Rain Drops

Posted: August 2, 2014 | Author: Eileen Thompson | Filed under: Flowers, Nature, photography, Plant Portraits | Tags: botanical, close up, colour, colourful, digital, Flowers, green, image, intelligent mind, monochrome, nature, outdoors, paintshop, Paintshop Pro, photography, photos, plant, plants, rain, raindrops, sculptural quality, sedum, succulent | 2 Comments

What I love about Sedums is the way rain drops collect and stay put on the leaves – so convenient for taking photographs. The plant has fleshy, succulent stems and leaves and as it’s clump-forming it makes it very easy to control and also to propagate. I found out by accident that if a stem breaks off you can just stick it in the ground and it will grow into another plant …. even better – you can give them to your friends [if they want them].

So, after the downpour the other day, I saw the sedum covered in bright droplets, looking like little jewels with the sun shining on them. My photos don’t really do justice to what I saw as they can’t completely capture the beauty of God’s creation. Just shows you though what marvelous inbuilt lenses He gave us !

In spite of the monochrome colouring, the sculptural quality of the plant makes it really interesting [at least, to me] and it wasn’t until I uploaded the pics to my laptop that I saw the ‘debris’ in the close up shots of the single raindrops.

Then I had a go at isolating a green droplet against a black and white leaf and stems. I love my Paintshop Pro software! Always found it easier to fathom out than Photoshop – cheaper to buy too….

Bye for now – you are very welcome to comment by clicking the ‘comments’ word at the end of the opening paragraph info. Eileen

New Arrivals

Posted: July 29, 2014 | Author: Eileen Thompson | Filed under: Flowers, Nature, photography, Portraits, Wild Life | Tags: botanical, brown, butterflies, close up, colour, colourful, digital, drama, Flowers, Gatekeeper, image, image background, insects, nature, orange, outdoors, paintshop, Paintshop Pro, photography, photos, plants, purple, red, sedum, weather, Wild life | Leave a comment

For weeks I’ve been bemoaning the fact that I haven’t had any butterflies in my garden – well today there have been several fluttering about and even resting long enough for me to take some pics. I think this particular lot are called Gatekeeper [Pyronia tithonus] because they have twin black eyespots with white pupils on their forewing. Anyway – I only know that because I did a google search! I’m delighted – especially as I’m getting more used to using the zoom on my camera instead of the macro setting [which I still haven’t figured out!].

I amused myself no end cropping and trying to be generally more ‘artistic’ without it looking too artificial … BUT – I do try to get the best pics I can ‘in camera’ as is always recommended. I tend to take loads of shots and discard the majority as many of them are almost the same – it’s just a matter of choosing the best of the bunch. It’s been a bit on the windy side today, so as well as the butterflies and bees being on the move all the time – so are the plants they land upon unfortunately.

I’ve deliberately kept some images high key to reflect the beautiful sunny weather – although I appreciate some butterflies suit a bit of drama more.

Even though this Sedum isn’t in flower yet, the butterflies are obviously attracted to it. I’m fortunate in having several Sedums which I love – especially this dark red variety called Purple Emperor.

I’m looking forward to posting some photos I took through the window during a downpour yesterday. I was going to post them today but the butterflies took priority!

see you soon, Eileen