Spring Happenings Continued

More spring color to share! Plus one bird.

Stem to Stern

Crabapple trees have wonderful spring blossoms:

Hardly Crabby

A Star is Born

Petals on Alert

A species tulip and grape hyacinth:

Standing Out

More of our purple leaf sand cherry:

Branch Alive

Rich Endings

V is for Victory

Robin's eggs:

Blue Collection

Sadly, these beautiful blue eggs (previous photo) under this robin (next photo) disappeared a few days after this photo was taken; hopefully, the robin had more baby-making success elsewhere.

Egg Warmer with Something to Say

Dive Bombers

Open for Business

Bloomin' Branch

 All photos © 2021, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Spring Happenings

Spring is a great time to be taking pictures. The bright colors of blooming flowers are hard to resist, both for me with my camera, and for bees as well. Bees see color somewhat differently than humans, preferring blues and yellows and not so much reds, as red looks black to bees.

Nature has a way of showing off this time of year. I try to capture that in the images below.

Enjoy!

This is a Lenten rose (a type of hellebore). It is not a rose; it is in the buttercup family.

Green with Envy

A hyacinth:

Purple Wave 1

Purple Wave 2

Here's a daffodil (also called Narcissus, the formal name of the genus). This was taken indoors in low light.

Mood Setter

A backyard azalea, that I find particularly captivating, at least in this pose:

Seeking Truth

This bee likes it too.

Pollen Hunter

Here the bee goes "all in":

Nose First

These next two photos are flowering pear tree blossoms:

Upward Bound

Blue Sky Watchers

This next photo is of our purple leaf sand cherry (also called plum leaf sand cherry). It *is* a member of the rose family. I've been experimenting with photos on my Pixel 4a, a recent cell phone upgrade. Despite its single lens and small size, this cell phone can be encouraged to take remarkably good photos with a bit of care.

This was taken in "Portrait" mode, and enhanced using Remini, which is a cell phone app I recently discovered that makes some pictures sharper (especially out of focus ones) using artificial intelligence. While Remini works particularly well for faces, I find it does a surprisingly nice job with many flower photos as well.

Purple No-Rain

(back to my regular Olympus camera on a different day) Here's the same plant in bright backlit sun:

Setting Sail

Another hyacinth:

Curls Aside

This is a primrose, which is not a rose:

Color Pop

This tulip was one of the earlier spring flowers on display in our garden:

Pink Rules

Pink Petals

This next photo is an indoor Pixel 4a picture of a daffodil in a vase, using natural light.

Splash of Yellow

Here's another Pixel 4a photo of one of our cherry trees, also taken in "Portrait" mode, and enhanced using Remini (and Lightroom).

Blossom Out

 All photos © 2021, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Cemetery Visit

One my favorite walks takes me to the local cemetery. Not only is it a peaceful place to visit, but as I meander along the paths beside the gravestones, I appreciate the many plantings atop the gravesites placed by loved ones, along with the trees and landscaping of the graveyard itself.

On this Memorial Day blog post, I've put together some photos from a few recent graveyard visits.

Grapes of Different Colors

Daffodil Edge

ZigZag

New Life in the Graveyard

Sunscreened

Matchbox Lineup

International Truck Rest Stop

Gifts For The Soul

Artist Appreciating Gravestone Art

Arc of Gravestones

All photos © 2020, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Colors of Spring

Spring has arrived! We've had beautiful, stunning weather. The trees and plants are very happy and have most definitely figured out that it is time to bloom. It's a great time of year to be a photographer; plants have so much color and they pose very nicely, hardly moving, except when it's windy.

Below are some recent captures, mostly all spring flowers, with an occasional bird, bee, or duck thrown in for good measure.

This first photo is a very tiny portion of the most magnificent pair of trees gracing Wellesley College's Pomeroy Hall in the Quad courtyard.

Centerpiece

These next photos are taken in our garden.

Curves

Daffodil Orange

Through the magic of the camera lens, we get to see some mid-flight pollination in this next photo.

Bee Work

Late Day Reach

Edging

Deb planted some unique daffodils last fall for new color in the garden this spring. I think Deb forgot she ordered these mini-daffodils; they were a nice surprise for both of us.

Standing Pretty

This shot is almost directly into the sun. I'm intentionally causing lens flare side effects. What you see here is exactly how the camera caught the image.

Ray Drenched

Photographers often talk about "bird in flight" shots (because they're so dang hard to pull off well.) One doesn't hear so much about "bee in flight" shots. That's one of our cherry trees above this bee.

Bee Best in the Golden Hour

Glowing Daffodil

The next couple of photos were taken at a nearby park where I frequently walk.

Painted Tulip

I was delighted to come across this fellow. He was having a good old time performing acrobatic tricks in this tree, singing all the while.

Baltimore Oriole

We visited Arnold Arboretum a few days before "Lilac Sunday" and the row of lilacs did not disappoint. They also had a wide variety of wisteria. This one, from China, was the furthest along and outstanding.

Hanging Wisteria

Negative Space

Lilac goodness. They have many unique varieties of lilacs at the Arboretum.

Bunches of Color

Reflective Wading

White Cups

After leaving the Arboretum we visited the nearby Allandale Farm garden center. Deb bought some new additions for our garden while I snapped some pictures.

Petals in the Sun

Rose Layers

Reaching For the Sun

All photos © 2018, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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