I’m twisting again! My last outing has to be this morning’s outing because I’ve already posted on the zoo–my real last outing. Gosh, this is getting confusing.
Anyway, it’s tulip time so I went off to Jensen Botanical Garden, in Fair Oaks, to photograph their small tulip patch. This park is close to my home, and a much easier ride than driving to Grass Valley to photograph the tulips at Ananda Village.
You never know what you’ll come across when you go to a public park–like these girls being photographed. I asked what the occasion was and was told they were just having fun.
Then I came across another group taking pictures. This time I didn’t ask what they were doing. I didn’t want to intrude because the picture taking looked formal. However, I was spotted with my camera aimed and ready, and I received a nice smile. I also stopped to photograph a mother and child. The mother saw what I was doing and gave me a smile of approval.
So that’s what I did this morning. What an amazing morning! Tulips and more!
Thanks Ann-Christine for this fun and easy challenge. Last week Egidio had us running wild. There were many ideas for WILD! I enjoyed them all. Next week, I’ll be leading the challenge, so remember to look for my post. Until then, stay safe and live in gratitude!
Thank you Sofia for this wonderful challenge. You would think that as much as I enjoy floral photography, this would be an easy challenge for me. Well, when you have a lot of choices, it’s hard to pick what you think is the best. So, I narrowed it down by floral venues and seasons in my area.
Looking back at these images, I realize that I enjoy getting very close with my macro lens. In fact, most of my pictures are close ups! I don’t do much editing. I start in Lightroom, and if necessary bring the pictures into Topaz for sharpening. Typically I don’t have to do anything with color adjustments. The flowers do that for me. I might put a slight black vignette in to accent the flower.
Let’s start with April. That is tulip month. Each year wonderful volunteers at Ananda Village, Nevada City, plant a tulip garden that is terraced and open for the month of April. It became so popular and crowded that they started selling tickets for certain start times. During the last 2 years, we chose to photograph a small tulip patch at our local Jensen Botanical Gardens. If we go early enough, we are the only photographers there.
Ananda Village
Getting up close at Jensen Botanical Gardens this year.
Horton’s Iris Farm in Loomis is a commercial venture, but they don’t mind us photographing their beautiful blossoms. I’ve never seen such a variety of colors.
We are truly missing Daffodil Hill which closed in March of 2019, the day after our last visit. It was so crowded and people were not sticking to the paths, trampling the flowers. We arrived when they opened. By the time we left, traffic was backed up to get in. This was a family run, free event. It’s sad that visitors abused it. I think they needed to do what Ananda Village did.
Our community suffered another loss last year with the draining of the pond in William Land Park. It was drained because of the bird flu and its proximity to the zoo where many birds are housed. Here’s a lotus in color (with a visitor) and one I processed in black and white. I edited the black and white first in color and brought it into NIK Silver Efex.
I cannot forget my sunflowers. Each June I look forward to going out the the fields, ignoring the bees, (I’m allergic to them.) to soak up happiness.
I’ll end this post with my favorite–roses. These are from the McKinley Rose Garden in Sacramento.
I had a lot of fun choosing these flowers and I hope you enjoyed them. When you respond to this challenge please remember to link to Sofia’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag.
Last week we saw and enjoyed delicate images of all sorts in response to Ann-Christine’s challenge. They were all beautiful and some very clever. Next week, look for John’s challenge.
It’s hard to remember the cold, rainy weather when the sun is shining and the temperature is in the low ’90 degrees (fahrenheit), but that’s where we were just last month. Given a nice day, Ray and I went to find the small tulip patch at Jensen Botanical Gardens. We didn’t realize just how small would be! But, the tulips were beautiful just the same.
Flowers and macro are my therapy. I hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I had photographing them. As for the weather, we went from the high ’60s to low ’90s in one day. Fortunately our furnace broke a couple of days ago and the air conditioner still works. Stop to enjoy the flowers everyone!
My October was busy with routine stuff and photo outings. However, these outings didn’t produce a super amount of images, well any that I would post here! But practice is great and I’m still learning. So I’m just going to separate them into outings.
Folsom Lake, late afternoon shoot. This outing was with our local camera store, Action Camera. They are great and are always willing to help.
The shoreline was rocky and expressive.
The clouds were beautiful.
Tire and bird tracks in the sand.
Rocky terrain.
Davis Ranch: This was with my All About Photography Group. We went out to Davis Ranch, in Sloughhouse, where all sorts of produce is sold. They are known for their delicious corn. At this time of the year, they also have a corn maze, a pick your own strawberry patch and more. And, of course, pumpkins!
I think this is a corn stalk.
I liked this pumpkin!
Small gourds. Imagine this as a puzzle!
Jensen Botanical Gardens: Marlene and I visited this garden in Carmichael. It would be beautiful in the Spring, but during the Fall, not much was blooming. It was a great exercise in shooting what was there!
This butterfly posed.
I didn’t have my macro lens with me.
But my walk around did well.
I love shooting flowers.
Carnival Pictures: My Camera Totin’ Tuesdays group took the day off and did a night shoot at the Citrus HeightsSunrise Mall’s small carnival. This was a great way to practice slow shutter speed and zooming. I was amazed to see everyone’s pictures and what they concentrated on. Some didn’t zoom, some did street photography. But I enjoyed zooming. I also brought along my neighbor and friend, gave her my D3100 and showed her how to do slow shutter and zoom. She was amazing, especially since I didn’t give her too much direction! You’ll have to guess what some of these were because I don’t remember. But I did have fun!
Slow Shutter Speed 