In this house

Today’s ponderings were inspired by this post over at A Half Hour a Day.

It got me thinking, “Hmmm, what are our words?”

“Shine On Me” (Cranesbill, Hardy Geranium ‘Bevan’s Variety’) Nikon D300, VR 105mm F/2.8G, F/8, 1/160s, -1.0EV, ISO 200, Built-in Rear-Curtain Slow i-TTL Flash w/Gary Fong “Puffer” Diffuser, -1.0EV

In this house…

Dust is rampant

We are forgetful

Critters come first

We eat with our hands

We are friendly and kind, generous and loyal

We dance and sing (poorly)

We laugh often (and loudly)

We converse with the cat

We sweat, fart and belch

Laundry piles up, floors get dirty

We get cranky for no reason

We are sarcastic

We give kisses and hugs freely

We share the good and the bad

We are flawed

We take things for granted

We say we’re sorry

We forgive

We try to do better than “fine”

We do happy

We do love

We do forever.

What are your words?

Jack Frost is nipping

Woke up to the first hard frost of the season and eveything looked like it had been coated with white sugar. Sweet!

"Sugar Coated" (Cranesbill 'Rozanne' aka Hardy Geranium) Nikon D300, 105mm F/2.8G macro, Manual Mode, F/10, 1/160s, ISO 640, Built-in Front Curtain Flash, -1.0EV

A dip below freezing temps didn’t seem to bother the cranesbill blooms one bit. Not too surprising… they don’t call these ‘Hardy Geraniums’ for nothing!

Footloose and Petal Free

Cranesbill ‘Rozanne’ is still going strong but it wasn’t the pretty purple-y blue flowers that caught my attention today, but rather, the magenta curly-q stamens, white-edged bracts and fuzzy tri-colored stems that remain once the petals have dropped.

"Autumn Dance" (Cranesbill 'Rozanne' aka Hardy Geranium) Nikon D300, 105mm macro, F/8, 1/200s, -1.0EV, ISO 400, Built-in, i-TTL-BL Flash, -1.0EV

With so much going on, the lack of petals seems irrelevant as these two dance and twirl in the afternoon light on this gorgeous October day.

Hmmmm, perhaps autumn isn’t so bad afterall?

On the flipside

I typically don’t photograph flowers on bright, sunny days when the sun is high in the sky. The difference in contrast between shadow and highlight areas is too pronounced and overall, colors tend to be washed out. Not good times.

“Limelight” (Cranesbill, ‘Rozanne’ aka, Hardy Geranium), Nikon D300, 460mm (200-400mm w/1.4x teleconverter), F/8, 1/200s, -0.7EV, ISO 320

However, some really cool effects can be had when, what could be called “harsh top light”, is used to illuminate petals that are photographed from behind. 

Take this Cranesbill blossom. I photographed the flowers from this very same plant a little over a month ago (Crayola part deux) and the two images couldn’t be more different.

If you didn’t know, this bloom could be one of many flower varieties, as we generally don’t see them photographed this way. Here, the focus is on negative versus positive space and the play of light between the two. It’s tricky to pull off successfully and, in order to do so, you have to pay even closer attention to the 5 design elements of good composition: line, shape, pattern, texture and color. (A little luck doesn’t hurt either).

When it all comes together, the results can be downright illuminating!