Week 2 of my 30 day From My Garden series ended a few days ago. The first week was bitter cold and all images were made inside. This past week it was above normal temperatures and being outside was wonderful. My garden is my happy place. Although, looking around my garden in both my front and back yards was exhausting. As I have stated before, my perennial plants aren’t cleaned out of my planter beds until spring. I will be busy cleaning my beds and getting ready for spring and summer. This past week of images were all of plant material from my garden and mostly made outside.
The first image was made inside, the dried black-eyed susan flower from the previous week. Unlike last week, showing the stem, I chose to photograph the flower only. A macro image, my favorite genre.
My lilac tree has started to bud with the recent above normal temperatures. Hopefully mother nature will cooperate and not drop so cold that the new growth will be damaged. The fragrance of lilacs on a breezy day fills my backyard garden. The aroma is intoxicating! This image was made on February 23rd. Way too early for my lilac tree showing signs of budding. The golden hour light was too much to pass up on creating this image.
Some photographers love the early morning golden hour. I prefer the late afternoon golden hour. This next image is soon to be new growth on my Reliance peach tree. It is too young to bloom this year, but hopefully next year.
In my backyard there are several raised beds. One is 4′ by 8′ and about 2′ high. Ideal for a strawberry bed. After the bitter cold temperatures of the prior week, it was amazing to see green leaves in my strawberry bed. Were they left from last season and next went dormant or new leaves in the mild winter we have experienced? As I haven’t paid attention to this bed over the winter, the answer will stay unknown. I’m cautiously optimistic we will have above normal spring temperatures and any new growth will not be damaged.
The next day found the wind to be calm. Perfect for macro photography. Some of my black-eyed susan’s were in a beautiful diffused light. Between wind, rain, freezing rain and snow, the dried petals are still hanging on. This image is my favorite of the week.
After a few days of warmth and sunshine, my lilac tree was showing signs of more growth. The beginning signs of lilac blooms. A few days after this image Mother Nature chose to have night time temperatures in the teens and twenties. Only time will tell if these tiny lilac buds will survive.
This next image is a multiple exposure (ME) made in Lightroom and Photoshop. One image was ICM (intentional camera movement) and the other a traditional image. The dried zinnia seed head was quite prominent, but even using a large aperture, the background wasn’t satisfying. The wind was a challenge, so I made it my friend. I used the wind and moved my camera. This allowed me to create an image that would make a great ME in post processing. The zinnia seed head in focus was the other layer. Using the screen blending mode, I was able to make the image below.
While some of this week’s images are more documentary, my goal of this project is to photograph plant life from my garden every day for 30 days. Some will be more documentary and some will be more artistic as the ME image above. I’m looking forward to see my garden change each day and discovering new ways to photograph the plant life both dormant and the emergence of new growth.
Different Isn't Wrong, It's Just Different 