Blossoms, Blooms and Dandelions

I apologize in advance for the number of pictures in this post - especially since they aren't adorable snapshots of the kids up to some insane new antics. While looking through my pictures for another project I remembered I had these pictures and thought they were kind of fun. While looking at them I thought they would be the perfect candidates for playing around in photoshop (even picking up a technique or two...yay for me!)

Ladybug on Dogwood Blossom I

Ladybug on Dogwood Blossom II

So it turns out that the tree shading my craft room windows whose leaves turn a beautiful red in the fall is a dogwood tree. I was thrilled to discover this fact when it started to bloom in April. I love dogwood blossoms. I don't know if it's because of that little bit of purple/pink on the tips of the petals or the fact that they have four petals instead of some reasonable odd number like every other flower. I don't know I just love them. So of course I grabbed my camera and set to work. I didn't intentionally pick the above blossom just because it had a ladybug on it - but was excited to see it there. It adds the perfect bit of color to these photos. As you can see I haven't quite decided which shot I like best yet. They are different enough that I can't just delete one because I've got 'two of the same'. They each have different merits so I constantly find myself going back and forth. Your thoughts? 

Dogwood Blossoms - SOOC

Dogwood Blossoms - Vintage Mod

I played around with the above shot quite a bit, trying to find a look that suited it just right. The first shot was exactly how I took it - straight off of camera. At first I was trying to playing around with the goal of making it look better but soon came to the realization that I really liked the way it looked right off the camera. So then I was looking to see if there was anything fun or 'artsy' I could do with it that I liked. Really not a whole lot. While I do like the Vintage Mod look because of the beautiful purple tone the whole shot takes on I think I'm still hooked on the original. I'm not going to lie I love that the shot came out perfect when I took it. Makes me feel like I'm getting better with using my camera correctly.

Dogwood Blossoms - Soft and Faded

This was another shot I really loved because the angle was so interesting. Still it was a lot easier to play around with this one because something about the original wasn't as exactly perfect as the last one. Anyhow The shot makes me think of something out of Anne of Green Gables - something Anne would be completely taken in by which influenced my treatment of the shot. I wanted to romanticize it even more hence the softening of the image and adding the white vignette around it. Speaking of which when I added added this particular vignette I screamed causing all sorts of concern throughout the house. I screamed both because I was so excited by what I had managed to figure out all on my own - namely put a dreamy vignette around the picture which finished it perfectly (In my humble opinion) and because it looked just the way I wanted it too. (Something that can be easier said than done in photoshop.) 

Vintage Tulips

After photographing my dogwood tree I moved onto my neighbors beautiful tulip garden. Seriously their garden was gorgeous and I loved to look out at it and sighed longingly every time I drove past it when coming home. It was incredible. I was a little surprised at the direction the above photo's post processing took. The picture is of red tulips and as you might know I'm addicted to color especially red so for me to favor a look that takes red out of the picture really says something about what it does for another aspect of the shot. By making the shot monochromatic it really brought out all the details on the petals, the different shades and textures.

Purple Tulip

White Tulips I

White Tulips II

White Tulips III

Those are actually three different shots of the white tulips and I haven't really decided which one I like best. When all is said and done though I think that I prefer the white tulips in color. While the black and white once again help bring out the details I think that the white tulips are already subtle enough to enjoy those aspects plus the traces of green and yellow add a little bit of extra interest.

Warmed Tulip

I love this shot - not my favorite mind you but I think it's a very interesting shot. I did play with it in photoshop a little to make it a little more warm which I felt really recreated the sun and lighting better. It's a funny thing when playing photoshop when you hit something and suddenly the picture is just right and even if you spend time tweaking later you end up going back to the way it was when it was just right. That actually happened with a good number of the shots I played with. Likewise I could play with a shot for a while and always feel that the shot just wasn't right - and playing with it in photoshop wasn't going to fix what I didn't like about it. Now that I write about it I think I get those kind of gut feelings a lot when making/doing something. I get an small brief feeling that I've struck on exactly the right thing. I just need to trust that in myself more because it would save me a bunch of time.

Soft Tulips

The post process work on this one was purely for the fun of it. I'd tried most of the techniques I'd wanted to try but still had this picture hanging out in photoshop so I thought I'd play around with it a little. I liked this look. Soft and romantic. (Yes I am a member of Hopelessly Romantics Anonymous)

Dandelion Seeds color

Dandelions Seeds black and white

After taking a bunch of shots of the blossoms and blooms I thought 'hey it's not all that hard to get a great shot of a tulip - they always look great...how hard would it be for me to get a good picture of something not so pretty...like a weed' So off I set to find some dandelions. Turns out it's not too hard to take a good shot of those either as they are actually very interesting subjects. The above shots where my biggest surprise of the bunch as I was certain I would like them a lot more than I do. I think my problem is that the I didn't get in close enough to the seeds so they kind of get lost in the grass. (And for whatever reason it didn't really occur to me to try cropping them in photoshop...yeah I'm a thinker. ;) Point being I'm often surprised by the difference between what I think I'll love and what I end up loving.

Dandelion Sunshine

I love this shot because it lended itself perfectly to a post processing action that I don't normally feel works on my pictures but I've really been wanting to use called Sunshine. It was fun to use and I love how it turned out.

Dandelion

I really enjoyed the above shot because of all the visible detail but mostly because with the right combinations of effects it becomes this:

Dandelion Glow

Which to me suddenly looked much more interesting and exotic than a run of the mill dandelion. To me it looks more like the flower on an Amazon lily pad.

Dandelion Burst

The above shot and the two following where definitely my favorites of the dandelions and among the top for me over all. Something about the intricate details of the seeds - that and dandelions are rather showy for a weed. ;) 

Dandelion Burst II

They're like fireworks only they don't disappear into the night so you get to sit and stare at them for as long as you want to.

Seeds on Edge

I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures. Let me know what you think.