Sunset last night…
…or is it?
Aug24
Tag Archives: photography
Feb6
Foggy Saturday, with Graves
I have so much crap to post, and have had so little motivation to do so! It’s sad because I know you will love that one pic of the cats being cute, but since when am I happy putting a post up with just one pic? Neverrrrr. So instead I goof off on FB or read everyone else’s blogs (and I’m massively behind on that, too).
I have to get these up here, as there are some pretty amazing pics if I say so meself.
Backstory; iDJ and I had just eaten one of his amazing weekend breakfasts and were finishing off the rest of the episode of Justified, or Marvel Agents of SHEILD, or maybe one of the old Voyager episodes… if you think I’m bad at reading blogs, imagine how much backlog of awesome TV I still have to watch. I don’t even have Grim yet.
Anyhoo. I glanced out the window at our mountain, and I see something awesome.
The fog bank had rolled over the top of our rather short mountain and had thinned out once over the top. I’d never seen this weird weather before in the nearly nine years we’ve lived in this house.
Hubby paused the TV (what, you think I get to touch the remote?), leapt up, and said we had to go get photos right now now now before it was too late!!!
So in pyjamas and steel-toe work boots, I gathered up my iPhone and his expensive camera and he drove like a madman to the parish cemetery – always the best spot for a view of the mountain.
I acted as a bad roadie for his expensive cam (the lenses had fingerprints on them! And no soft lens wipe in his massive case! Panic panic panic). But while he was being all professional I whipped out my iPhone and turned on my favourite B&W Hipstamatic setting, and took the three B&W pics above. Then the damn phone decided to choke and died, and once I had convinced it that yes, it did have battery life left, I got the colour one with the regular iPhone 4 cam.
This is the only photo iDJ took that he deemed worthy. Yeah, it’s awesome. But I’m so fond of mine that I actually signed up and submitted one to the National Geographic ‘your shot.’ Guess which one?
Aug21
Bloomin’ Late Post
Ugggh, I am incredibly far behind on posting photos of my most recent blooms.
This is the only Tigridia I’ll bother with. They’ve slowed down, but nearly every day there are one or two new ones, shrivelled by the time I get home from work, of course. I have no idea what I’m to do with dozens of photos of slightly different flowers.
You can really tell this was taken with the new SLR camera, wow! Here’s a new one, for Tom (and possibly his mother) – my giant red sunflower, from seed. This was day one that it opened. Day two the petals went droopy a bit, and now it is more of a rust colour, but the centre is getting larger and larger. It’s also not very giant. I can’t be arsed to measure it, but it’s in an 18 inch high pot and barely reaches my shoulder, and I’m 5ft 8in. Can’t be arsed to do that in metric, either – sorry! I’m under pressure to make dinner tonight…
Broad/fava beans. The pic doesn’t give scale – the long one was really, really long. But even it only had six beans inside – a lot of messing about for hardly any bean goodness. The dog loves the pods, so at least they didn’t go to waste.
Cosmos! Of all my seeds it seems only the white ones bloomed. This one has an interesting cupped petal…
…while this is the more traditional form that I’m familiar with.
More rose photos. These two bloomed together. I found it interesting the way they matured. Here, they look very similar.
A day or two later, here is the left bloom.
And this is the right. Both stunning and smell like a little bit of heaven.
Or my grandma.
Not too dissimilar.
The white roses aren’t as big as last year. It’s a climber, and has gotten really leggy. I think I’ll have to prune, and I’ve never done that. No sign of new growth on my lavender rose, but at least the leaves are all still there and I’ve kept the black spot away. Wonder should I try to move it?
I’ve saved my favourites for last, of course. My first dahlia, ever. From the Aldi set of bulbs and tubers. I have to say I’m impressed with the quality and variety Aldi had on offer. Most of the lilies, the dahlias, the Tigrida, the … Oh hell I’ve forgotten! The Babylon 5 spaceship-looking pineapple flowering thingie… Something like Euconomis. Anyhoo, all from Aldi.
Since I’ve never had a dahlia before, I didn’t expect them to be so sloooow to open. It’s been a week and this first bloom still isn’t open all the way.
Getting there! Seems we shoot it daily, it is ever changing. To be honest it is much further along today, but it’s dark out now.
My current favourite – more Aldi lilies.
What I like best about these is that the black has a raised texture as if tar has been spilt on the petals. I need to ask iDJ, with his superior photography skills, to try to capture the texture better. These blooms last a long time, too, but turn more orange red than dark red as they age.
Yes, I have more to come, but it’s my bedtime soon!
Jul20
And We’re off to Mayo in the Green, in the Green
Where the plants are glistening in the sun!
We’ll start off with a tried and true standard, the cornflower. I have them in many colours this year. There’s pink – very tiny blossoms.
A faded-blue-jean blue.
And, what was described as red.
They aren’t what I would describe as red. Oh well. I’ve planted one box in the red and blue cornflowers, with white cosmos. Red white blue, repeat. Nothing at all had bloomed in time for the 4th of July, so I can just hope I can get a decent photo for next year. None of the cosmos are blooming yet, except for one wonky looking flower I stuck in between my hostas. It has just four petals. I can’t embarrass the wee thing by taking a photo; it’s too sad.
How about some edible stuff? My first ripe raspberry. We ate it Friday morning. I shared. The second one that came ripe I ate all by myself. Shhhh.
Broad beans! I don’t have very many that are ready to eat. When I googled ‘when to harvest broad beans’ I found that you can eat the whole pod when they are young, or let them mature and then they become, through movie magic, fava beans. Shame I don’t like a nice chianti. Or a not-nice chianti. Or any kind of wine. But we did eat six pods on Thursday, which delayed our dinner quite a bit as I decided to cook them in the juice left over from the pork roast (with some extra garlic). I really liked the whole pod, when it was a younger and smaller one. Hubby had the oldest longest one, and I told him to open it up and just eat the beans, to see what that was like. He said it was a whole different taste. I ate his discarded pod. Nom! A bit fuzzy but there’s nothing like fresh veggies, especially when you’re not a huge veggie fan to begin with.
First garlic pulled. Now, this isn’t bought seed garlic, it’s whatever we got at Aldi or Tesco and it went off/started to grow, so I stuck it in the ground. Woot! Looks great.
Roses! These were taken last week, I think the bushes look even better now.
I trimmed off all the leaves that had black spot since these pics were taken.
Hope that helps. I paid for Rose Clear and have been using it, but they still haven’t looked that healthy.
The blooms look great! There are two bushes out front, but they look like four as the colours change between bud and bloom. Salmon becomes soft pink, red becomes a light fuchsia.
The damn white rose out back has bloomed at about 6.5 feet high. I can’t enjoy them way the hell up there! I think I’ll have to cut it back. It’s a climber, and seems dedicated to being a tree more than a bush.
My lavender rose bloomed finally. It’s gone now, so photos are all I have.
The plant is barely a foot tall, but looking good this year due to the feeding and Rose Clear. Fingers crossed I don’t have to worry that it is dead next spring!
Remember these? Euconmis. The packet was spot-on. Little weird pineapple space flowers. I watched this grow, and it amazed me daily. I’ve regretted that I didn’t take a photo a day of it.
But, very late in the game, there is another coming up! So I still have a chance to document.
I’ve saved the best for last. My first black Lilly has bloomed! It did so overnight. The first photo was at about 10 am.
This is around 4, not much change. But just look at it! Wow! iDJ really did an amazing job finding these beauties for me. Wow!
Jul3
Bloomin’ July
I have flowers! Not all of my little green friends are awake yet, but I do have my first cornflower bloom:
Soon I’ll be overrun with them, so it’s good to appreciate the very first one to open. Hello!
My violas from seed are blooming – I expect there will be a lot more to come, as they have really increased in height this week – odd, because it is cooler and much less sunny. I think they have cat-whiskers.
The first lavender rosebud. It’s been a bud for days and days and days, and I couldn’t wait any longer to take a picture before it opens. I’m fascinated that the outside of the petals is a dark rosy fuchsia, but it will be so pale when open.
There’s also the dying remnants of my daffodils looking horrid in the background. And…what’s that purple blotch? Could it be? Yes! It is my first clematis bloom. Sadly it was beat to shit by the wind so that’s all you’re going to see of it. But the plant is now one year old, and over 6ft tall in places, so I expect more out if it.
Not flowers, exactly, but my radishes are starting to bolt (make flowers) so I pulled a few. Then, oops, I left them on the kitchen counter for a couple of days and they shrivelled like prunes. Not edible. Not edible for me: but the dog loves them. Go figure.
Do you remember the field full of yellow iris from my last post? Well, they are like a weed here, they’re everywhere right now. Including some we dug up and stuck in our own garden.
First of my lilies. They always bloom before the yellow ones, and no sign of my fancy ones being ready to open, yet (I did have to save those from aphids today). I think I’ll have to split these out next year, that pot is a bit crowded.
What greets me outside my back door – the lilies, and Sweet William. Did I say that it was phlox? I was phloxing wrong. Sweet William. I won’t forget! Even my neighbour complemented me on these, and was surprised to learn I grew them from seed. Hahaha!
May17
Peekaboo.
Spot was begging me to turn on the bathroom tap yesterday, so he could have a drink. From my seat (ahem) I told him that I didn’t intend to be in the room that long, so I wasn’t going to oblige him. Being as he doesn’t understand English, he just stared at me. As he tried to convince me using all of his feline wiles – more staring – I noticed his eyes were a most unusual colour.
It’s pretty hard to take photos of a cat who is only interested in a drink, so we left the bathroom and I grabbed my iPhone and chased him around the house until he settled by the back door. His eyes were still that odd marbled shade, like agate.
Usually they are mostly yellow, with brown hints. I’d never seen them change. Maybe I haven’t been paying attention.
Of course, I can’t pay attention to Spottie-pants without Lokii-trousers showing up and demanding some face time.
His eyes never change colour, but they are still the most glorious shade of blue.
But he does a damn creepy impression of a ‘white walker’ from Game of Thrones!
Mar30
Road photos
I’m kind of in limbo at the moment, mentally – getting there I hope? I’ve said enough lately to last me a while, so I thought instead of moaning, I would put up some more photos from our excursion of a few weeks ago. These are all Hipstamatic shots taken on my iPhone – not the new iPhone, the one before that, don’t ask me what it is – I just inherit the old phone when iDJ is done with it.
This is a dark group of shots, befitting my dark mind-set at the time. I still like them.
As I’ve done before, I love to take pictures of the landscape as we blast through it. We were local this time, but I think I got some good ones (out of the hundred-plus I took that day).
The sun was going down, and it was doing some fascinating things with the clouds – making ‘Jesus Rays’ in all directions. Yeah, I know – I’m not a Christian and probably shouldn’t be using that phrase. But I love it, it is perfect after seeing all those ‘artistic renderings’ that have Jesus surrounded by crazy beams of sunshine. I think I got the expression from Stephen King, but I’m not 100% sure – I read a lotta stuff.
Trees kept getting in between me and the Jesus Rays. I love how the motion of the car makes the trees look radically bent, leaning, in motion even, when it is me moving instead. Oddly, the Hipstamatic shots seem to be reversed – the angle should be to the left due to the camera’s forward motion, and it is to the left when using the straight iPhone camera.
Ahh. There’s the sky finally!
But spectacular sunsets always end…
and you have to head for home.
Jan27
Random photos – and pretty bad ones at that
I haven’t learned anything much since before the holidays, so I haven’t done what I wanted to be, and meant to be, a weekly Sunday post. Ah well, ignorance is bliss, right?
I might have learned that taking photos while driving is easier when I’m in the passenger seat, as about to be evidenced below.
Here’s a blurry pic of me going to work in freezing fog. This was taken going the opposite direction but in the same stretch of read that these were taken.
Through a lens, you can tell that despite my admittedly aggressive driving habits, I don’t bully other drivers by getting too close, especially when the weather is bad and I can’t see and there’s no damn way I can overtake. No point in getting that close, is there? I’m talking to you, car three. Back the fuck off of car two before we all get in trouble, willya?
Wow I’m having déjà vu while writing for the blog. That’s… unsettling.
Same three damn slow-ass cars in front of me, still. I also have no idea why the sky changed colour. I didn’t putz about with these photos. You’d think it would get brighter with time – and, I’m driving directly into the sunrise, if there actually was one – instead of deeper blue. It was really, really foggy; perhaps coming into a town and the heaviness of the smoke-laden air made a difference?
This is Friday morning, the coldest this year so far at -2.5 before I left the house (C, in F that’s about 27.5), but it was dry enough the two days previous so no worries about ice (a worry that’s been much alleviated for me since we replaced the two front tires on the Mini). It turned sunny later and the sun itself was absolutely gorgeous on the way in to work! If I had time, and any place I could have pulled over, and our ‘real’ camera, I would have had an award-winning shot at one point. As it was, my screen-washers froze up and I had a hard go of it seeing anything through the smeary muck on my windshield. You can clearly see that this is not a clear photo. It was clearly not fun for me, either.
ComI home on Friday. It was…WOW…for about three minutes. Shame these are so blurry. I didn’t mess with these pics, either.
Ok now for some pics I did putz about with, because the colour was waaaay wrong and/or they needed some cropping. As if the others didn’t…
The reason why Spot is named Spot.
Neko is blowing her coat. She looks like she has the mange, or like a really old and well-loved stuffed toy. My floors just look like the Old West – tumbledogs everywhere.
Finally, finally! A pair of socks I got for Christmas. Either they have no idea where the knee on someone who wears a size 8-to-10 (approx 10-12 in US women’s sizes!!!) sock is, or I’m a friggin’ giantess.
Aug20
Stolen Monday evening
I keep telling the hubby that I’d be more than happy to start and maintain a photo blog for him. This is why:
This was taken within the last hour, out our upstairs (cat-snot-covered) window. Wow.
Not only am I lucky to have a partner who can take such good pictures, I’m really happy I found one who can see the beauty available right outside our front door.
Jul21
An attempt at artsy photography.
The other day, I picked up two pair of my shoes from where I had randomly left them after removing them from my feet. I put them on the stairs so I could take them up and put them away the next time I needed to go up. Cuz I’m lazy like that.
One fell and landed rather appealingly inside another. I was a little drunk, probably, and thought the scene looked sorta cool, so I went and got my iPhone to try some Hipstamatic pics.
Actually I know I was a little drunk because I couldn’t remember my favourite settings of lens, film, flash – and I’ve never bothered to save the groupings like best. Because I’m also lazy like that. So I tried this:
And that wasn’t right because I hate the stupid date-stamp. Maybe it’s cute if you were born in 1990, but 1982 is a year that I remember and it didn’t look like that.
So I tried this:
This is the one iDJ likes. But no, it wasn’t exactly what I was going for. So I tried again with a third group of settings…
…and apparently I had been standing there playing with camera settings too long, because I got photobomed by Lokii.
heretherebespiders 