Wordless Wednesday - Spring Explosion!

I don't remember how old I was when I purchased my first film SLR - but it was before I could drive!  I rapidly gravitated towards taking pictures of flowers and plants, which I still find irresistible.  It makes sense, though, as flowers have lots of color, contrast, depth of field possibilities, and they are willing and patient subjects!

This set of photos I took a couple of weeks ago (all on one or two days, I think) during the height of the tulip season.  All were taken in my yard, all with a Nikon D60 and the 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6 kit lens.

This is our most unique tulip, with it's lacy edges! I really should have brought a tripod outside so I could take a shot with a small aperture which would allow you to see the entire tulip in focus, but chances are that it was breezy anyway and I had to go with large aperture and faster shutter speeds.

This picture took SO long in post processing to try and bring out the little details in B&W without being too contrasty, but I like the final shot, with the subtle whites in the tulip.  This tulip is actually a cream color.  You should see this in full resolution without the jaggies that scaling produces!

Our lilac bush, which nearly died a number of years ago, but now produces piles of blooms...though it is a bit stumpy!

Nothing says "Spring is Coming" like the variety of crocuses poking up through the leaves and debris of winter.  This one blooms a bit later, so it is pushing its way through green - and weeds!

A couple of leftover blooms from last fall's flowers!  We leave them up for the birds to eat seeds from all winter, and haven't had a chance to do much work in the beds, yet, this spring.

It's hard to beat irises for color variety and texture! We have MANY different irises, but this set (same type as the ones in a picture last week) are among our earliest bloomers.  I desaturated the greens and yellows a bit to de-emphasize the leaves in this shot.  No color change on the blooms though...they are actually just that intense!

Comments

[Sarah Kempf]

Can Dianne come over and plant a garden in my yard?:) I don't even know where to start! Your plants look awesome.

[Scobberlotcher]

Beautiful!

[lilfootsmommy]

That spikey tulip is so cool! Very pretty flowers

[Todd Jordan]

Wonderful share. Great flower close ups.