Tag Archives: plants

Creedmoor Blooms (1)

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Our spring is in full bloom here in central Texas and I decided to take some time to photograph what Mother Nature is providing. I counted 17 flowers around the yard but photographing them turned out to be one of those things easier said than done. Here is the first set.

Azalea

Azalea

My routine was to put on my boots (as the ground was still wet from rain), go out with my camera, photograph the flowers, come back in, take off my boots, load the photographs to the computer, and review them.

Bluebonnet

Bluebonnet

Oh, it was easy enough to photograph the flowers, but when I reviewed the photos, I started out with about a 50% blurry rate. That meant putting on my boots again, going back outside, photographing some of them again, coming back in, taking off my boots, loading the photos to the computer, and reviewing them. Talk about a ‘rinse and repeat’ cycle.

Evening Primrose with small guest

Evening Primrose with small guest

I did this seven times. Seven times to get photos of 17 flowers. I know it’s not this hard for everyone, but I am mostly teaching myself and there seems to be only one way to learn: The Hard Way.

Honeysuckle vine that found its way to the top of an Italian Stone Pine tree

Honeysuckle vine that found its way to the top of an Italian Stone Pine tree

This is a good time to mention that I wasn’t just taking one photo of each flower. I took several photos of each flower. I changed my distance and position in relation to the flower. I changed the aperture. I changed the ISO setting. I changed the shutter speed. And sometimes I had only blurry photos.

Back outside I went.

I’ve taken beginning DSLR photography classes, read books, read online articles, checked out the Nikon website. Most recently I attended a wildflower photography workshop and came home with about the same success rate: 50%.

Honeysuckle vine on the fence

Honeysuckle vine on the fence

I learned a lot in the workshop and I learned a lot from my workshop failures, but those I didn’t see until I loaded the 237 photos to my computer at home once the workshop was over. I haven’t had a miracle insight or anything as to why so many of my photos are bad, but I’m getting a clue. I hope. I will continue to work on learning the correct manual settings.

I’ll just keep putting on my boots and going outside.

More Signs of an Early Spring

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I found some green stuff peeking up on the trail of a recent hike. Bluebonnets, already? On my drive to the hike, I also saw some Mountain Laurels in bloom (no photos, however, as Austin has a “no using hand-held devices while driving” law).

Bluebonnets

Bluebonnets

a-southeast-metro-park-5s

Looks like cilantro to me, but I wasn’t about to taste it to verify

We passed two ponds. You can see how the clouds changed in just a few minutes.

I’m not sure how this prickly pear cactus pad got separated from the plant, or how it managed to get lodged on the barbed wire fence.

Pad of a prickly pear cactus

Pad of a prickly pear cactus

First Day: Fiction Friday

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The Friday Fictioneer Challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo.

Photo copyright Roger Bultot

Photo copyright Roger Bultot

First Day

“What’s that white stuff?”

Aloe sighed, looking up at Orchid, his bloom newly opened. Aloe had been on that window sill for as long as she could remember. Orchid had been there a long time, too, but his memory faded each time his last bloom withered. He never remembered the snow, the rain, the sunshine. Today really is the first day of the rest of his life, Aloe thought.

With true kindness, Aloe said, “It’s snow,” and started to describe the weather and the world they would see pass by them as they looked out the window together, as always.

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To read other Friday Fictioneer stories based on this photo, select the smiley blue frog.