The Season of Color

Yesterday I started carrying my camera while walking the dogs. It's a new exercise program I'm embarking on - visual exercise, that is! An easy thing for a photographer to do, you think, but there's a point in the walk where juggling 2 dog leads and doggy 'deposits' can get to be a balancing act. Throw a camera into the mix and you can see where patience would have to enter the equation. This new exercise is intended to simply 'stretch' my perceptions and not worry about the results.

While walking, my eyes have noticed all the colors that are springing up now! Besides the greener grass, there are azaleas, phlox, tulips, daffodils and even the nemesis of lawns, dandelions, are throwing color into my visual field. I've noticed a different kind of shovel in people's hands and the noise of the snow blower has been replaced with the sound of the 2-stroke lawn mower engine. There's another sound I've noticed over the last month - the voices of my young neighbors playing outside. That alone is a sound that makes me smile and remember all the fun I enjoyed outdoors as a child.

Enjoy this image of a Stoln Infera (Phlox). I learned this botanical name from Holly, a fellow workshop attendee in the Smokies. This phlox was about 4" high so definitely was in the "belly shot" category. It also was one of my first experiences with focusing on different parts of the plant and then combining them in software to make for a completely, in-focus image. Enjoy the color!