It's Bradford Pear blooms.

Ick.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, curves adjustment, border addition.

Contrasts

DAY 63

04 MAR 09

Three days after the snowstorm (sorry I keep mentioning the snowstorm, but it really was a big deal), and my neighborhood still had snow on the ground. Not a lot, most of it had melted away. But we still some.

The contrasts referred to in the post title are not the colors in the photo, but the fact that with snow still on the ground, I looked up when I was waiting in line to pick my daughter up from school and saw the trees budding.

On the ground it was still winter. In the trees, the first signs of spring. I know it's not unusual, but I still think it's very cool.

Post-processing: noise reduction, sharpening, minute curves bump, selective color adjustment, border addition.