Yoshiro cherry trees (染井吉野) ready to blossom, probably in a couple of days, and yet another FAIL for me, I am caught on the wrong foot and it looks like yet another time I will miss the opportunity of getting the photos that scream in my head for years and come, at best, with some soulless photos, just like the last year
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Saturday I was out in the city for a photojournalism project (more about it next week) and passed near the Cismigiu Park and noticed how the spring has come: not only short, transparent skirts but also flowers and bees. Stopped for a short while (couldn’t let the rest of the team wait for me) and took a shoot of the later.
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I think is the time to take a pause from echoing the last photoshot, otherwise people will start labelling me as “obsessed” or something, so let’s take a look at the spring which is trying to settle (it won’t be easy, the forecast says “light snow” for tonight)
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A few weeks ago (almost one month ago!) I though I blew my last chance to get a good (but cliché) photo with snowdrops and snow but many things happened since then: snow and freezing cold, huge snow and so on. However, last week-end it looked like the spring finally triumphed and I got my snowdrops cliché:
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A week ago when the weather was warm and nice and I thought the winter is gone for good I noticed in my garden some snowdrops (ghiocei) preparing to blossom and, as cliché as it is, I wanted to take a photo, as the message is strong, they are the first flowers of the year, the triumph of live over death, spring over winter.
With a full time work, at 7:30 in the morning when I leave home is not enough light and at 19-19:30 in the evening when I get back, it it already pitch black for a couple of hours already… yeah, that’s one of the ugliest parts of the winter, so my only chance was to wait for the week-end, hoping also for a ray of light, to make the photos more lively.
Fast forward to Saturday: the sky was cloudy, dark and depressing, not the atmosphere I wanted to illustrate the triumph of spring… so postponed one more day. Sunday morning, no luck either: the same dark, heavy clouds, the same depressing atmosphere. However, the ground was covered with some icy dust, a lame snow attempt, so I got the camera out for some photos, even if the story was different than the plan in my head. It still was a good story, about the winter who does not give-up easily:
Now waiting for the next week-end, wondering which surprise will bring, what story will be told, what photos to be taken…
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A year ago I had a beautiful experience in a warm sunny weekend with the opportunity to take some great shots of bees and chrysanthemums in my garden. This year my garden is in a much worse shape (I totally suck as a gardener) but still a nice couple of days, some flowers and a few bees… and this look like the start of a tradition.
![[chrysanthemums and bees]](https://nicubunu.ro/pictures/photoblog/img_2020.jpg)
![[chrysanthemums and bees]](https://nicubunu.ro/pictures/photoblog/img_2054.jpg)
![[chrysanthemums and bees]](https://nicubunu.ro/pictures/photoblog/img_2046.jpg)
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Do you remember my frenzy this spring to shot blossoming trees and my sweet spot for quince flowers?
These days, that tree in my garden came to fruition and the beautiful flowers turned into tasty fruits, after all the autumn is not entirely bad:
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Having a full time job, you can dedicate only the week-ends to serious photography stuff, which is many cases is passable, but of course there are unfortunate cases, like the past week-end… With this overwhelming autumn over us, it was natural for me to want to capture some shots with the beautiful red, yellow and brown tones.
OK, the weather forecast is optimistic: Saturday was expected to be a cold day with partly cloudy sky and Sunday an even colder day with less clouds. What is a little cold when hunting for some cool photos?
Saturday in the morning when I woke up, it was as cold as expected but the sky was grey, covered with heavy clouds. Not good, you can’t shot landscapes with such a sky. And without sun, there is no life: no insects, no warmth, nothing. So I postponed the planned trip to the park for the next day, which was expected to be better.
However, around the noon I built enough courage to get around the house and shoot some flowers (chrysanthemums) around the house, but I find the result not that great, lifeless.
Late in the day, a few minutes over 4 PM, the clouds broke a bit, leaving a little blue sky and a couple of sun rays for the eye. It was late in the day, with not enough time to reach for a place worth shooting (at 5 PM is already way too dark) but I was happy, expecting a great day to follow.
Fast-forward Sunday: woke up and is was colder, as expected. But even more cloudy, not as expected, bummer. Not affording to lose the opportunity, after the lunch (still waiting for the cold to weaken and hoping a sun ray will show) I took the gear and went to the park.
The leaves are beautiful, a strong lesson about nature and the cycle of life, showing how everything is born is going do die, but the lesson is not very depressing grace to the marvellous dark colors (the depressing clouds can be avoided as long as you set the White Balance well and avoid showing the sky):
At 4 PM was already too dark for hand-held shooting and without the tripod on me, I had to put the session to a close and go home, feeling the goal was not accomplished.
Damn weather! Today (Monday) is still cold as hell (the temperature raised from 1°C in the morning to 3°C at the noon), but there is sun and blue sky. And I am trapped in the office. And for the next week-end heavy rains are expected.
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After an indirect challenge from Alex I just had to take my own photos of this flower (it was helpful there is a bush hanging on the fence of my garden). And while Alex is remembering the very sweet water drops you can find inside this flower, for me the smell is perhaps what I remember the best.
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Morning after morning I pass near that shaded chicory flower and wonder about taking a better shot, but today it was a little different: a firebug (Romanian: Vaca Domnului) was walking around, offering me the opportunity for a different take (yeah, in the backgrounds are blue chicory flowers and the fence is making difficult for me to shot them).
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After they were lost in a terrible accident I tried a remake of the blue chicory shot, which was not easy since we are past their season. But I managed to find some, in deep shade where they resisted more, but the light was quite bad. So I don’t really count this as a success.
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The saying is something like "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck", so as if I don’t know much about flowers, it this looks like a daisy (but is purple) then it should be a purple daisy.
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Daisies are beautiful and macros of daisies are also beautiful, of course.
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Those look pretty much like some flowers from my garden, but I don’t know their name anyway.
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Maybe this could have used a larger depth of field
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