Late Spring blooms and special people: photography challenges

The Star and Background Singers, KGT

It’s early June in Colorado, still Spring, and today would have been my Mom’s 90th birthday. Anna Sara loved flowers, and her crewel work pictures often featured them. Here’s a garden Columbine for you, Mama!

Left to right: sister Debby, mom Ann, brother Bob, Dad Bob, Karen (me) and sister Leslie, circa 1958

We were such a 50’s family. Mom kept us all together, so did Dad. My brother, a lefty, is writing and doing his own “craft”. We girls are concentrating on craft at hand. Dad’s friend, an amateur photographer, took this picture. Mom always cut my bangs before any photos were imminent. mm…

Maroon Belle, our garden, 2013

Back to now. My photographer friend Mellisa challenged me to make artsy closeup photos if I am to post garden pics on Facebook. Big challenge for landscape-person-thinker like me. If I’m going to make photos of flowers, seems like they must be characters and even have names if they are to be set apart as unique from all the other close up flower photos we see. Hence my caption names for both here. This second one, Maroon Belle, caught me by surprise. I never saw a Columbine this color, didn’t know they even existed, especially since there are also purple and pink ones on the same plant! Her name, Maroon Belle, is a take on our gorgeous mountains in Aspen, Colorado, called the Maroon Bells. I camped there with my college girlfriends about this same time of year. It rained all night, and we froze our buns off, then the next day it was sunny and all worth the trip.

Jars on table with teeny columbine plant in background

Okay, here’s the fun challenge, the columbine plant is actually in this shot, WAY in the background, with a bit of pink showing. See it? I love the light here, and the jars with sand and candles are left over from daughter Annie’s wedding 2 summers ago. Annie was named after my mom, Anna, and I call her that now and again. My other daughter, Katie was named after my Grandmas, Kathryn and Grandma Rosa. Katie’s Spring birthday was just a few weeks ago.

Do you have a favorite plant, flower or even a favorite mountain? Photography captures those special things for us. The next challenge is to make that photo an interesting one, and that’s when we look to design to make a good photo a better one. I am probably preaching to the choir here. I love design, and I love my friends who remind me to make better photos. Good design crosses all disciplines and crafts, so I’m glad to be reminded of that now and then.

Let me know if you have some thoughts about this day’s post. Thanks! -Karen

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Tags: color palettes, florals, photography, Photoshop for painters