This Week's Flowers & Observations about Photography

I headed to Central Market yesterday to pick up some items for our 4th of July grilling which I'll post about in a bit. It had some of the little daisies I like - these white ones with the mostly dark brown center but which is outlined in a neat spring green. I hope you can see that. Details like that call to me. 

In addition to the daisies, I found the really neat delicate green and white flowers to the left in the picture, not so unlike the ones Toby got me called False Queen Anne's Lace. These are called Green Mist, which, as it turns out, is a type of Queen Anne's Lace. But not false, apparently? Isn't that a lovely name, though? It makes me think of misty, foggy woodlands and ferns that I hope to see in the Northwest sometime. Again with the ferns for me. I really need a fern garden. Right here in the 100 degree heat of Texas summer. 

I took three pictures of my flowers this week because the background screen kept changing and I liked what it did to the look of the overall picture but especially my Copper Moscow Mule Mug. I'm not much of a photographer, but slightly better than what Blogger would have you believe. But I think I have a bit of an eye for composition and color. 

I have over 100 pictures scrolling through my wallpaper on my desktop. I change them seasonally. I found a website where you can download wallpaper for free and I can search for things like "fall landscapes" or "spring landscapes" and things like that. Now, warning, when you get to summer, you'll get the apparently obligatory and almost ubiquitous swimsuit shots with varying amounts of swimsuit. <Eyeroll> 

Anywho, for those of us looking for non-human nature, shall we say, there is a great deal to choose from. I have files for each season and just switch them out and add to them from time to time. As Toby processes his pics from our travels over time, he's going to make some for me to use and I'm looking forward to it. 

Back to the composition and color in the photographs I took of my desk flowers, the one above seems to mimic the Green Mist flowers with the yellow ones in the wallpaper. You tend to notice the Green Mist more and your eye seems to be drawn upward. There's a bit of a theme there.

But look at what this one does to bring out the copper in both the mug and the sunset in the picture. Here, my eye, at least, is focused more on the mug and everything at the bottom and to the right in my shot. I liked that as well. 

As one more exercise here, look at this one - which I took just because I liked the snow-capped mountain - but it really doesn't do much for anything I'm actually taking the picture of. My eye is drawn more to the mountain and the blue in the wallpaper. The greens in the flowers and even in the mint in my Mule go together but seem separated from the wallpaper. It seems you're either looking to the left or the right, but not really at the picture as a whole. 

When I initially took these, I wasn't as focused on all of that, but as I looked at them more, I was really interested in that detail. It's something to keep in mind as one takes pictures. What is the focus of the picture? How do you - not only capture that - but accentuate it or at least not detract from it unintentionally? Very cool. 

Thanks for reading!