Florals

In the last week, I've had two family portrait sessions. One of them I was absolutely thrilled with, the other not so much. It's been troubling me as I feel like I know my camera better than it looked like I did as I searched the photos from the less thrilling shoot. Let's just say I'm getting intimately familiar with the limitations of my lens, and the limitations of my budget to add a new one. I have a picture in my head of what I want things to look like and sometimes there is no amount of settings I can change to make it happen. 

Saturday I headed out in search of pretty places to shoot and landed on a rose garden I had passed but never stopped to browse. It's a public garden along a bike path my family has ridden many times. 

I felt a little better after snapping some of these. I don't know if it was because flowers are lovely and even mediocre shots are often pleasing, or because I was outside in nature where I am often the most at peace.

My family has been out of town for a couple days, and doesn't get back until late tomorrow night. I almost bought myself flowers at the grocery store just to keep the house spiffed up and feeling joyous while it is empty.

These pics will do the trick I think, and they won't wilt or drop leaves on the counter.

Part of me was really surprised to see blooming roses in October. Many of them were wilting and fading fast, but there were numerous buds reminding me that they are in no way finished with this year's show.

The yellow buds are likely my favorite shot of the day. There is something about it that just speaks to me. The bokeh gives it an almost impressionistic feeling, and off to the side you can see a strand from a cobweb that moments later was stretched across my face.

I loved this shape against the sky. We don't usually look at roses from below, but isn't it lovely?

This is clearly not a flower, but I really like when I see spiders in gardens. I feel they communicate the health of the local ecosystem and remind me that all things have a balance. It's all good, as long as I see them in their home instead of mine. Then I squash them mercilessly or take them outside. We all have our limits.

In other news, I opened a Flickr account. It scares me to make photos visible to those who likely know far more than I do and will see the flaws, but I did it nonetheless. 

My Flickr username is MichaDavis. Feel free to follow along!