Category: flower

“Garage” shooting in Herastrau

Sunday in the park we didn’t shoot only the cute dog, we took advantage of one of us who came with his fiancé, Bianca, so we also put her to “work” as a model. She did quite a nice job:

bianca
bianca
biancabianca

At some point I almost modelled myself, when I climbed to a tree branch over the lake to show her a posture… too bad she was not comfortable on that branch… probably I am a bit more unconscious 😀
showing

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Sakura tracking

The past week was not friendly for photography and my schedule was a bit busy, so only yesterday on my route for another event I got the opportunity for a short detour in the Herastrau park to check the tree blossom state and I liked what I saw, quite some beauties in that near-sunset time:

sakura

As for the exact Japanese cherry trees, they are not ready yet, needing a few more sunny, warm days, I will keep my eyes on them:
sakura

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Sakura tracing

Is that time of the year again, the spring has come, trees are blossoming… photography fever. Saturday evening when passing through the Cismigiu Park (on my way to the Earth Hour event) noticed the very first blossom of the year, it was far away on the top of the tree and it was already dark, but I had enough gear on me to solve take some pics:


Sunday morning I had again some business in the city center and noticed a lot more trees in blossom, a shy beginning, but sakura time is here, definitely.

Sprin in full force: trees, flowers, people:

Of course, the weather became uglier and now is a little setback, but it will delay only a few days.

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Crocus again

Is that time of the year again, when the spring tries to establish and the first flowers appear, time for crocus, the spring’s announcers… too bad the day was fugly: cold, cloudy and trying to rain and too bad my camera has some issues (after ~85.000 frames the shutter button has problems triggering, I don’t have the balls yet to part away with it for a repair) and too bad the dogs damaged the flowers in my garden, a visit to the park was what I had to do.

crocus

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Rebirth?

They say the spring will come, they say there will be good, they say the sun will shine. I am skeptical. The winter seems to never end.

snowdrops

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Inertia + Glass = …

These days I am so low, that I continue to exist and function mostly from inertia… and how the plan to buy some new glass was made long ago, when I had the money for it I followed the inertia and got it. At a focal range of 11-16 mm, it is something one would call ultra-wide and all can say is the world seen trough it is different.

Still, people who know me know my interest in cold buildings or landscapes (strong points for such a camera) is limited, my heart is to photos with people and it will allow for interesting effects, like perspective deformation, impossibly long legs, shooting someone head-to-toes from maybe 1 meter away and such so obviously need to play with it. The problem is… right now I don’t want to be around people, except one single, special person, who do everything to keep me away. Inertia got me stuck to a wall.

wide wide

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Last rose? Yes.

It was an incredibly warm November so far (it won’t last, according with he forecast) so I had a last opportunity for a sunny morning with a lone rose in my garden.

last rose

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Of bees and flowers

The last breath of the flowers, I had the opportunity to capture some classic close-ups with bees, which was a good opportunity, a first test of the macro capabilities of my new lens.

bees and flowers

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Tufanele/Crizanteme = Chrysanthemums

In some parts of the country they call those “tufănele” (especially when the flowers are smaller), the dictionary says “crizanteme”, English is “Chrysanthemums” and in the last few autumns I made a habit to capture a few pictures from my garden. It seems however this will be the last year, the poor flowers are rarer and rarer, dying due to my lack of attention. I have moments of shame for that.

chrysantemum

chrysantemum

chrysantemum

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Rain break

My main lens is till broken at the repair shop (for over a month already) but this evening when I returned home and the daily rain stopped. I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of those roses in my garden with what I had available (I think the roses looks amazing after a rain), so they are imperfect (not the macros I love to do)… but I also wanted them as a thank you/barter for someone who showed me today a much awaited set of photos.

rose

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I miss my lens

Yesterday I arrived home near the midnight, I was tired, with some beers in my system and not very optimistic, it was too much for a pretentious shoot: night, flashes, rain, water drops, improper lens so I postponed it until the morning.

The morning was not much better: it was still raining so the light was bad, the flowers in my garden still faded after a couple of torrid weeks, and most important, my preferred (zoom/macro) lens still missing – the lens is broken and I sent it to the repair shop, will miss it probably for a couple of weeks.

The first scenario I tried was the (prime) 50mm lens with a macro extension ring, the smallest ring in my set – I had to go a little closer than wanted:

rose

The second scenario was the wide lens, 19-35, at the maximum zoom and widest aperture and then a crop around the subject – the DOF was too large, the flower not separated enough from its leaves.
rose

As a conclusion, I was not happy with either, still selected the macro. I miss my lens!

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Love under the blossoming trees

Warm spring evening in the Japanese Garden of Herastrau Park in Bucharest: the pink trees are in full blossom and under them young couples are carried away by the season, nature beauty and their love.

This couple is hugging like there’s no tomorrow:

love and blossom

This one is enjoying comfort:
love and blossom

And this one is joyful:
love and blossom

Well, what’s your stance on life? I for one would like to feel joy and be comfortable, but I know there is no tomorrow.

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Warm blue and cold silver

No comments…

warm

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The spring sun

The sun in spring is nice and much awaited (of course, when the rain does not destroy everything) and even if your camera manual say is dangerous to direct the lenses directly to the sunlight, so can’t abstain from doing so and trying some dramatic backlit pictures.

backlit

backlit

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Waiting for sakura

Even if I expect it to be a failure, I can’t stop following the cherry blossom season and take the best pictures I can, even if they are not the pictures I wanted. And this season is now, so I started on Friday, when, before the Easter mini-holiday I had a short day at work, by then they were ready but still not in flower:

sakura

Then I returned on Saturday, when the first flower started to show, not enough but a little step forward:
sakura

And again on Sunday, when it was really close:
sakura

But after that the weather changed, Monday was dark and cold, under an imminent rain, Tuesday it rained all day and today is a bit better, still not hot enough. Not sure If this weather change is bad, ruining the season or will help me keeping the flowers until the next week-end. We’ll see.

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