Artwerks by Donna » Flowers, Plants & Gardens

Holding the course, and keeping it all in focus.

Donna — Sun, 02 May 2010 04:32:22 +0000

It’s so easy to get caught up in the momentum of things…like a snowball rolling downhill…until that massive snowball turns into an avalanche and buries you, and THEN you realize, “Uh-oh. This thing is OUT OF CONTROL.” If you can somehow dig your way out of the embankment you’ve become buried in, it could be time to rethink your predicament and strategies.

So many things and so many people demand our attention and our energies. Each claim equal importance over all the others. Yet our present reality is that no one can be everything to everyone all the time. Not you, not even me. Though it may often be quite difficult to convince others of this (especially when you have made a habit of attempting to MEET all unreasonable expectations anyway), you must realize this yourself and periodically take stock of your many endeavors and re-prioritize your focus, based upon your OWN goals, not everyone else’s EXPECTATIONS, challenges and demands.

You must remember that your own sense of self-worth must not be tied up in comparing yourself to others, or their accomplishments. You are on your own path of destiny…don’t allow passersby to distract you, challenge you, OR discourage you to get off course. Just as importantly, neither should you allow those behind you to give you an over-inflated sense of your own position.

There are things we do well, and want to learn to do better. There are new things we want to learn and experience, at the same time we’re improving upon the foundations we’ve already built. There are some things that we don’t particularly WANT to do, but MUST do, nonetheless…at least for now. There are 24 hours in each given day. It’s up to us to find the balance for ourselves…and HOLD ON to it.

Sometimes, you’ve just GOT to stop, sit down, close your eyes, and get RE-FOCUSED on what exactly it is you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and where exactly it is that you want to go from here. Sometimes, the only way to get anything done is to simply STOP DOING, and remember where it was you were headed in the first place, so you can find your way back to the road that’s going to get you there.

Grassed (as opposed to “beached”)

Donna — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:15:47 +0000

On my way home from my shoot Saturday, I caught a glimpse through the trees of this abandoned back yard treasure as I drove off the exit ramp. Not wanting to stop ON the exit ramp, I turned in the direction of the boat and found a driveway leading to an abandoned house, all boarded up with all manner of ‘No Trespassing’ signs all over it, as well as on a chain that blocked the driveway.

Try as I might, I could not figure out how to get to that boat without violating the trespass signs, so I drove back up to the highway, parked on the side of the road, and ran back down the exit ramp to the place where I’d first glimpsed this find and shot with my zoom through the trees.

I got several peculiar stares, but I did, after all, have on my photographer’s vest, so perhaps between that and a big zoom lens, that made me look professional enough for them to dismiss my bizarre behavior as some crazed paparazzi, or maybe they thought I was a private detective. (My ex-husband once said I had quite a knack for detective work…he should know…such said talents played a big part in why he is my EX-husband…) Whatever the passers-by thought, I got my UNIQUE shot without being flattened into a road pancake by a semi. After all, how often is it that you see a boat afloat in a field of wild flowers?!

I deduce that having reached a stage in my pursuit of images, that I’m willing to risk life and limb…and PRIDE…to get “the shot,” I now declare myself a PRO.

Lighting Is Everything

Donna — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:42:28 +0000

It’s difficult to get a flower shot that is noteworthy. Flowers are pretty. If you can take a shot that’s in focus and if you have even the most rudimentary sense of design and composition, it’s fairly easy to take a photo that can at least to some degree, reproduce the beautiful thing you saw. Problem is, there are trillions of photos that look just like it in trillions of collections of every moderately talented digital photographer everywhere. I confess, most of my own flower shots fall into this category. But this one, I thought, was unique and dramatic, and oddly, quite accidental.

Late one afternoon following a summer rain, my grandson and I went for a walk in our neighborhood and took some wildflower shots. Around here, yellow daylilies grow wild just about everywhere. Most of my shots were pretty, but from a creative standpoint, just mundane and common ‘pretty flower shots.’ This shot, however, caught my eye as being unique, thanks to the backlighting that I captured quite by accident. Darkening the background added even more drama to the overall lighting effect. Then, duplicating that layer and applying the Overlay Blending option bumped up the contrast and saturation and really made the bloom pop. That was really an accident too.

Well, God bless the accidental accidents. Sometimes they’re just downright GOOD.

(Click on the preview above to pull up a full view of the picture.)

Yellow Butterfly

Donna — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:29:36 +0000

I took this shot late one summer season when I had discovered I could get pretty good macro shots with my old Sony Cybershot DSC-F717. There was a fluttering of winged visitors at my paltry stand of sunflowers that I had grown from seeds Wilma had given me. I took loads of shots…the butterflies were far more interested in the flowers than with me, which worked in my favor. What DIDN’T work in my favor was a tendency that still haunts my shooting expeditions to this day. I see something that excites me, and in my excitement to get the shot, I forget all the technical details of getting a good shot, like exposures, shooting modes, focus, etc., not to mention an unsteady shooting hand. I did manage to get a few good shots that day though, in spite of myself…this was one.

(Click on the preview above to pull up a full view of the picture.)

Green Beetle

Donna — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:28:52 +0000

There was very little to be done to this photo, other than some of the most common minor adjustments. This beetle pulled off this breathtaking image all by himself, and honestly, this photo does not do his beauty justice. I had planted some fragrant lilies around the base of one of our pecan trees in the backyard and had headed out to get some shots of the blooms after another of those summer rains. I found this little fellow enjoying my new fragrant blooms too, and thought his deep, iridescent emerald coloring would make great contrast on the white bloom. The beetle was between 1-1.5″ long and was as striking as any glittering jewel I’ve ever seen in a jewelry store.

(Click on the preview above to pull up a full view of the picture.)