In the early spring the Daffodils came into bloom with these other flowers – I don’t their name. I like how the yellows and bluey-purples compliment each other.
I was able to capture this interesting photo when the small flowers went to seed. Even the death of a flower can be beautiful!
A few weeks had passed and in this same garden – at the far end of our backyard – another patch of bluey-purple and yellow flowers began to bloom.
Both of these photos were taken just after the first three Irises had bloomed.
Just two days ago, the yellow Irises began to open up to drink in the warmth – actually hot (We’ve broken some records for the unseasonable highs we’ve reached already this year. Last night, on the news, there were stories about how Calgary just got some more snow, and how the farmers near Winnipeg can’t plant their crops because of all the flooding.) - of the sun.
Even when I’m using the macro setting on my camera, I am always thinking of the background of the final image.
The main focus of this photograph is obviously the flower, but by filling the image with the out-of-focus shapes of the background, flavours are added. In this photo you can feel the coolness of the dark shades of grass and the warmth of the evening sun as it breaks into the distance. A person – that’s Joanne – is relaxing in the background and that adds an emotion to the photo.
Irises are made of soft curvy lines, intricately laced with flowing veins of darker hues. It is this fact that makes this photo so interesting – even with all the curves, straight lines can still be found to divide the photo in interesting ways.
This is what a patch of Irises looks like after I’ve played around with a few PhotoShop texture settings on my computer.
Not too far away grows my Hosta patch. The evening sun cast some interesting shadows into this area helping to create this textured photo.
The evening sun also played a crucial part in this simple and relaxing photo of a small bush. Again, I spent a bit of time considering the background of this image. I’ve slightly tilted my horizon and I’ve included my wheelbarrow and a part of a lounge chair to show that gardens are a place of work as well as relaxing!
I moved the lounge chair to be included in this photo showcasing my growing Day Lily patch. I’ve straightened out my horizon line to create a dramatic horizontal break in this photo, using my 1/3 divide rule. The different shades of dark reds and purples in the background really add to the yumminess of this photo!!!
As this evening’s sun was setting I was quite taken by the contrasts of light and shadow that were created as the sun lit the sky behind my neighbour’s beautiful White Pine. This time I took my camera off of the macro setting and I zoomed in, instead. Again, I had a bit of fun enhancing the artistic quality of this image using my computer!
Taking a short walk to the south side of my backyard we’ll see that a huge patch of Forget-Me-Nots is thriving very well. By keeping in mind the 1/3 or as it kinda looks in this photo the 1/5 rule used for creating division in a photograph an ordinary scene can be made to look a little more interesting.
Here is a super close-up.
This is a photo taken from the gardens at the front of our house. I’m not sure what this flower is called, but it’s colouring is very nice and the shapes of the leaves are anciently interesting – they look like they’ve been around since the age of the dinosaur. Notice the placement of the Bleeding Heart flowers in the background, as they add a brilliant pink to compliment the foreground.
This is a flower that I started learning about just last year. I’ve learned how to split them, care for its roots and I’ve learned a bit about what kind of shade and sun it likes to grow in. The next thing that I need to learn about this flower is its name!!!
Well, I hope that you have enjoyed this macro tour of my flower gardens. As you can tell, I enjoy doing a lot of crawling around on my hands and knees looking for the perfect photographs to share with you. I hope that I may have inspired a few of you to take a closer look at the colours and shapes that surround us in our day to day lives. Beauty is all encompassing – you just need to take the time to see it!!!!!
Jim
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