I'm quite certain I've mentioned it a dozen times, but just in case someone new comes wondering by today I should say that I love taking pictures of flowers! In fact, I like taking closeups of all kinds of things, because I think that there is just so much to be amazed at in the world that we can't fathom it (and often ignore it), unless we look at one single tiny little 35mm slice at a time! I seriously need a macro lens for this camera.
OK, so I love taking flower pictures, right? They are almost irresistible to me. Now, throw in some rain, and I'm running around getting soaked like a 5-year old with a new rain coat! Such was the case Monday morning, when we had flowers AND we had rain. Unfortunately, we also had breeze and I foolishly rushed through the pictures. I seriously should have taken it a bit slower, because when it came time to select pictures for today, I discovered MANY problems in focus, composition, etc., etc.
So while a bit sloppy, here is a set of pictures from my yard, taken during the rain on Monday morning. If you know much about photography, you know that the best time to take pictures of flowers is when it is overcast. The lighting is even and typically the colors come out VERY saturated. Well, as I was putting these shots together, I was feeling all contrarian, so I dialed back the color to a more subdued level, except for the final iris shot...and I still dialed back the green in the background on that one just a touch.
I'm going to tell you that these were all taken with a Nikon D60, even if they aren't the best add for Nikon this week! I used the 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6 kit lens, which is better than it has to be.
I loved the water droplets on these Daylilly leaves. It was tough getting the droplets in focus with them waving around, I think this was the best of the bunch.
I'm not sure what these little flowers are, but they really pop! Let's just call this "soft-focus" shall we? I really prefer to blur my pictures AFTER I take them, but I liked the subtle colors in the shot, with the yellow really standing out!
We have a million of these. I like them. I took a picture. I want to say they are called "coral bells" but I think I might be wrong. Any botanists out there?
Here was my single shot from the day I really liked. It looks a bit wacky scaled down, so I've included a little larger one that hopefully looks better in your browser. Click on the photo to see it. Irises are generally quite colorful, but this example is one of my favorites. For some reason, I forget about it every year, and then it blooms. Yowser!
they are beautiful!
Posted by: Indigo | May 27, 2009 at 08:09 AM
Great macros, I also love close-ups of flowers, it really allows you to notice things you never saw before!
Posted by: bookbabie | May 27, 2009 at 08:32 AM
The pictures are awesome!!! The first flowers you didn't know are the Spiderwort. We got it from Mark's yard. The Second flower is called Carpathia. Carpathia grows like a weed everywhere except where I planted it. Oh well. They are really pretty, I just thin them like the lily "weed" I thin every spring. :-)
Posted by: Dianne | May 27, 2009 at 08:42 AM
Wow! Great eye and fantastic photos.
Posted by: Sherry at EX Marks the Spot | May 27, 2009 at 09:29 AM
Spectacular! Wow.
Happy WW!
Posted by: Kimberly | May 27, 2009 at 09:44 AM
Amazing waterdrop shots. Good job.
Posted by: Beth F | May 27, 2009 at 10:41 AM
beautiful--the iris has been phenomonal in our area as well. The colors have been brilliant. Here’s my WW hope you can stop by!
Posted by: kaye | May 27, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Your "bad" pictures are better than my "good" ones!
The middle purple flower is spiderwort. Can't help you with the bottom one.
Posted by: Kathy G | May 27, 2009 at 11:05 AM
These are awesome shots. I have the same camera and lens, so I'm envious of your ability to make it do this!
It's also nice to find another Dad blog.
Posted by: the BARBOUR family | May 27, 2009 at 11:58 AM
Another beautiful series sir.
I need to do some more Wordless days and share some of my fave shots. Likely though they won't be as enjoyable as these flower shots.
Wet petals rocks.
Posted by: Todd Jordan | May 27, 2009 at 09:44 PM
Ilike the little sweat bee on the spiderwort.
Posted by: Larry Jost | May 28, 2009 at 10:28 PM
I love those flowers with raindrops.they seems fresh and attractive. those flowers refresh me a lot. hope to see more photos.
-khatie-
Posted by: Flowers in the Philippines | July 07, 2009 at 01:54 AM