Tag Archives: flowers

More Fading Remnants of Summer

A few days ago I did a post featuring zinnias from my front yard. Vibrant all summer, now they are in their autumn look.

I love zinnias in all stages of their lives, and I enjoyed taking photos of them as they are now. I did wish I could get some better closeups, and you might remember me mentioning ordering a macro lens for my phone.

Well, that lens has arrived. Now, I bought a very economical package (three lenses, macro, fisheye, and wide angle) for about $17, so I was not expecting super crisp amazing closeups. I just hoped for something a little better.

I think I did better than that! I used the new lens this afternoon on the flowers. It was a bit windy, but I still think I got some nice shots. I can’t wait to try more macro phone photography!

Here are some pictures. These flowers are very near their end of blooming time.

But look. Some flowers are still soft and colorful, not quite ready to give in.

And others are just starting out on their blooming lives. Yes, even in October, in the waning of the season, there are new beginnings. How about this flower just opening?

And here are some just thinking about the day they spread their petals.

And here is something I would not have noticed if I had not come out to examine the flowers very closely – a bee, dazed by the colder weather.

Sometimes these days I feel the overwhelming weight of so many sadnesses all over this world of ours. But looking at these flowers, bringing my view down to something small, something contained, I can reset my emotions and thinking. Thank you, zinnias.

If you want any info about the lenses I bought, email me and I’ll give you details. I’m very happy with them (from my hobbyist point of view) as to results and to ease of use. I’m not getting any recompense from anyone for my opinions, I just thought I could save you some internet searching.

Fading Remnants of Summer

This summer we grew zinnias in our front yard. You may remember that they are one of my three favorite flowers, the others being sunflowers and geraniums.

Anyway, it is October now, and they are coming to the end of their lives. I took these photos with my phone camera.

As a note, I recently took a Zoom class on phone photography techniques, and I learned about lenses for the phone camera. I have decided to buy an inexpensive macro lens, just because of these photos.

There is so much beauty and detail to these zinnias and I spent a bit of time examining them and marveling. They are exquisite to me in every phase of their existences and ask nothing of me, not even that I notice them or admire them – it is not their purpose. But I do see them and I am grateful for the pleasure they give me.

Anyway, I can’t capture any level of how beautiful a flower really is, but I can come closer – maybe give myself a zinnia memory to look at in the winter, as I prepare for spring? And maybe pay tribute to them through taking better portraits that I can show to others who can’t see them in person. I will check into those lenses today.

Take a look.

Solitude and Society in Nature

 

Clay tiles, Velvet underglazes , January, 2018, fired at cone 06.

We Need Our Electronic Friends

These people (because in the one case the computer you see is just waiting for its person to come back) – these people are fast friends with their electronics.

I’m not criticizing. I like my phone and computer too. If I stop and think about it, in a lot of ways, I’m living in the Star Trek world I saw on TV 50 years ago. Incredible.

Clay tiles, 4″ x 4″, Velvet underglazes on commercially made terracotta tiles, January, 2018, fired at cone 06. I did these tiles from photos I took around town (with some imagination added in, in some cases).

 

 

On the Table

Flowers in a bowl. I made a background. Set it aside. Stamped on the red/scrapings. Thought it looked like flowers in a bowl. Dropped on some red paint and scrawled spirals into it. Now…I have a tiny painting of flowers in a bowl. What do you know?

 

Artist Trading Card, 2.5″ x 3.5″, July, 2017.

Tiles from December, 2016 – Group 7

Nature. Just nature.

Clay Tiles 6″ x 6″ – Women, Women and Flowers, Flowers